La Maison de Verre
Pierre Chareau's Modernist Masterwork
Dominique Vellay
Photographs by François Halard
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‘Among the most revered relics of early Modernist architecture … beautiful photographs …
a delight’ | | – The World of Interiors |
The Maison de Verre (literally ‘House of Glass’) is a modernist masterpiece that almost nobody has ever seen. Here, for the first time, is its inside story.
In 1927 Annie and Jean Dalsace acquired an 18th-century town house in the centre of Paris and commissioned their friend, the architect and designer Pierre Chareau, to turn it into a modern dwelling – a very modern dwelling.
What he did was unprecedented. He replaced the walls with translucent glass bricks, installed remotely controlled windows, divided the interior by perforated metal screens that rotate or slide on curved rails, built balconies and open-topped staircases to help display the unique collection of furniture designed by the architect, some covered with tapestry by the artist Jean Lurçat, and works of art collected by the modern-spirited Annie Dalsace.
The text is by Dominique Vellay, granddaughter of the original clients, who has known the house since her childhood, and makes us experience it as if at first hand. The house is recorded by the internationally renowned photographer François Halard. The combination of personal reminiscence and spectacular images makes this a truly rare publishing event.
Dominique Vellay lives in Paris. She is a journalist and designer, and has created costumes for films. She is the granddaughter of Annie and Jean Dalsace, who commissioned the house, and later lived there herself.
François Halard is a photographer and creative artist who lives and works in New York. He regularly contributes to Vogue, Vanity Fair, House & Garden, The World of Interiors, and he has also published several books of photography.
Also of interest:
The Invention of Chic: Thérèse Bonney and Paris Moderne
Glass House: Buildings for Open Living |
|  |  | | | | ISBN 050051304X | | ISBN-13 978-0500513040 | | | | 30.5 x 24.3 cm | | Hardback | | 160pp | | With 83 illustrations in colour and duotone, and 3 plans | | First published 2007 | | | | £36.00 | | | |  | | | | 
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