Annie Dalsace

Annie Dalsace, the lady of the house, was a driving force behind La Maison de Verre. As an avant-garde art collector, socialite, and close friend of Pierre Chareau, she commissioned a house that would become an embodiment of the modern movement. The house was very much a collaborative project, as Chareau worked alongside other, such as Jean Lurcat, who designed the upholstery tapestries and whose wife embroidered them. Annie was a student of Chareau's wife, who became and influential mentor to her. Twenty years later the construction of the house began. The Dalsace's were well connected with contemporary artists and intellects, and their house became a salon and cultural hub. Many gatherings were held in the grand drawing room of La Maison de Verre. Some artists that Annie was close with did art pieces of her, including Jacques Lipchitz who sculpted a bust in her likeness, and Jean Lurcat who painted her portrait. Annie collected art, and purchased some of Picasso's work to decorate the house.

The Dalsaces were politically active, and in the 1950's the house was the setting for the Association of Doctors Against War and Facism. Secret peace talks between the French and the Vietnamese were also held in the house, as well as meetings in support of peace in Algeria.

Portrait of Annie Dalsace, by Jean Lurcat

Upholstery by Jean Lurcat

Bust of Annie Dalsace, by Jacques Lipchitz

Carla Gruber

Chronology and Cultural History

In 1934, a demonstration by the far-right in Place de la Concorde caused riots. The Popular Front, a left-wing party, is formed after a demonstration on July 14, 1935, on Bastille Day. The Popular Front was formed to create an alliance of centrist and leftist political parties in France that were opposed to the onset of fascism. The Popular Front wins the general election in May of 1936. Their victory was marked by spontaneous street celebrations and demonstrations. 

Both before and after the war, the Maison de Verre was an important cultural and political meeting place. La Maison de Verre was a place where artists, poets, and travelers got together for dinners and receptions. The house's guests included Louis Jouvet, Max Ernst, Pierre Levy, and Jeanne Bucher. Annie Dalsace's love for art was life-long; she bought paintings by Picasso and Braque, Lipchitz sculpted a bust of Annie, Jean Lurcat painted her portrait, and the house e hoed with concerts of chamber music. 

In 1939, World War II begins. During the occupation of France by Germany, the house was closed and emptied of all its furniture which was hidden and kept safe. The Germans wanted to requisition the Maison de Verre but they soon realized that they could neither heat nor light it. After the Liberation in 1944, the Dalsaces returned to Paris and lived in the maids’ rooms above the Maison de Verre while their house was being restored after four years of neglect. The Dalsaces were politically active, and in the 1950s the house was the setting for the foundation of the Association of Doctors Against War and Fascism. It also housed secret peace talks between the French and the Vietnamese, as well as meetings in support of peace in Algeria. The house was open to everyone. La Maison de Verre was a meeting place where avant-garde ideas, artistic concepts and the most beautiful utopian ideals were being expressed; it was open for everyone and everything, for every form of expression. It was a place of friendship.

Timeline (updated version)

Timeline

Chronology and timeline information

The design was a collaboration between Pierre Chareau (a furniture and interiors designer), Bernard Bijvoet (a Dutch architect working in Paris since 1927) and Louis Dalbet (craftsman metalworker). For four years, Chareau and his collaborators worked on the house. Dalbet moved to the site. 

In 1928, the French firm of Saint Gobain began to market, with no manufacturer’s guarantee, square, 20x20x4 pieces with fluted edges that offered an excellent external finish. However, the company refused to guarantee that its blocks would be self-bearing, so in order to prevent possible breakages of those at the base, Chareau found himself obliged to create a hidden steel grid to group them into panels of 4x6 blocks. These panels became the basic element of the design.

In 1930, Chareau covered this steel framework with a mortar to achieve an apparently seamless surface, without a visible skeleton, as though it were an unlimited transparent plane.

However, in the 1960s this continuous covering was removed from the main façade and replaced by metal bars that emphasized the interior sub-structure by carrying it through to the exterior. 

1919 - The first affordable public housing built in Paris

1920- First commercial radio broadcast

1923 - Art and Technology A new Unity exhibition , Bauhaus, Weimar Adolf Behne writes der Moderne Zwecbau, published in 1926

1924 - Paris hosts the Olympic games

1925 - Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Paris

1925 - Art Deco Exposition in Paris

1928 - Building in France, Sigfried Giedon

1928 - The Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne – CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture) was founded a group of 28 European architects; the organization focused on spreading the principles of Modern Movement through landscape, industrial design, urbanism and many other domains. The organization was organized by Le Corbusier, Sigfried Giedon, and also included Pierre Jeanneret, El Lissitzky, Josef Frank, Pierre Chareau and many more. CIAM was formin aspects of Modern Movement as well as trying to imply them in political and economical sense.

1928-1932 - Maison de Verre construction

1931- Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, Poissy France

1934 - February 6 - A demonstration by the far right in Place de la Concorde

1935 - The Popular Front wins the general election in May. Their victory is marked by spontaneous street celebrations and demonstrations, as well as a number of work shortages

1936 - Nikolaus Pevsner, Pioneers of the Modern Movement 

1939 - World War II begins

During the occupation the house was closed and emptied of all its furniture which was hidden and kept safe. The Germans wanted to requisition the Maison de Verre but they soon realized that they could neither heat nor light it.

1940 - June 3 An air raid kills 254 people

              June 14 The Germans occupy Paris

              November 11 Students demonstrate on Place de l’Etoile

              December 26 The city coucil is suspended

1941- foreign Jews living in Paris are rounded up and deported

1942 - June 16-17 French Jews living in Paris are rounded up and deported

1944 - August 25 - The liberation of Paris

After the Liberation in 1944 the Dalsaces returned to Paris and lived in the maids’ rooms above the Maison de Verre while their house was being restored after four years of neglect.

1952 - May 18 - The Algerian Population of Paris demonstrate in favor of Algerian independence

1954 - Vietnam divided after French defeat Algerian war of independence begins

The Dalsaces were politically active, and in the 1950s the house was the setting for the foundation of the Association of Doctors Against War and Fascism. It also housed secret peace talks between the French and the Vietnamese, as well as meetings in support of peace in Algeria.

1961 - September 20 After riots break out following a demonstration in favor of Algerian independence, a curfew is imposed on Algerians 

1962 - Algeria becomes independent

The house stayed in the Dalsace family for more than 70 years. 

1980’s - Dr. Dalsace’s daughter - Aline Vellay and her husband considered selling the house to French government. Though it might be turned into a national landmark, as le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, but the government didn’t take them up on it. 

Purpose

In 1927, Mr and Mrs Dalsace acquired a three story housed owned by Madame Dalsace’s father. Its location, situated near the faubourg Saint Germain - the hub of intellectual and society life – justified the choice of the site rather than the state of the existing house, which Chareau and the Dalsaces were agreed on rebuilding. However, due to an uncooperative elderly tenant on the second floor, the building couldn’t be demolished. Instead, the first floor of the townhouse was removed and structure was put in place to support the existing second floor. Chareau was asked to design a house to fit within the newly created void.

Each level of the new construction was to be made over a specific aspect of the Dalsace’s lifestyle:
   -The first floor for professional activity with a medical cabinet laid out around a glassed in     secretarial office;
   -The second floor, centered on a large living room, a vast split level volume bug enough to house small orchestras;
   -The third floor for private living with rooms laid out around a gallery overhanging the large living room, and sheltered by the thick walls of the wardrobes

A wing set back on the courtyard was to house the ancillary areas and complete the whole. The two main constraints bearing on the project, on one hand the conservation of the existing floor calling for the underpinning of the structure in place, and on the other, the problem of lighting a narrow building set back in a courtyard, called forth two all-determining responses for the architecture of the house: the choice of the steel frame, and that of the glass facade. The result is a tightly configured, mechanic house that stretches from the original forecourt to the rear garden.

Narrative: The house, it’s owners and cultural history

An alternative name for Maison de Verre (French for House of Glass) is Maison Dalsace which is named after the patron of the house, Dr. Jean Dalsace. Dr. Dalsace was a Parisian doctor and La Maison de Verre served as a clinic, home, and salon of the leftist intelligentsia in Paris. 

Pre-Maison de Verre

In 1918, Jean and Annie Dalsace settled at 195 Boulevard Saint-Germain and asked Pierre Chareau to design their house for them and their future children. The property was gifted to Annie Dalsace on her nuptial. The location of their new home was on 31 Rue St-Guillaume in the Tour Eiffel District of Paris.

 

The house was inserted into a traditional Parisian home as opposed to demolishing and rebuilding because an elderly woman refused to move off of her apartment on the top floor and was protected by Parisian tenant laws. The architect had to remove the lower stories and leave the top floor for the tenant as well as an entrance on the right side. 

From outside, La Maison de Verre may look small but when one gets to the foot of the main staircase, this is the moment when the real dimensions of the space become apparent to the visitor. One is only aware of this inside. Light invades the room, its presence absolute. The great room is like a beating heart, a modern cathedral full of white dizzying light.

Annie Dalsace in her boudoir

The arrangement of spaces in the house was influenced by both owners, but there is very strong influence from Madame Dalsace that can be seen. Annie was among the first to be excited and embrace modernism. It was Annie’s obstinacy that had driven her to knock down an 18th century town house without a second thought and allow La Maison de Verre to be built in its place. 

The spaces in the house seem to be divided into different sections according to the way they were used and who used them. The first floor served as a clinic for Dr. Dalsace, it was his domain where he reigned alone. The first floor can be analyzed as the “bachelor” or male part of the house, above all because it is in fact Dr. Dalsace’s sacred domain and necessarily consecrated to celibacy. The third floor, which is that of the family bedrooms, can be taken as the feminine area. The second floor can be considered as something in-between, it was one part public and social, and another part private and intimate. The eastern part of the second floor contains the privacy of the boudoir, the domestic space of the kitchen and the sociability of the dining area and can therefore conceptually be considered as the domain of Annie Dalsace. The western section combines the privacy of the study and the public status of the drawing room and as such is under the conceptual sign of a bachelor.

“The client shares responsibilities with the architect.”

The boudoir (the bride) is linked by a detachable “rising” staircase to the main bedroom above, while the study (the bachelor) is linked by a fixed “descending” staircase, to the gynaecologist’s consulting room below. The bathroom is divided into feminine and masculine with bathtub on the feminine side and the shower on the masculine. There are times when the entire work seems to be a reflection of the personality of Annie Dalsace. Subtly the house seems to be more dedicated to the “bride”.