The architects P.
Chareau and B. Bijovet conceived the Maison de Verre between 1928 and 1931 for the Doctor Dalsace and his wife. This house is located in the quartier of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. This house is clearly a clue to a better understanding to the preface of William Richard Lethaby in his book «Architecture, Mysticism and Myth». The mission of an architect is to conceive an environment which answer to the happiness of man, a space design to his body and mind. Lethaby’s ideas are close to the role of the architect ; the author thoughts are about Industrial Revolution and how human nature, architecture, mind and body are related.
Indeed, W. R. Lethaby, in his text, presents the building as the satisfaction of the body, and architecture as the mind’s satisfaction. He is defining the purpose of the architect, particularly in the case of P. Chareau in his Maison de Verre, we learned that every details of this house was thought and made to precisely respond to the Dalsace family needs. For example, in Mrs.
Dalsace’s Boudoir, there is a compartment where housekeepers could serve Madam without entering the room. Or for example the fact the walls and doors in the Maison de Verre can be moved and there for create a different space and atmosphere in the room.According to the author, «Architecture which is the synthesis of the fine arts, the commune of all the crafts» ( quote from page 6 of the preface of «Architecture, Mysticism and Myth»). We notice that many systems of the house are borrowed from craft, as the walls of the Maison de Verre taken from glass tiles, or the furniture of the house mostly designed by the architect himself, which is very part of the architecture of the house.There is another aspect of the author thoughts that is primordial to approach: The Industrial Revolution.
Old materials arrived at their exhaustion, «the materials are worked out to their final issue» (quote of M. Cesar Daly used by W. R. Lethaby's, page 8 paragraph 2) ; concrete and steel are the new materials. All Pierre Chareau’s work here is clearly inspired by Industrial Revolution and new materials.
As we can notice, the structure of the house and many of it’s components are made of concrete and steel used in factories. The architect was thinking the Maison de Verre as a thinking machine, with buttons and windows borrowed from the trains systems, or an other element of The Maison de Verre is the light that turns on and off automatically in one of the toilets. It’s a breath taking detail as it’s an ancient house while mostly of houses of today do not dispose of this light system. It makes the house alive, a thinking machine.More, Lethaby says that architecture adjust its forms in relation to the local conditions.
A detail of this house particularly correspond to Lethaby’s thoughts with the Doctor Dalsace door-handle's office. Pierre Chareau made a special door-handle which allowed the Doctor to be courteous toward his exclusively female clients. It’s clearly the definition of architecture Lethaby gives it when he says that architecture is the thought behind the form. The house adapt itself to the human nature, to the satisfaction of body and mind.To conclude we can say that the Maison de Verre of Pierre Chareau is supporting Lethaby’s essay « Architecture, Mysticism and Myth» and it’s theories.
