PIERRE Paul Constant CHAREAU

Chareau was born in lehavre, France. Went to Ecole nationale superieure des beaux – arts in Paris by the time he was 17.

His designs were noted for their complex nature. He was also a member of the international congress of modern architecture.

Credited for building the first house in France made of steel and glass, the maison de vierre.

Unlike Le Corbusier or the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who both published a great deal about their ideas and themselves, Pierre Chareau left very little in the way of personal testimony. It was his family, friends and his wife, Dollie, who left letters and accounts of their life of forty-six years together.

Pierre Paul Constant Chareau was born on August 3rd, 1883, in Bordeaux, le- Havre. His father was a wine merchant who lost his fortune and moved to Paris where he subsequently worked on the railroads. By her own account, Dollie (born Louise Dyte) met her husband when he was 16 years old and she 19; they married five years later in 1904. They never had any children.

Pierre Chareau's education beyond secondary school remains obscure. There is no evidence that he attended a school of architecture in Paris as a regular student. Like many of the celebrated designers and architects of his generation (Mies van der Rohe, Gerrit Rietveld, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier) Chareau learned his métier on the job rather than obtaining a professional degree prior to beginning his career. He started his "apprenticeship" in Paris offices of Waring & Gillow, a large British firm that specialized in furniture and interior design.Mobilized for military during World War I, Chareau began his independent professional career as a decorator in 1919 at the age of 35. For Chareau, like many others of his generation, the war years marked a break with the past.

His first client, Annie Dalsace (born Bernheim), was to be his most important and devoted client over the years. It was for the Dalsace apartment located at 195 boulevard St. Germaine in Paris that Chareau created his first pieces of furniture and interior designs that can be dated with any certainty. Ten years later, it was again for the Dalsace family that Chareau built the Glass House in Paris, bridging the gap between tradition and modernism and radically changing the concept of habitat and architecture.

Life events

1883 - 1899 Pierre Chareau was born in Bordeaux on August 3th. At the age of 16, he joins the Parisian offices of Warring & Gillow, a British firm specialized in furniture and interior design. 1904 Chareau marries Dollie Dyte. He continues his working for Warring until 1914.

1914 - 1919 Conscripted for military service in the First World War.

1919He becomes a private architect and furniture designer in Paris. He executes furniture and interiors for the office and bedroom of the Dalsace apartment, 195 build Saint Germaine. First exhibition at the Salon d’Automne.

Sn9 side table Sn3 table Working Desk

1920 He meets Jean Lurçat and decorates the country house of Edmund Bernheims. His furniture designs and interiors for a bedroom and a bathroom are shown at the Salon d’Automne.

 1921  He exhibits his artworks in the Salon d’Automne and becomes a permanent member of its committee.

1922 Exhibits in the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs for the first time. Meets members of the Parisian artistic and literary avant-garde. He begins collecting works by Modigliani, Braque, Juan Gris, Paul Klee, Raoul Dufy, Max Ernst, Mondrian.

ART DECO

WW 1

1923 - 1924 Collaborates with Fernand Léger and Robert Mallet-Stevens on the sets for Marcel L’Herbier ‘s film « L’Inhumaine ». He opens his own shop, « La Boutique » at 3 rue du Cherche-Midi. He collaborates with Louis Dalbet. First fruits of their collaboration at the Salon d’Automne.   1924 He opens his own shop “La Boutique”.   1925 Collaboration with Mallet-Stevens and Francis Jourdain on the interiors designs for a french Embassy for the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris.   1925 Creates the office of the “Ambassade française”.  

 1927 Creation of the “Maison de verre” in Paris   1927 - 1928 First plans for a new house for the Dalsace family – what will become the maison de Verre – in rue Saint Guillaume in Paris. He works for the Grand Hôtel de Tours. Participates in the Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne in La Sarraz, Switzerland. He begins the Maison de Verre.    

1929 Breaks away from the Société des Artistes Décorateurs to become a founding member of the Union des Artistes Modernes. (UAM)   1930 - 1931 Participates in the first UAM exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The Maison de Verre receives wide coverage in national and international press.  

1936 - 1937 Exhibits demountable school furniture at the Salon d’Automne. He is present at the Exposition Universelle.   1939 - 1940 In July, he leaves France for Portugal, Spain, Morocco,. He arrives in America in October.   

1940 Settles in New York   1947 Creates the workshop of Robert Motherwell   1941 - 1948 He lives and works in America for a Cultural Attaché, setting up exhibitions on Balzac, Daumier and Auguste Perret.   1950 Pierre Chareau dies in New York after a brief illness. His wife remains in the States until her death in 1967

Robert Motherwell Studio

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

Mies worked in his father's stone-carving shop and at several local design firms before he moved to Berlin joining the office of interior designer Bruno Paul.

He began his architectural career as an apprentice at the studio of Peter Behrens from 1908 to 1912, where he was exposed to the current design theories and to progressive German culture, working alongside Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier.Mies served as construction manager of the Embassy of the German Empire in Saint Petersburg under Behrens. His talent was quickly recognized and he soon began independent commissions, despite his lack of a formal college-level education.

Mies, like many of his post World War I contemporaries, sought to establish a new architectural style that could represent modern times just as Classical and Gothic did for their own eras. He created an influential 20th century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. He strived towards an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of free-flowing open space. He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture.

After one year with Paul, Mies received his first independent commission to design the house of philosophy professor Alois Riehl

Life events

After its completion Ludwig spent one more year with Bruno Paul until 1908 when he began work at the offices of famed German architect Peter Behrens.

1906

1907

A student of Art Nouveau or Jugendstil movement, Behrens believed in a melding of the arts and architecture to create building

At his offices, Mies worked with the likes of other famed architects Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius founder of the Bauhaus movement . Here he also begin to develop his early sense of style which was a cross of advanced structure and Prussian classic.

After only 4 years in his service Mies left Behrens in 1912 to start his own office. He immediately received work and designed a series of home in the style of famed Prussian architect Karl Schinkel.

1912

PETER BEHRENS

The following year, Mies married school teacher Ada Bruhn to whom he had been introduced by the Riehl’s

1913

Being a man of solitude and intense artistic passion, the marriage lasted but was one characterized by distance. By 1921 he had completely separated himself from his family. It was at this time that he adopted the last name of Mies van der Rohe. It was an amalgamation of his father’s last name combined with the Dutch “van der” in addition to his mother’s maiden name “Rohe”.

Ludwig Mies, now Mies van der Rohe continued work through the twenties and became increasingly involved with artistic movements of the time in Berlin such as the Novembergruppe and Zehner Ring.

With a new name came also a new sense of style. His phrase “less is more “ began to be seen in his work as seen in his entry to a German skyscraper competition. The building was made entirely of steel and glass composites

Mies van der Rohe was appointed VP of the Deutsche Werkbund an organization aimed at elevating the quality of German design.The next year he was given the task to head the Weissenhof Exhibition, a model housing colony in Stuttgart

1920’s

1925

Like his contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe believed that furniture also played an important role in the design of a building

Barcelona CouchTubular Brno chair Flat Plate Brno Chair Barcelona Stool

1929

The following year he designed a bank and office building in Stuttgart for another national competition. One of his greatest designs came the following year in the German Pavilion in Barcelona.

The Pavilion was innovative in that the design called for the roof to be supported by chrome columns which meant that the walls could be freely positioned since they did not support the structure It was later dismantled but rebuilt in the 1980’s

The next year Mies designed the Turgend house in Czechoslovakia. His design was once again revolutionary and combined the seamless flow from outdoors to indoors.

He served as Bauhaus director taking over from former colleague Walter Gropius. Mies served this position until the school was closed by the Nazi party in 1933.

1930

The school had a very renegade reputation and as such it had moved quite a bit from Weimar where it began to Dessau before settling in Berlin.

It marks the departure of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from Germany due to rising pressure from the Nazi party. Before leaving however he was offered a professorship at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago. This would later become the Illinois Institute of Technology and Mies would be the prime architect for the campus of the newly formed school.

1937

Mies van der Rohe became a U.S. citizen.

1944

1946

He began work on the Farnsworth House a weekend retreat for doctor Edith Farnsworth. It’s one of the most minimalist houses ever designed being composed of a transparent box framed by eight exterior steel columns with a single room subdivided by partitions and completely enclosed in glass.

The next decade in America was characterized by a industrial boom in a new post war American economy. The only buildings big enough to house these captains of industry were:

SkyscrapersFinally his design would merge with construction and much of the work that Mies had begun in the 20’s would come to fruition. His first project being the Lakeshore Apartment Buildings in Chicago.

Once again he created with form and function . The first floor of the building rested on plithes giving the building integration with the outdoors.

Mies van der Rohe would go on to to design many more skyscrapers in the U.S. as well as Toronto, Montreal, and elsewhere. Another notable one being the Seagram’s Building in New York.

The now famed, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe would return to Germany to design the New National Gallery in Berlin.

1962

“Each of my buildings was another step in the process of my search for clarity.”

Mies van der Rohe was plagued by arthritis for the majority of his later life. Although involved to the best of his ability Ludwig would never see the completion of the national gallery. He died in Chicago, august, 17, 1969

1965

He died leaving a legacy of revolutionary architecture. Other then the buildings themselves he is remembered by his approach to architecture, categorized by such sayings as: “

“God is in the details.

Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.

Thoughts in action.

1.honesty of materials, 2.variable transparency of forms, and 3. juxtaposition of "industrial" materials and fixtures with a more traditional style of home décor.

La maison de Verre

The Maison de Verre (House of Glass) was built from 1928 to 1932 in Paris, France. the house's design emphasized three primary traits:

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, 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 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 Bookcase: The metal shelving accommodates books, stacked two deep.  The ladder slides along the length of the shelves. The books reflect a particular moment in history, politics and humanities, expressing the personalities of Vellay's grandparents

Various elements

On the ground floor, a corridor leads to the main staircase. It is sheltered by a sceen of which the curved section swivels, while the other folds back against the railing.  On days when there were guests, both sides were opened.  Light filters through a series of screen of different materials

Duralumin coat hangers made to look like mustaches hang in the bathroom.

The rubber floored entrance hall overlooking the courtyard.

MY VIEWS…Something else could be done with contemporary architecture -- maybe less flashy -- but where the architect's philosophical sensitivity will allow the physical and spiritual program of this new contemporary life to be established and to express itself in architectural plan; and where the technical knowledge of the construction will allow this plan to be arrived at and made to work. A Parisian doctor gave Chareau the opportunity to prove it.

Whereas Mies had a very unique architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. He strived towards an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of free-flowing open space.

1. a "gearing down " on the part of the architect from high, stylistic interests to simple but inspired problem-solving.

2. a "surreal, sculptural form-making" precipitated by "purely technical research."

3. the creation of "dimensional space" and unanticipated spatial experience.

They both had a similar understanding towards the functionality of objects and how can they be broken down to function in an more efficient way IE.

Having said that there was more fluidity in Chareau's work may be because of the ART DECO , and various art movements that happened in his peak time…. But later gave way to more simplistic and straight line forms.But they both shared the need to be intuitive and incorporate the advancements in industrial goods and materials.

This amalgamation of construction understanding with functional requirementsCreated a dynamicism in their works. Which had attributes like..

1.honesty of materials, 2.variable transparency of forms, and 3. juxtaposition of "industrial" materials and fixtures with a more traditional style of home décor.