Blog Six: Pierre Chareau’s bathrooms in the Maison de Verre
How do Chareau’s particularly ingenious design strategies impact upon the users of the space?
It is instructive to look at what people who have had the privilege of visiting the Maison de Verre have say about their experience. One recurring theme is that in the house as a whole, Chareau’s strategies allow the space to be shared by the occupants in a very sophisticated way. Commentators say that the house offers a great balance between solitude and companionship. (Edwards J. and Gjertson G. 33) The absence of fixed walls means that “voices too travel through the rooms, so that you are always faintly aware of the presence of the other.” (Radulescu)
The word choreography has been used in describing how the space functions, suggesting that the inhabitants of the house interact with each other in a type of dance. Chareau has achieved these effects by the layout and particularly the movable screens.
“The bathroom floor is raised in certain areas so that as we crossed it, we could catch occasional glimpses of each other before suddenly dropping back out of view ….. A pair of perforated metal panels that divide the shower and bath can swing open, enabling us to chat with each other as we bathed. When they were closed, you could see the outline of a human silhouette moving behind the screen. It was the same dance we had performed around the central salon, now brought to its most intimate scale. “ (Radulescu)
Frampton has suggested that the experience of being in the house can be likened to Duchamp’s The Large Glass (The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors).
Duchamp – The Large Glass
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Duchamp_LargeGlass.jpg
I can see the idea of glass, separate male and female zones and screens in perpetual motion but the link to the Maison de Verre doesn’t seem appropriate to me as this artwork is often described as depicting perpetual sexual frustration between the bride and her bachelors, who are permanently separated by a panel. On the contrary many visitors to the Maison de Verre have drawn attention to the eroticism of the experience.
“The intimacy of the spaces permits the bathroom screens to be made of semi-transparent perforated metal, which veils but does not fully conceal the nude body; rather, they enhance the body’s seductive power. In the absence of the live body the screens take on the appearance of cladding (i.e. clothing) to the body metaphors presented by the sanitary appliances.” (Wigglesworth, 278)
Again, this effect is achieved through the screens and the semi-transparent material they are made of.
How do these design strategies challenge and contest the conventional segregation of bathing spaces within the home? (consider aspects such as placement, materials, lighting, sound transmission, thresholds)
The bathrooms are on the top floor. There are a lot of them: a guest bathroom, a main bathroom as well as mini bathrooms within each of the two other bedrooms. So far as I can see it from the plans, there is no door directly into the main bedroom without passing through the bathroom first. This is unconventional and has the effect of “allying the place of sexual acts with the requirements of hygiene. “ (Wigglesworth 278) The placement of the guest bathroom is unusual because guests would have to walk to the end of a corridor past all the family bedrooms to get to it. It is also surprising that it wasn’t put on the floor below in the public part of the house.
An axonometric drawing showing the layout of the bedrooms and bathrooms
Image Source: http://richviewer.blogspot.com/2009/03/axonometric-section.html
It is unconventional to have separate bathrooms for every member of the household. Social relationships between family members are altered by this arrangement as there is no need to share bathroom space and unclean items (like dirty towels and personal products) are kept entirely separate. However, it was possible for Mr and Mrs Dalsace to see each other washing, a feature that the couple may have found erotic.
Given the space devoted to bathrooms, there is a very heavy emphasis on hygiene and cleanliness in the house. Wigglesworth has pointed out that “a different appliance (bath, shower, bidet, basin) deals selectively with the cleansing of different parts of the body, separating waste products in a hierarchy of different orders of dirt. “ (Wiggleworths 278). I think this would have been unusual at the time. Frampton has pointed out that there are more bidets in the bathroom than are strictly necessary and that their provision is “symbolic”.
The materials used in the bathrooms were perforated metal, glass walls and duralumin. As Wigglesworth puts it “The surfaces are shiny, reflective, permanently bright, ageless (278)”. The plumbing is also exposed and it is possible to rotate the bidets.
Swiveling bidet and cupboard in the master bathroom
Image Source: Edwards and Gjretson
Sound transmission of “personal noises” is often something that designers
go to great lengths to avoid (including use of sound proof GIB board and separate rooms for the toilet). In the Maison de Verre bathroom set-up it was be possible for sounds to be transmitted. This has its obvious down-side as well as an upside in that Mr and Mrs Dalsace were able to converse with each other while using the facilities.
The walls of this bathroom are not fixed. They are flexible and it is possible to re-arrange them in different ways.
Bath screens between Mme Dalsace’s bathtub and her husband’s showering area.
Image Source: Edwards and Gjretson
In a more contemporary context, Nicholas Frei has suggested in the bathroom of the future walls could be eliminated entirely from the apartment and replaced with curtains and that the bathroom functions could be dispersed throughout the apartment. (Frei, 35) The transmission of smells that arises from this set-up is normally another feature that designers go to some lengths to avoid and so this is another aspect of unconventionality.
What do you imaging bathing in these spaces would be like?
My first response is to think that it would be quite unpleasant to use these bathrooms. The materials: steel, aluminum and glass seem cold and unyielding and the prospect of negotiating shifting metal panels while naked, seems distinctly unappealing. This response could be a consequence of the fact that most of the photos you see are black and white, which exacerbates the feeling of coldness.
I note that this is not the response from those who have actually visited the house:
“As the critic Julien Lepage says: There is nothing mechanistic about this house. None of the equipment is menacing. It is all treated with such delicacy and its function is so well revealed that all these pieces are more like organs than instruments. “(Edwards, J and Gjertson, G. 35)
“This focus on the interior awakens one’s sensual appreciation of the visual, tactile, and aural qualities of the materials: textured wire glass, warm fir cabinets, soft, hazy aluminum perforated panels, and velvety steel. The surfaces of the spaces are, in fact, warm and comfortable. These surfaces do more than function; they perform in response to human activity and touch.” (Edwards J. and Gjertson. G. 33)
Works Cited
Edwards, M. and Gjertson, W. “La Maison de Verre: Negotiating a Modern Domesticity” Journal of Interior Design Sept 2008, Vol. 34 Issue 1, p15-37 Web 3rd November 2011
Frampton K. “Maison de Verre” in (Re) Reading Perspecta Edited by Stern, R. Plattus, A. Deamer, P. The MIT Press Cambridge Massachusetts 2004 Print
Frei, Nicholas “Bathroom Smear Test” in Hebel, D (editor) Bathroom Unplugged: Architecture and Intimacy Birkhauser Berlin 2005 Print
Radulescu Paris – la Maison de Verre
http://updateslive.blogspot.com/2007/08/paris-la-maison-de-verre.html Web. 3rd November
Taylor, Bryan Brace Pierre Chareau Designer and Architect Taschen 1992 Print
Vellay, Dominique and François Halard La Maison de Verre : Pierre Chareau's Modernist Masterwork London Thames and Hudson 2007 Print
Wigglesworth, Sarah “Maison de Verre: sections through an in-vitro conception” The Journal of Architecture Volume 3 Autumn 1998 page 263-286 Web 3rd November 2011
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