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10 Things You Didn't Know About Modern Icon Pierre Chareau

Known for his collaboration on the legendary Maison de Verre, French architect, and interior designer Pierre Chareau is a celebrated artist cited by Richard Rogers, Jean Nouvel, and more as a major influence on their work.

Completed in 1932, Maison de Verre—or “House of Glass”—has become a prime example of modern architecture, despite the fact that not many people have actually seen the hidden treasure, located on Paris’ Left Bank.

Although his work is currently viewed in high regard, Chareau had a tumultuous career, with large variances between his successes and his failures.

Drawing from a Cultured Magazine spotlight article on the designer, we have compiled a list of facts about Chareau’s life and career that showcase the rollercoaster of his success.

Continue reading for the 10 things you didn’t know about Pierre Chareau.

Drawing on the Road: The Story of a Young Le Corbusier's Travels Through Europe

Voyage Le Corbusier, by Jacob Brillhart, collects for the first time a compendium of sketchbook drawings and watercolors of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret—a young student who would go onto become the singularly influential modernist architect, Le Corbusier. Between 1907 and 1911, he traveled throughout Europe and the Mediterranean carrying an array of drawing supplies and documenting all that he saw: classical ruins, details of interiors, vibrant landscapes, and the people and objects that populated them.

Le Corbusier was a deeply radical progressive architect, a futurist who was equally and fundamentally rooted in history and tradition. He was intensely curious, constantly traveling, drawing, painting, and writing, all in the pursuit of becoming a better designer. As a result, he found intellectual ways to connect his historical foundations with what he learned from his contemporaries. He grew from drawing nature to copying fourteenth-century Italian painting to leading the Purist movement that greatly influenced French painting and architecture in the early 1920s. All the while, he was making connections between nature, art, culture, and architecture that eventually gave him a foundation for thinking about design.

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Collector's Nook / mf+arquitetos

Collector's Nook / mf+arquitetos - Houses, Facade, Table, ChairCollector's Nook / mf+arquitetos - Houses, Garden, Countertop, Table, ChairCollector's Nook / mf+arquitetos - Houses, Chair, TableCollector's Nook / mf+arquitetos - Houses, Beam, Facade, Door, ChairCollector's Nook / mf+arquitetos - More Images+ 26

Franca, Brazil
  • Architects: mf+arquitetos
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  130
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2017
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Abece gesso, Cenafer, Centro ceramico, Deca, Design brasil, +9
  • Professionals: Villa Romana

House of the Stones / mf+arquitetos

House of the Stones  / mf+arquitetos - HousesHouse of the Stones  / mf+arquitetos - HousesHouse of the Stones  / mf+arquitetos - HousesHouse of the Stones  / mf+arquitetos - HousesHouse of the Stones  / mf+arquitetos - More Images+ 60

Franca, Brazil
  • Architects: mf+arquitetos
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  630
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2017
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Holcim, Deca, Esquadrias 2 irmãos

Populous and Egis to Develop Plans for 38 Olympic Venues at 2024 Paris Games

Clarification Update 10/4/17: Populous and Egis were selected in 2016 to collaborate on the Paris 2024 bid; this news piece reflects the bid’s approval by the International Olympic Committee. However, the team to lead the next planning phase for Paris 2024 has yet to be decided. Stay tuned for further information.

The Paris 2024 Olympic bid, featuring planning for 38 Olympics and Paralympic venues across the city by the team of Populous and engineering consultants Egis, has received approval as part of the International Olympic Committee’s naming of the 2024 host city.

How a Novel Saved Notre-Dame and Changed Perceptions of Gothic Architecture

This article was originally published by Common Edge as "It’s a Book. It’s a Building. It’s a Behavioral Intervention!"

A few years ago, while visiting, or rather exploring, Notre-Dame, the author of this book found, in an obscure corner of one of the towers, this word carved upon the wall:

'ANÁΓKH

These Greek characters, black with age, and cut deep into the stone with the peculiarities of form and arrangement common to Gothic calligraphy that marked them the work of some hand in the Middle Ages, and above all the sad and mournful meaning which they expressed, forcibly impressed the author.

MVRDV Breaks Ground on Riverfront Housing Complex in Bordeaux

MVRDV and local architects Flint have revealed designs for a new riverfront mixed-use housing complex in Bordeaux, Ilot Queyries, as the project breaks ground. Located on the east bank of Garonne River, the site will house over 300 apartments, retail spaces, a rooftop restaurant, and a communal park in a densely mixed environment. The complex will integrate into the neighboring ZAC Bastide-Niel masterplan by MVRDV to create a lively urban neighborhood aimed at “combining the virtues of the historic city–intimacy, surprise and liveliness– with the density, ecology, light and comfort of the modern city.”

MVRDV Breaks Ground on Riverfront Housing Complex in Bordeaux  - Courtyard, Facade, ChairMVRDV Breaks Ground on Riverfront Housing Complex in Bordeaux  - FacadeMVRDV Breaks Ground on Riverfront Housing Complex in Bordeaux  - Garden, FacadeMVRDV Breaks Ground on Riverfront Housing Complex in Bordeaux  - Cityscape, CoastMVRDV Breaks Ground on Riverfront Housing Complex in Bordeaux  - More Images+ 1

This Project Explores the Ottoman Miniature as a Form of Architectural Representation

Over the following weeks we will be sharing a selection of unrealized student projects, alongside realized schemes by practices who explore representational techniques, in collaboration with KooZA/rch. The aim is "to explore the role of the architectural drawing as a tool for communication" and, in the process, provoke a conversation about the contemporary use, format, and role of drawing.

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Look Inside a Collection of Parisian Architecture Offices, Photographed by Marc Goodwin and Mathieu Fiol

Architectural photographer Marc Goodwin, alongside Mathieu Fiol, has recently completed the fifth collection of his "ultra-marathon of photoshoots" – this time in la Ville Lumière, Paris. Following Goodwin's insight into the spaces occupied by Nordic architectural offices, his look at studios both large and small lived in by London-based practices, his lens on a collection of Beijing-based studios and, most recently, his and Felix Nybergh's study of studios in Seoul, the project has now focused on the French capital.

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Pont De Bondy Metro Station / BIG + Silvio d’Ascia Architecture

BIG and Silvio D'ascia Architecture have released new images of their competition-winning design for the new Pont de Bondy metro station in Paris. One of a total of 68 new stations commissioned as part of Société du Grand París’ Grand Paris Express project, the Pont de Bondy station will “[continue] the Parisian tradition of utilizing bridges as social spaces and cultural landmarks.”

Pont De Bondy Metro Station / BIG + Silvio d’Ascia Architecture - FacadePont De Bondy Metro Station / BIG + Silvio d’Ascia Architecture - FacadePont De Bondy Metro Station / BIG + Silvio d’Ascia Architecture - Facade, ColumnPont De Bondy Metro Station / BIG + Silvio d’Ascia Architecture - FacadePont De Bondy Metro Station / BIG + Silvio d’Ascia Architecture - More Images+ 11

Tour des Jardins de l’Arche / Ateliers 2/3/4/

Ateliers 2/3/4/ has unveiled its design for Jardins de l’Arche Tower, a 200-meter-tall building in Nanterre La défense, Paris.

An effort to “extend the great historical axis of Paris,” the 65,000-square-meter tower will feature a series of hanging gardens around superimposed volumes.

Tour des Jardins de l’Arche / Ateliers 2/3/4/ - Facade, CityscapeTour des Jardins de l’Arche / Ateliers 2/3/4/ - FacadeTour des Jardins de l’Arche / Ateliers 2/3/4/ - CityscapeTour des Jardins de l’Arche / Ateliers 2/3/4/ - FacadeTour des Jardins de l’Arche / Ateliers 2/3/4/ - More Images+ 5

AD Classics: Eiffel Tower / Gustave Eiffel

The world had never seen anything like the graceful iron form that rose from Paris’ Champ de Mars in the late 1880s. The “Eiffel Tower,” built as a temporary installation for the Exposition Universelle de 1889, became an immediate sensation for its unprecedented appearance and extraordinary height. It has long outlasted its intended lifespan and become not only one of Paris’ most popular landmarks, but one of the most recognizable structures in human history.

AD Classics: Eiffel Tower / Gustave Eiffel - Landmarks & MonumentsAD Classics: Eiffel Tower / Gustave Eiffel - Landmarks & Monuments, Facade, ArchAD Classics: Eiffel Tower / Gustave Eiffel - Landmarks & MonumentsAD Classics: Eiffel Tower / Gustave Eiffel - Landmarks & MonumentsAD Classics: Eiffel Tower / Gustave Eiffel - More Images+ 6

Clément Blanchet Reveals Proposal for PEX Bordeaux Extension

Clément Blanchet Architecture, PPA and Taillandier Architectes Associés have released their competition entry for the extension of Parc des Expositions (PEX) Bordeaux.

Having found success in their winning competition entry for PEX Toulouse (currently under construction), the partnership has rejoined forces to take on PEX Bordeux. The architects designed their proposed addition with the goal of embedding architectural fragments to capture the essence of the original building.

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MVRDV Wins Competition in France with Residential Development Inspired by Rock Formations

A team consisting of MVRDV, ALL + Giboire has won a competition for the project Ilot de l’Octroi, a new residential redevelopment in the city of Rennes, France that will transform the area into a socially adhesive green community along the Ille et Vilaine rivers.

MVRDV Wins Competition in France with Residential Development Inspired by Rock Formations - Garden, Facade, Cityscape, CoastMVRDV Wins Competition in France with Residential Development Inspired by Rock Formations - Facade, CityscapeMVRDV Wins Competition in France with Residential Development Inspired by Rock Formations - Facade, CoastMVRDV Wins Competition in France with Residential Development Inspired by Rock Formations - Image 3 of 4MVRDV Wins Competition in France with Residential Development Inspired by Rock Formations - More Images+ 24

AD Classics: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes / Various Architects

The end of the First World War did not mark the end of struggle in Europe. France, as the primary location of the conflict’s Western Front, suffered heavy losses in both manpower and industrial productivity; the resulting economic instability would plague the country well into the 1920s.[1] It was in the midst of these uncertain times that the French would signal their intention to look not to their recent troubled past, but to a brighter and more optimistic future. This signal came in the form of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Decorative Arts and Modern Industries) of 1925 – a landmark exhibition which both gave rise to a new international style and, ultimately, provided its name: Art Deco.

AD Classics: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes / Various Architects - Other, Facade, ArchAD Classics: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes / Various Architects - Other, Arch, FacadeAD Classics: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes / Various Architects - Other, Facade, ColumnAD Classics: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes / Various Architects - Other, Door, FacadeAD Classics: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes / Various Architects - More Images+ 9