PERRET, Auguste

(1874-1954)

   Auguste Perret, the first architect to use reinforced concrete in domestic architecture, was born in Belgium and worked mostly around Paris. Béton armé, or ferro-cement, a concrete threaded with steel, was introduced by François Hennebique for use in industrial buildings in the 1890s, and Auguste Perret and his brother Gustave became the leading contractors of ferro-cement in Paris. Reinforced concrete not only increased the strength of the material, but it also solved the problem of the monolithic joint by integrating the bonding material with the building material rather than bonding the separate pieces together with a weaker adhesive.

   Perret's first project was an eight-story concrete apartment building located in Paris at 25 bis Rue Franklin, built in 1903-1904. This structure has a unique open-plan arrangement, with large interior rooms that anticipate the modernist domestic architecture of the 1920s and even the Ranch style homes of the 1950s. Roof terraces, also very innovative, were added to allow occupants an outdoor space to garden and to enjoy free air off the street. Instead of designing an inner courtyard, as was traditional at the time, Perret created a recessed façade, set back from the street with angles to allow more windows — and therefore more light into the building. The concrete frame is visible on the exterior of the building and mimics wood construction. Because Perret was interested in texture and decorative detailing, the façade was also covered with floral patterns made from the concrete building material rather than attached to the façade. Because of Perret's organic use of concrete, his style has often been described as poetic.

   Perret's Church of Notre Dame du Raincy, built in 1922-1924, was created with a shallow vaulted concrete shell that rests on thin columns. Glass curtain walls are set into thin concrete frames. This building is also one of the earliest examples of the use of exposed ferro-cement, but its style retains historical elements. On the interior, Perret exploits the appearance of a traditional Gothic skeletal structure with concrete instead of masonry. Reinforced concrete ultimately became the primary building material of the 20th century, and architects elected to focus on either its technical or aesthetic applications in the creation of new forms of modernist architecture.

   See also BRUTALISM.