Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

La Maison de verre, located at 31 rue Saint-Guillaume in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, is a bold architectural project carried out between 1928 and 1931. Designed by Pierre Chareau, Bernard Bijvoet and ironmaker Louis Dalbet, it was commissioned by Dr.Jean Dalsace, a gynaecologist and communist activist. The building is placed under an 18th-century mansion, preserved because of a non-removable tenant, and is distinguished by its facade entirely glazed in Saint-Gobain glass slabs, worn by stilts.

Inside, the house reveals an apparent metal frame, exposed pipes and furniture designed by Chareau, creating a "mechanical poem". The ground floor housed the Dalsace medical office, while the upper floors served as reception and housing spaces. A rotary panel masked the private stairs during the day, illustrating the functional ingenuity of the project.

In the 1930s, the house became a meeting place for Marxist intellectuals and surrealists, such as Walter Benjamin, Louis Aragon and Pablo Picasso. Benjamin saw an incarnation of Paul Scheerbart's constructivist utopia, where glass symbolized a cultural revolution. Ranked a historic monument in 1992, it was sold in 2005 to an American collector and remains inaccessible to the public.

The Glass House is considered a major work of modernism, influencing architecture by its industrial aesthetics and transparency. Restored between 1985 and 1993 by Bernard Bauchet, she retains her original furniture partially dispersed, as evidenced by an auction in 2021. A documentary from 2004 (Architectures sur Arte series) is dedicated to him.

Its innovative design, mixing concrete, metal and glass, reflects japonizing influences and a search for natural light. The spaces are bounded by movable bulkheads and glass bricks, while materials such as rubber or metal slats break with the residential conventions of the time.

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