Auguste Perret

Auguste Perret ( born February 12, 1874 in Ixelles / Elsene in Belgium, † August 27, 1954 in Paris) was a French architect, construction contractor and city planner. He was considered a master of reinforced concrete construction.

Life and work

Perret studied 1891-1901 at Julien Guadet at the Ecole des Beaux -Arts in Paris, he finished his education without a diploma. In addition to studying Perret was already active in 1894 in his father's construction company. From 1900 he began to run buildings in reinforced concrete. In the reinforced concrete pioneer office worked Le Corbusier ( 1908-1909 ), René Iché and Patroclus Karantinos.

From 1903 to 1904 he led the house in the 25 bis, rue Franklin in Paris. In this building the architect had an apartment on the top floor. In 1905 he founded with his brothers Gustave and Claude a construction company. 1906-1907 the garage in the Rue Ponthieu was built, the structure is not preserved. 1911-1913 Perret built the Théâtre des Champs- Élysées as a modern reinforced concrete construction with white marble facade. In the period 1931-1932, the neoclassical buildings of the Naval Construction Office in Paris was carried out under his direction.

From 1940 Perret taught at the École des Beaux -Arts. After the war ended in 1945 Perret was until 1954 the main responsible urban planner for the reconstruction of Le Havre and architect of the Tour Perret in Amiens, the first skyscraper in France. With a team of 60 architects, he designed wide boulevards and long road axes, which are lined with houses in tinted concrete with clear, simple ornamentation and colonnades. The building material was gained from sand and brick rubble that was ground separated by color. The striking 107 meters high, octagonal bell tower of the church of Saint -Joseph du Havre concrete reminiscent of a lighthouse, 12,700 stained glass windows illuminate the interior of the church. 2005 tribute to the Unesco its urban fresh start for 60 000 people as a World Heritage Site.

Perret was awarded the 1948 Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and in 1952 the AIA Gold Medal.

Appreciation

Besides Tony Garnier Perret is one of the French pioneer of modern architecture. He gave an important impetus for the development of the new style. The price of the International Union of Architects for architecture -related technologies is called in his honor Auguste Perret Prize.

Quote

"Architecture is the art of organizing space. "

Own writings

• Contribution à une théorie de l'architecture. Choice, Paris 1952; German: Towards a Theory of architecture. Translated from the French by Eva -Maria Thimme. The Beeken, Berlin, 1986, ISBN 3-922993-14-1.
• French Architecture and Urban Exhibition 1948/1949. Greiser, Rastatt 1948