Xavier Arsene-Henry

French architect born in 1919, in favor of the modern movement, it carried out a great number of urban units strongly décriés nowadays.

Biography

Born with Bordeaux, it is wire of polytechnician and the nephew of an ambassador of France in Canada and Japan. It enters to the 3Ecole Nationale Sup3erieure of the fine arts in 1943 the workshop of Georges Gromort and Louis Arretche. It is graduate in 1946 and obtains the Second Large Prix of Rome in 1950.

Influenced by Arretche, but also Marcel Lods and Vladimir Bodiansky, it takes part in CIAM of Le Corbusier starting from 1949 It starts to take part in the construction project of the Grand unit of the Large grounds with Marly-the-King (Yvelines), project implemented by Jean-Jacques Honneger and Marcel Lods, but finally, him and his/her brother gives up this collaboration in 1953.

He is successively named town planner of Quimper, of Charente-Maritime and architect council of the town of Marseilles. In same time, it created the same year with his/her brother, Luc Arsene-Henry (1923 - 1998), a cabinet of architect. He carried out great operations of town planning to Bordeaux, Nimes and in Paris region, in particular with Montereau-Fault-Yonne. The cabinet in addition carries out a great number of works of art: bridges on the the Seine, stoppings. It is estimated that it built ten a thousand of residences.

He taught with the 3Ecole Nationale Sup3erieure of architecture of Paris, as a foreman external as from 1951 then with the teaching unit n°2 and with the National school of the Highways Departments.

His/her son Luc Arsene-Henry Jr (born in 1949) is him even architect and specialized out of industrial and commercial buildings.

Principal achievements

1947 - 1955: monument of the Massacre of Ascq to Villeneuve-in Ascq (Northern)
1948: collaborate in the project of Town hall of Agadir Morocco, with the engineer Vladimir Bodiansky and the architect Marcel Lods
1952: Monastery franciscain Clearness-God with Orsay (the Essonne), first concrete white cement building.
1956 - 1961: industrialized sector and Great unit Wilson, with Rheims: 700 residences with 2 turns (destroyed in 2003) and bars
1958 - 1975: ZUP of Surville with Montereau-Fault-Yonne (Seine-et-Marne), in collaboration with Bernard Schœller, more than 3000 residences, of which in particular an experimental tower integrating the first example of evolutionary residences in France (in the course of partial demolition).
1959 : Stock Exchange of Conflans-Holy-Honorine freighting to (Yvelines)
1960 - 1965: together of dwellings of luxury " Rouvière" 83 boulevard du Redon with Marseilles (6 bars and 1 turn, 2161 residences)
1960 - 1983: ZUP of Valdegour-Pissevin with Nimes (Gard)
1960: Saint-Luc vault with Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine)
1964: Office building 35 rue Paul Vaillant-Couturier with Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine)
1964 - 1968: bridge of the Point-of-day on the Ring road of Paris
1965: dauphine residence with Louveciennes (Yvelines): building and allotment concerted
1966: church of the district of Richardets, with Noisy-the-Large (Seine-Saint-Denis)
1967: Turn AIG with Defense with Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine): 99 meters for 27 stages, old " Aquitaine" turn; or " CB15"
1967 - 1998: District of Bordeaux - Lake: town-planning of a district built on surroundings 1000 hectares of cleansed marshes, it contains all at the same time centres of populations, retail parks and of leisures. It includes/understands, inter alia achievements, of the same architect:

The exhibition site (larger hangar of France, 861 Mr. length, 1973), the golf (1973), together of dwelling Lauzun, etc

1970: Together residential 116 rue Félix Faure in the 15th district of Paris
1984: Residence Minerve (18 stages, 530 apartments) in the district of Defense with Puteaux (Hauts-de-Seine)

criticisms of the realization of Arsene-Henry

Several specialists authors in town planning and contemporary architecture (that one can with difficulty describe as anti-modernistic) nowadays describe the urban achievements of the Arsene-Henry brothers like the prototype of the great units standardized with the extrème and of poor quality:

it is the case of François RENT, who in his Histoire of architecture, volume III, the contemporary time , qualifies Montereau-Surville of " médiocre" (page 321 and notes 1184)
it is the case also of Daniel FINCH, who in his work '' Architecture and modernity '', qualifies Nimes-Pissevin of " drama architectural" (p.30)

Xavier Arsene-Henry besides recognizes and regrets itself in particular the weak integration of these two districts in their city-center (X. ARSENE-HENRY, 1999, pp. 168 and 193-194)

References

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