place

Maison de Verre

Buildings and structures completed in 1932Buildings and structures in the 7th arrondissement of ParisHouses in ParisModernist architecture in France
Maison de Verre2
Maison de Verre2

The Maison de Verre (French for House of Glass) was built from 1928 to 1932 in Paris, France. Constructed in the early modern style of architecture, the house's design emphasized three primary traits: honesty of materials, variable transparency of forms, and juxtaposition of "industrial" materials and fixtures with a more traditional style of home décor. The primary materials used were steel, glass, and glass block. Some of the notable "industrial" elements included rubberized floor tiles, bare steel beams, perforated metal sheet, heavy industrial light fixtures, and mechanical fixtures.The design was a collaboration among Pierre Chareau (a furniture and interiors designer), Bernard Bijvoet (a Dutch architect working in Paris since 1927) and Louis Dalbet (craftsman metalworker). Much of the intricate moving scenery of the house was designed on site as the project developed. The historian Henry-Russel Hitchcock as well as the designer Eileen Gray have declared that the architect was in fact 'that clever Dutch engineer (Bijvoet)'(Gray). The external form is defined by translucent glass block walls, with select areas of clear glazing for transparency. Internally, spatial division is variable by the use of sliding, folding or rotating screens in glass, sheet or perforated metal, or in combination. Other mechanical components included an overhead trolley from the kitchen to dining room, a retracting stair from the private sitting room to Mme Dalsace's bedroom and complex bathroom cupboards and fittings. The program of the home was somewhat unusual in that it included a ground-floor medical suite for Dr. Jean Dalsace. This variable circulation pattern was provided for by a rotating screen that hid the private stairs from patients during the day but framed the stairs at night. The house is notable for its splendid architecture, but it may be more well known for another reason. It was built on the site of a much older building that the patron had purchased and intended to demolish. Much to his or her chagrin, however, the elderly tenant on the top floor of the building absolutely refused to sell, and so the patron was obliged to completely demolish the bottom three floors of the building and construct the Maison de Verre underneath, all without disturbing the original top floor. Dr. Dalsace was a member of the French Communist Party who played a significant role in both anti-fascist and cultural affairs. In the mid-1930s, the Maison de Verre's double-height "salle de séjour" was transformed into a salon regularly frequented by Marxist intellectuals like Walter Benjamin as well as by Surrealist poets and artists such as Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Jacques Lipchitz, Jean Cocteau, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró and Max Jacob. According to the American art historian Maria Gough, the Maison de Verre had a powerful influence on Walter Benjamin, especially on his constructivist - rather than expressionist - reading of Paul Scheerbart's utopian project for a future "culture of glass", for a "new glass environment [which] will completely transform mankind," as the latter expressed it in his 1914 treatise Glass Architecture. See in particular Benjamin's 1933 essay Erfahrung und Armut ("Experience and Poverty"). American architectural historian Robert Rubin bought the house from Dalsace family in 2006 to restore it and use it for his family residence. He allows a limited number of tours to the house.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Maison de Verre (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Maison de Verre
Rue Saint-Guillaume, Paris 7th Arrondissement (Paris)

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Maison de VerreContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 48.85391 ° E 2.32799 °
placeShow on map

Address

Bibliothèque de SciencesPo

Rue Saint-Guillaume
75007 Paris, 7th Arrondissement (Paris)
Ile-de-France, France
mapOpen on Google Maps

Maison de Verre2
Maison de Verre2
Share experience

Nearby Places

Sciences Po
Sciences Po

The Paris Institute of Political Studies (French: Institut d'études politiques de Paris), commonly referred to as Sciences Po Paris or Sciences Po (IPA: [sjɑ̃s po]), is a semi-public grande école and grand établissement in Paris, with additional campuses in Dijon, Le Havre, Menton, Nancy, Poitiers, and Reims, in France. Sciences Po is a specialised institute for the study of social sciences, offering courses and research in political science, history, economics, law, and sociology. Sciences Po originates in the École libre des sciences politiques, a private school of higher learning founded in Paris in 1872 by sociologist Émile Boutmy. Boutmy aimed at modernising education for French civil servants, by giving additional lectures to classics graduates, which had historically dominated the profession. Throughout the 20th century, it acquired a substantial role in educating the growing number of people entering civil service in the Third to Fifth Republic. In 1945, the school was refounded as a semi-public Institut, after criticism of the attitude of its staff during WW2 and subsequent calls for its closure.After a reform in 1985, Sciences Po began offering full degrees in the social sciences as a primary education for its students. Since the mid-1990s, Sciences Po’'s curriculum has been substantially reformed to broaden its focus and to prepare students for the private sector as well as civil service, and has in accordance with the Bologna process implemented bachelor's and master degrees as its education model. The Sciences Po curriculum has been expanded to social sciences such as economics, law, and sociology, in addition to its original curriculum in political science and history. As of 2021, 80% of Sciences Po graduates choose careers in the private sector.The institute is a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) and the Sorbonne Paris Cité group.

International Office of Public Hygiene
International Office of Public Hygiene

The International Office of Public Hygiene, also known by its French name as the Office International d'Hygiène Publique and abbreviated as OIHP, was an international organization founded 9 December 1907 and based in Paris, France. It was created to oversee international rules regarding the quarantining of ships and ports to prevent the spread of plague and cholera, and to administer other public health conventions.The OIHP was part of the complex structure known as the Health Organization (Organisation d'Hygiène) of the League of Nations, in an often-competing, and sometimes collaborative relation with the League of Nations' Health Committee.The OIHP was dissolved by protocols signed 22 July 1946 and its epidemiological service was incorporated into the Interim Commission of the World Health Organization on 1 January 1947. However, the OIHP remained in existence legally until 1952. As of 1933, the OIHP was composed of the following contracting parties: Argentina, 1910 Australia, 1909 Belgian Congo, 1927 Belgium, 1907 Bolivia, 1912 Brasil, 1907 UK British dominions, 1927 UK British India, 1908 Bulgaria, 1909 Canada, 1910 Chile, 1912 Denmark, 1913 Netherlands (Dutch Indies), 1925 Egypt, 1907 France, 1907 French Algeria, 1910 French Equatorial Africa, 1929 French Indochina, 1914 French West Africa, 1920 Germany, 1928 UK (Great Britain), 1907 Greece, 1913 Kingdom of Hedjaz, 1932 Ireland (Irish Free State), 1928 Italy, 1907 Japan, 1924 Luxemburg, 1926 Madagascar, 1920 Morocco, 1920 Mexico, 1909 Monaco, 1913 Netherlands, 1907 Norway, 1912 New Zealand, 1924 Peru, 1908 Persia, 1909 Poland, 1920 Portugal, 1907 Romania, 1921 Sudan, 1926 Sweden, 1909 Switzerland Czechoslovakia, 1922 South African Union, 1919 Spain, 1907 French protectorate of Tunisia, 1908 Turkey, 1911 USA, 1907 Soviet Union, 1926 (initially accessed as Russia in 1907) Uruguay, 1913The OIHP was managed by a "Permanent Committee" chaired successively by Rocco Santoliquido (1908-1919), Oscar Velghe (1919-1932), George S. Buchanan (1932-1936). Important personalities were taking part in the work of the OIHP such as Camille Barrère.