La Maison De Verre

Pierre Chareau, 1926

La Maison de Verre was engraved underneath an existing 18th-century hôtel particulier, after being unable to evict its existing tenant. Architect Pierre Chareau was given carte blanche over the design, with the condition that the residential programme allowed for an office for Dr Dalsace.

The structure plays homage to conventional modernist foundations through raw and exposed industrial materials, ultimately following Corbusier’s Cinq points de l’architecture moderne. A three story translucent curtain wall of glass brick and steel encloses volumes front and back, combatting the lack of light the additional story caused. The sunlight penetrates the glass bricks, its texture and translucency amplifying the light. In the evening, strategically placed floodlights to replace the sunlight, cinematically transforming the wall into a lyrical screen.

Jean Dalsace, an active communist, often entertained myriads of Marxist thinkers, including Picasso, Tanguay, and Benjamin. In 1933, Benjamin reflected on the glass façade as being an architectural analogue to communism, stating that “glass [is] the enemy of secrets...and of possession.” The Maison De Verre can be post-rationalised with the theories behind Loos and Hastings, key texts that reinforce the logic behind modernism.

The use of industrial materials seems to combine traditional craft with 20th-century construction, however Dr Dalsace’s medical practice and interests were the driving factors for material selection. The selection reflects the period’s obsession with cleanliness, at a time where Germ Theory had long been established, but antibiotics had not. The house, in its entirety, was designed to be washable, preventing the spread of germs. This consideration for people is thoroughly explored in the building’s design, from the playfully hidden utilities in Cubist sculptures to the emotional protection of infertile women by screening the Dalsace children from view.

Much like Duchamp’s Large Glass, the interior spaces of the first and second floors have clearly allocated gender roles, shown with access points between the boudoir and the main floor, and between the office and private study. In spite of this, Chareau included slithers of interaction in key areas, playing with gradients of solitude and intimacy. This is accentuated in the bathroom, where the perforated shower screens show intimate silhouettes of a bathing Annie Dalsace, much like the intimacy between public and private with the glass façade.

The Maison de Verre was more than a house or office; it was a lyrical machine that respected the ideologies, politics, and expertise of its inhabitants.

Graphics: Photoshop + Illustrator, Copic marker