Roland Simounet (born in Guyotville,

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, 31 Aug 1927 - died in Paris, 1996) was a French

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

known primarily for his design of the

Musée Picasso :''This article refers to the museum in Paris. There are a number of other Picasso museums.'' The Musée Picasso ( en, Picasso Museum) is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé ( en, Salé Hall) in rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district ...

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 ...

and the LaM in

Villeneuve d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; pcd, Neuvile-Ask) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area ( ...

Biography

Simounet studied

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

in Paris and then returned to his native

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where he opened an office in 1952. His first major work, the emergency cité de transit Djenan el-Hassan (1956-8), reflected his concern with the eradication of slum housing; its cellular construction, with individual vaulted roofs, echoed local vernacular architectural forms. In 1958 he was appointed to plan the new city of Thamugadi, which borders the famous Roman ruins of

Timgad Timgad ( ar, تيمقاد, links=, lit=, translit=Tīmgād, known as Marciana Traiana Thamugadi) was a Roman city in the Aurès Mountains of Algeria. It was founded by the Roman Emperor Trajan around 100 AD. The full name of the city was ''Colon ...

. After the War of Independence, Simounet moved to Paris (1963), but many of his works continued to address the problems of design for warm climates through the suitable expression of materials, massing and openings; examples include the student housing (1962–70) for the University of Tananarive,

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, and a series of holiday homes in

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

. Simounet became one of the most prolific museum builders in France in the 1970s and 1980s. His new buildings for the Musee de la Prehistoire de l'Ile-de-France (1975-9), Nemours, and the Musee d'Art Moderne du Nord (1978–83), Villeneuve d'Ascq, reveal a careful orchestration of natural lighting and details to enhance the individual display of works of art. He also won the limited competition for the conversion of the 17th-century Hôtel Salé in the

Marais district The Marais (Le Marais ; "the marsh") is a historic district in Paris, France. Having once been an aristocratic district, it is home to many buildings of historic and architectural importance. It spreads across parts of the 3rd and 4th ar ...

of Paris into the Musée Picasso (1976–85); the austere and luminous quality of the white-washed walls and pristine volumes was generally acknowledged to be the perfect showcase for Picasso's personal collection. In Saint-Denis he designed some low-cost housing (1983) in the shadow of the abbey; arranged around small courtyards, it alluded to the historic fortifications. The same parti was used in the les Fongéres residential complex (1987–91) facing the Parc Citroén in Paris. Simounet was awarded the Grand Prix National d'Architecture in 1977. Simounet died in Paris in 1996.

Bibliography

Roland Simounet a L'oeuvre: Architecture, 1951-1996 by Richard Klein, Roland Simounet, Musee d'art moderne Lille metropole, (2-86961-060-2) Roland Simounet: D'une Architecture Juste by Roland Simounet Le Moniteur, 1997, (2-281-19095-1) Roland Simounet: Pour Une Invention De L'espace by Roland Simounet Electa Moniteur, 1986, (2-86653-024-1)

References

External links

Musée National Picasso (Paris, France)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simounet, Roland 20th-century French architects 1927 births 1996 deaths French people of colonial Algeria