Hôtel Emile Gaillard

Built for a rich banker who needed a large structure to store his significant collection of renaissance art, this impressive house at first looks much older than it is. The design touches have a mixture of gothic and renaissance influences, and the brickwork is distinctly medieval. The walls notably feature the diapper pattern of darker diamond forms, but this style was to go quickly out of fashion.The exterior today looks somewhat ludicrous and pretentious, but the interior is apparently of greater interest. Nevertheless, it is always interesting to see such brick craftmanship in Paris, even if it is a mere copy of older constructions.Address: 1 Place du Général-Catroux, 75017Architect: Victor-Jules FévrierYear of construction: 1878...

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Ecole Maternelle Trois Bornes

A modernist chef d'ouevre, this school building used brick to fantastic effect to decorate concrete curves, balconies and porthole windows. The narrow, pink coloured bricks were layed in alternate directions, vertically then horizontally, giving the facade additional texture and movement.Interesting side note - an air-raid shelter was built in the basement and used by local residents during the 39-45 war.Address: 39 Rue Trois Bornes, 75011Architect: René Requet-Barville and Louis LonguetYear of construction: 1...

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An Original Brick Facade

The sheltered housing project on the Rue Morand built on a previously run-down site in Paris garnered a lot of praise when it was completed. Andrew Ayers in his book 'The Architecture of Paris' called it "a colourful clearing in a dense and dingy area of the city", but times can change quickly. The structure is still an interesting one, but the surrounding area has changed. A busy park today sits opposite and modern sports hall has been built alongside, and it is now the imperfections of this structure that have become visible. Panels are falling off the wall, and the building now seems somewhat cut off from its neighbours, hidden as it is behind high gates and fencing. There is one unique feature though which still helps it to stand out -...

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Ecole des Arts et Metiers

Stand in front of the main entrance to this prestigious technical school and you will see a classical stone structure, but if you wander around the perimeter of the site you will discover more mysterious buildings where brick dominates. It should be easy to guess which aspects of this structure grabbed my attention!The Ecole des Arts et Metiers turns students into engineers, and it is particularly on this site that they gain hands on experience with practical work. In essence it is a working building, a factory that churns out engineers on its production line. They arrive in their final year of acadamia through the clean white walls of the entrance, but leave via the brick walls at the rear on thier way to their first professional assignments....

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The First Social Housing

Almost all social housing in Paris up until the 1960s (when concrete took over) was built using brick, so it is entirely appropriate that the first such structure should have been constructed with the material. At the beginning of the 20th century, such buildings followed Art Nouveau inspirations of the time and used brick and ceramics to very attractive effect, but here in the Rue Jeanne d'Arc, the brick is almost frightening in its rough simple form.The architect Wilfred Chabrol had been asked to draw something functional, and he designed a structure with 35 almost identical two-room apartments. No thought was given to making the facade of the building attractive, indeed its harsh, cold form was supposed to act as a deterent. This was a structure...

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Notre Dame de la Sagesse

One hundred years after Anatole De Baudet's St Jean de Montmartre church became the first religious building to use brick in the city, Pierre-Louis Faloci again used the material to create this modern structure, interestingly also the last such building to be erected in France in the twentieth century. Difficult to find in the warrens of the new Paris Rive Gauche sector, and not obvious immediately as a religious structure, the building nevertheless deserves a visit.The Paris Rive Gauche district behind the Bibliothèque François Mitterand has mushroomed out of the ground at an incredible pace in the last 20 years. Now a mixture of office buildings, apartments and universities, it was decided that a new place of worship should also be built....

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L'IRCAM (Extension)

Few visitors to the Centre Georges Pompidou are aware that an integral part of the scheme is also a centre for research into music and sound, the IRCAM (L'Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique). The reason for this oversight is very clear - the original structure is completely underground, and it wasn't until the architect Renzo Piano added an above ground level extension that anybody could be expected to know of its existence.For the original structure, Piano and Richard Rogers had been free to use the design and materials of their choice, but when Piano was asked to add additional floor space and come back above ground he was forced to respect Paris planning laws. He would be limited to a certain height, and above all,...

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I Like an Arch

And if you think of Brick, for instance,and you say to Brick,"What do you want Brick?"And Brick says to you"I like an Arch."And if you say to Brick"Look, arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete lentil over you. What do you think of that?""Brick?"Brick says:"... I like an Arch"Louis Kahn, 1963A series of painted brick arches above doors and windows to decorate a nondescript plastered facade. I'm not sure that this is what brick had in mind, but the result is rather striking. Address: 11 Rue Auguste Barbier, 75011Architect: UnknownYear of construction: Unknown. Late 19th centu...

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Saint Jean de Montmartre

Somewhat in the shadow of the nearby Sacre Coeur, the church of St Jean de Montmartre is in fact a far more interesting and revolutionary structure. After Montmartre was absorbed into Paris in 1860, the population on the small town on the hill began to rise quickly, and new places of worship were needed for this expanded community. The Sacre Coeur was built as a message to the city as a whole following the uprising of the 'Godless' during the Commune in 1871, but Saint Jean de Montmartre was always intended to be simply a community building.The architect chosen to build the structure was Anatole de Baudot, a former pupil of Viollet Le Duc. He despised much of the architecture of the 19th century, calling it an architecture of pretence, where...

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The 5th and 6th floors

The classic Haussmannian structure was a building of 6 stories, no more than 20 metres high with eaves with a 45° incline. The typical earlier structures had very little exposed brick, but towards the end of the 19th century, a certain number were built with the final two stories constructed entirely in the material.A superb example can be found in the 11th arrondissement. A magnficent 'ilot' structure, covering four separate streets (the Avenue Parmentier and Rues Deguerry, Darboy and du Chevet), it actually also has two individual entrances (130 and 132 Avenue Parmentier) and four street numbers, although apparently only a single architect and building permit.It seems that this was something akin to a building fad which lasted approximately...

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The Leon Mager Building

This ensemble of structures, which for the sake of simplicity (and because of the large lettering!) I have named the Leon Mager building, is a curious mixture of the industrial and the residential. It was built to house not only the metal transformation factory of Mr Leon Mager, but also offices and rented accommodation. It was Leon Mager who was the major investor in this project and one that would seem to be a particularly interesting example of an 'immeuble de rapport', as he clearly saw the housing aspect as a means to gain additional profit from site of his factory.Brick was naturally the ideal material to use for this unusual combination of industry and housing. Being built around a reinforced concrete structure, the architect, Julien...

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Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits

Brick can be many things, but it is not often that it is linked to the romantic. What could be more romantic though than continent crossing steam trains filled with plush sleeping accomodation and restaurant cars? This is the image that the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits were trying to sell from this address, and how interesting that they should try to do so from a solid brick building!Once again, the date of construction has been carved on to the building, this time beneath the majestic clock (which unfortunately, but inevitably in a country that takes no pride in public time-keeping, no longer works). 1903 was at the very heart of the Art Nouveau movement, but despite the company having been started by a Belgian, there is nothing...

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Charles Wislin's House

It was common practice for architects in Paris in the 19th century to sign and date their constructions, but few have been so obviously dated than the house that was made for the artist Charles Wislin. Built in a Flemish style, the date of construction, 1891, is displayed in chunky figures across the gables. Elsewhere, large stone 'W's have also been incorporated into the design, thus showing clearly who the house belonged to! Wislin had inherited a fortune from his father, a chemist and inventor of a special kind of medicinal paper called the ‘Wlinsi’. Although he was a prize winning artist, time has not been favourable to him, and little trace remains today of his creations. He did though leave behind this interesting house, a not unattractive...

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Ecole d'Architecture Paris Belleville

The new home of the Ecole d'Architecture de Paris Belleville is within the shell of an old technical school, but what better proof of the adaptability and enduring popularity of brick could there be than to have it endorsed in this manner by a school of architecture?The building itself had previously been empty for nearly 20 years, becoming a squat in 1994. The school of architecture had been looking for a new location closer to the centre of Belleville, and particularly wanted to regenerate an existing, historical building rather than build a modern structure from scratch. This school, the Lycée Technique Diderot seemed perfect, as it had originally been a model 'school/factory' teaching establishment, complete with several industrial features,...

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Bains Douches Rue Oberkampf

A classical example of municipal architecture from the 1920s, these public baths were designed in brick as a means to create a warm and welcoming environment for users. Built at a time when washing facilities were not widely available in private apartments, these facilities are nevertheless still widely used today, with an estimated 2500 people using this service each week.Built between the eras of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, the building has echos of both. Ceramic tiles display the coat of arms of the city of Paris, whilst the roof has a gently curving arch of reinforced concrete. The brickwork is a combination of a lighter golden brick incorporated into a checkerboard with warmer red bricks. Address: 42 Rue Oberkampf, 75011Architect: UnknownYear...

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The Palais des Thermes

The Palais de Thermes de Cluny is the oldest building at least partially built from brick in Paris and one of the few remaining structures from the settlement of Lutèce or Lutetia. Originating in the 2nd or 3rd century BC when the Romans occupied the site, it housed baths, a frigdarium and a gymnasium. The building was open to all members of the public and was an area where people socialised. It is believed that this structure, like many other such Roman baths, contained an exceptional display of mosaics, but the only thing visible today after centuries of attacks and misuse are the red veins of Roman brickwork. The Romans were the first to truly popularise the use of brick in their structures, using a longer and narrower brick than other civilisations,...

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The Hôpital St Louis

The Hôpital St Loius was built at the beginning of the 17th century in a similar style to the much better known Place des Vosges. It was built just outside the ancient city walls as it was designed to keep victims of infectious diseases away from other inhabitants of Paris. It was Henri IV who ordered the construction of the hospital, but he was assasinated by Ravaillac before the edifice was finished, and it was finally opened in 1618 during an outbreak of the plague. Its necessity was shown by the fact that it had to put up to six patients in the same bed! For the next two centuries it dealt with many outbreaks of infectious diseases, slowly building up world-renown in the field of Dermatology. This has led to another curiousity in the hospital,...

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Begin at the Beginning

There is something intrinsically comforting about the impeccably designed, immensely tactile brick. Thousands of years of experience have made them hand-sized, enabling a builder to grasp one in one hand and still have another hand free to apply the trowel of cement. The metallic scrape of the trowel on the brick’s surface, then the chink of one brick being placed on top of another is an urban symphony. In the hand they offer a satisfying, not too heavy weight, a scratchy roughness and a warm smell of burnt-pink dustiness. They are one of man’s ultimate creations, so much so that today they look and feel like an extension of nature.It is these sounds, smells and sensations that make me passionate about the material. They first appeared somewhere...

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