Auguste Perret
1874-1954
A pioneer in reinforced concrete construction.
The chronological context
of Perret’s architecture
Chronological context in Architecture
- Modernism to Postmodernism 1890s
1900s
1910s
First generation
modernists
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
Second generation
modernists
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
Third generation
modernists
The pioneers of modernism.
They each treated form, space,
structure, materials and ornament in
novel ways.
These were the architects of ‘high
modernism’- the universal
International Style- as well as the
fashionable Art Deco period.
These were the architects of
Postmodernism.
They reacted against the orthodoxy of
high modernism.
Peter Behrens -
Berlin
Walter Gropius
Frank Gehry
Auguste Perret -
Paris
Le Corbusier
Philip Johnson
C. R. Mackintosh -
Glasgow
Mies van der Rohe
Charles Moore
Otto Wagner -
Vienna
Gerrit Reitveld
I. M. Pei
Adolf Loos -
Vienna
William Van Allen
Michael Greaves
Louis Sullivan -
Chicago
Napier Art Deco architects
Louis Kahn
Frank Lloyd Wright - Chicago and mid-western states of USA
Robert Venturi
The context of his architecture
Geographical context:
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Auguste Perret was a French architect based in Paris. He worked in partnership with
his brother Gustave Perret.
Paris
Context continued…
Historical and social context:
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Auguste Perret was an important pioneer of the
modern movement. His most significant buildings
were constructed in reinforced concrete in the
years between 1902 to 1922.
He was the youngest of the first generation of
modernists being only 28 when he built his first
major building, his family-owned apartments at
25 bis Rue Franklin, Paris in 1902. Like Frank
Lloyd Wright in America, he had a long career
and died well into the 1950s when modernism
was at its height.
Perret studied for a brief time in the academic
Ecole des Beaux Arts, the conservative, classicalrevival design school of the period. But he left
this formal architectural training early to work
with his father and brother in the family’s
concrete construction business. These two early
experiences shaped two stylistic characteristics of
Perret’s work:
1) His use of classical proportion and symmetry
2) His functional approach to design and
Apartments, 25 bis Rue Franklin, Paris, 1902.
construction in reinforced concrete.
Context continued…
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Auguste Perret was one of the very first architects
to give a modern architectural expression to
reinforced concrete. Modern cement-based
concrete was patented in 1867 by the French
gardener Joseph Monier, but during the Victorian
period it remained hidden behind stone façades
and veneers because it was considered a crude
building material. In the 1890s Francois
Hennebique introduced the trebeated structural
system of reinforced concreting, but it was with
Auguste Perret that this new, industrial material
became expressed architecturally on the facade of
buildings.
Up till 1908 the young Le Corbusier worked in
Perret’s architectural practice. From him Le
Corbusier learned about:
● using reinforced concrete to create skeletal
structures for building
● using classical proportions and composition in
modern design
● using standardised components in design and
construction
● a geometric approach to design and the flat
roof as living space.
Hennebique’s system, developed in 1892,
for structural continuity in reinforcing
concrete posts, beams and slabs.
Le Corbusier
Perret
Stylistic features of Perret’s buildings
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As a pioneer of the architecturally
expressed reinforced concrete frame,
Perret’s buildings feature large areas of
glazing on the non-weight-bearing walls.
Internal spaces are open and generous
and often lit by skylights.
Perret’s buildings are often described as
‘stripped classical’. They have the
symmetrical, balanced and harmonious
proportions and rhythms of classical
architecture, often with abstract
references to columns and cornices. He
stripped away the ornament and
detailing indulged in by the Beaux Arts
classical-revival architects of the day.
These qualities give his buildings
formality and dignity.
Perret’s buildings have a rational
functionalism. Concrete is left raw,
though sometimes with coloured or
patterned elements to them. His designs
arose out of modern functional
considerations rather than aesthetic
ones.
The significant Perret building.
Apartments, 25 bis Rue Franklin, Paris, 1902
Stylistic features of Perret’s Rue Franklin Apartments
The rectangular frame allows for roof
terraces on setbacks of upper apartments.
U-shaped front façade inspired by statutory light courts at the rear of Parisian
apartment buildings.
The trabeated, rectangular concrete
frame throughout building is not
exposed directly, but is expressed by
the plain tiles on the façade.
The non-weight-bearing walls are expressed as slightly-recessed infill panels
of floral-patterned ceramic tile.
At street level the Perrets had their architecture studio. This
large, open space exposed the uprights of the concrete
frame and became forerunners of Le Corbusier’s pilotis.
Stylistic features of Perret’s Rue Franklin Apartments
Glazed openings are as large as zoning laws allowed.
The concrete frame allows for thin wall partitions and
maximum interior space.
Dining room
Drawing room
Bedroom
At the sixth storey apartment a reinforced concrete
frame breaks free of the wall surface. This looks forward
to the airy, transparent effects of the International Style.
A full appreciation of the building’s form can be gained
only by moving across its entire façade. This experiential
dimension to architectural form and space is modernist.