Prochain point : lat="48.999594" lon="1.870836"
Villa Poiret
Mallet-Stevens’ logical, geometrical house
From the art deco movement ...
In 1924 the fashion designer Paul Poiret commissioned Robert Mallet-Stevens to design a large villa on this site with its panoramic view of the Seine valley. He needed somewhere to present his collections and hold the lavish parties he was accustomed to. The famous architect created a white, geometric composition in concrete, with cubic forms and clean lines. He described it as: "Even surfaces, sharp edges, clean curves, polished materials, right angles, clarity, order. This is my logical, geometric house. "
But Paul Poiret’s fashion house went bankrupt in 1925 and the work was suspended. The unfinished building was abandoned for several years before being bought in 1930 by the actress Elvira Popescu. Mallet-Stevens was supposed to finish the villa, but he moved away from Paris. Finally it was the architect Paul Boyer who in 1938 finished the house after modifying the original project. In particular, he added the porthole windows and the guardrails in the form of a ship’s rail, earning the villa its nickname “the liner". The living area is approximately 800 m², surrounded by 1000 m² of wide garden terraces and generous rooftop terraces.
... To classification as a historical monument
The house was classified on the French supplementary list of historical monuments in 1984. Uninhabited since 1985, it fell into disrepair. Major rehabilitation work was undertaken in 2008.
