France's boom years made concrete... and cable

by Susan Owensby

Article published on the 2009-09-25 Latest update 2009-09-29 13:33 TU

French pavilion for the 1958 Universal Exposition
(Photo: Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine)

The years 1945–1975 were a period of great economic growth in France – and, following WWII, a period of great enthusiasm. This was reflected by a building boom – and the building of massive structures. Paris's architecture museum presents a lookback at the work of Guillaume Gillet, an enthusiastic exponent of post-war modernism.

Corinne Bélier is joint curator with Franck Delorme of the Trente glorieuses (30 glorious years) exhibition at Paris's architecture museum and the museum’s chief conservationist. She says that Gillet is the figurehead architect of the period, not only due to his dynamic modern designs, but also because of the new materials he used – concrete and cables.

A project for a city of the future
(Photo: Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine)

Gillet, while prolific, is best known for two buildings – the church Notre Dame de Royan and the French pavilion for the 1958 Universal Exposition in Brussels.

There, says Bélier, Gillet seems to have really captured the spirit of the times.

The massive pavilion – 12,000 square metres! – was the first to use suspended cables in roof design, and was compared to a bird in flight. It created a sensation, and when dismantled, as all but Brussels' building were, Jean Cocteau wrote, “The beautiful bird has been killed."

Gillet wrote that architecture is a difficult path, not only in terms of a space, a shelter, but spiritually, too. He thought it must be a combination of heritage, of the past, and at the same time invent new traditions, which reflect the needs of one’s time.

Gillet's plan for the international Hotel d'Orsay on the banks of the Seine
(Photo: Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine)

He was commissioned to build Notre Dame de Royan in 1958, just before Vatican II, the big modernisation reform in the Roman Catholic Church.

Plans for the church of St Michel des Galoubies
(Photo: Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine)

The debate on how - and whether - to bring the church into the 20^th century, to make it closer to the people, was not confined to churchmen alone, it was a debate in which the population at large participated. … and Gillet designed a church of his time. He used the most modern material, concrete, but his vertical design pays more than a passing nod to Gothic church architecture.

Corinne Bélier says that Notre Dame de Royan is about light, and shadow, and volume.

“When you are outside, it looks like a big rock. It’s very high, and it’s the color of concrete – grey.

"But then you step inside, and it is filled with light. The vault is very high, and you feel as if you have a light body, as if you can move freely in space. And somehow, your gaze goes up, which I suppose it what churches are meant to do.”