The Lavirotte Building, an apartment building at 29 Avenue Rapp in the 7th arrondissement of
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France, was designed by the architect
Jules Lavirotte
Jules Aimé Lavirotte (March 25, 1864 in Lyon – March 1, 1929 in Paris) was a French architect who is best known for the Art Nouveau buildings he created in the 7th arrondissement in Paris. His buildings were known for his imaginative and exub ...
and built between 1899 and 1901. The building is one of the best-known surviving examples of
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
architecture in Paris. The facade is lavishly decorated with sculpture and ceramic tiles made by the ceramics manufacturer
Alexandre Bigot
Alexandre Bigot (5 November 1862 – 27 April 1927) was a French ceramicist. He was primarily a ceramics manufacturer, producing the designs of many artists and architects of the French Art Nouveau movement, including: Jules Lavirotte, Hector G ...
. Lavirotte was awarded the prize for the most original new facade in the 7th arrondissement in 1901.
History
The architect, Jules Lavirotte, had already built two buildings in the same neighborhood of the 7th arrondissement; a private residence at 12 Rue Sédillot (now a school) and an apartment building at 3 Square Rapp, where he had his own apartment on the fifth floor. Both of these buildings had some of the fantasy and art nouveau elements for which Lavirotte was famous, but none were as exuberant as the new building. Some sources, including the
Base Mérimée
The ''Base Mérimée'' is the database of French monumental and architectural heritage, created and maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. It was created in 1978, and placed online in 1995. The database is periodically updated, and contains ...
, the official list of French historic monuments, state that the building was owned by
Alexandre Bigot
Alexandre Bigot (5 November 1862 – 27 April 1927) was a French ceramicist. He was primarily a ceramics manufacturer, producing the designs of many artists and architects of the French Art Nouveau movement, including: Jules Lavirotte, Hector G ...
, a chemistry professor turned entrepreneur who was the first in France to manufacture glazed ceramic tiles, an ancient technique he borrowed from China. However, the construction permit shows the building was owned by Lavirotte and Charles Combes, and there is no evidence that Bigot ever lived there. Nonetheless, the building did become a very effective showcase of the glazed earthenware tiles that he developed, which were later used in other notable Art Nouveau buildings. The ceramic tiles and sculpture turned the building into a work of art, a large piece of sculpture.
Lavirotte used several innovations in the construction of the building. Some of the walls were built with an early form of reinforced concrete. The bricks were hollow; once they had been put in place, metal wires or rods were run through them to secure them and then they were filled with concrete. In addition, Lavirotte built the walls in two layers with an air space between, to provide more effective soundproofing.
A team of craftsmen was responsible for the construction and decoration; The ironwork was made by Dondelinger; the sculptural decoration, designed by Lavirotte, was done by Théobald-Joseph Sporrer, Firmin Michelet and Alfred-Jean Halou. The sculpture around the front doorway was by Jean-Baptiste Larrivé.
The Lavirotte building was listed as an historic monument in 1964.
1901 facade competition
Like his contemporary,
Hector Guimard
Hector Guimard (, 10 March 1867 – 20 May 1942) was a French architect and designer, and a prominent figure of the Art Nouveau style. He achieved early fame with his design for the Castel Beranger, the first Art Nouveau apartment building ...
, Lavirotte was catapulted to fame when the building was a winner in the Paris competition of new facades of 1901. The competition had been created to encourage Paris architects to break away from the model for apartment buildings created by
Georges-Eugène Haussmann
Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann (; 27 March 180911 January 1891), was a French official who served as Prefect (France), prefect of Seine (department), Seine (1853–1870), chosen by Emperor Napoleon III to carry out ...
during the reign of
Napoléon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
, which later critics found monotonous. In giving the award to Lavirotte, the jury declared, "the ensemble of the facade, which produces a very agreeable effect, certainly contributes to the decoration of the grand boulevard on which it is constructed.
[Report of the ''Concours de facades de 1901'', ''L''Architecture'', 20 December 1901. Cited in Plum, page 44] Lavirotte won the prize two more times, for the Ceramic Hotel in 1905.
Facade
See also
*Jules Lavirotte
Jules Aimé Lavirotte (March 25, 1864 in Lyon – March 1, 1929 in Paris) was a French architect who is best known for the Art Nouveau buildings he created in the 7th arrondissement in Paris. His buildings were known for his imaginative and exub ...
*Architecture of Paris
The city of Paris has notable examples of architecture of every period, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. It was the birthplace of the Gothic style, and has important monuments of the French Renaissance, Classical revival, the Flamboyant s ...
*Paris architecture of the Belle Époque
The architecture of Paris created during the '' Belle Époque'', between 1871 and the beginning of the First World War in 1914, was notable for its variety of different styles, from neo-Byzantine and neo-Gothic to classicism, Art Nouveau and Ar ...
*Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
References
Notes and citations
Bibliography
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External links
Site devoted to Lavirotte Building, with interior and exterior photos (in French)
Exterior photos of the Lavirotte Building with a strong focus on its facade
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Buildings and structures in the 7th arrondissement of Paris
Art Nouveau architecture in Paris
Art Nouveau apartment buildings