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Key figures

Origin and history

The building located at the 15 Square Vergennes in the 15th arrondissement of Paris was designed in 1932 by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for his friend, master glassmaker Louis Barillet. This project, emblematic of Art Deco and modernism, included both stained glass production workshops, offices and private apartments in Barillet. The bold architecture, marked by a northern facade adorned with an imposing vertical window and a large window, illustrates the close collaboration between Barillet and Mallet-Stevens, also visible in other works such as Villa Cavrois or Villa Noailles. The interior spaces, organized on several floors, were dedicated to the various stages of creating stained glass windows, with cutting workshops, crimping, and quality control spaces.

Louis Barillet, whose initial workshop on Alain-Chartier Street became too small in the face of the influx of orders in the Interwar period, wanted a place suitable for the production of civil and religious stained glass. The period, marked by the post-First World War reconstruction and the rise of Art Deco, saw stained glass as a key element of modern architecture. After Barillet's death in 1948, his son Jean took over, but the workshop was transferred around 1960 to 279 rue de Vaugirard, near the square Vergennes. The building, left abandoned after the Thirty Glories, was saved in 2000 by collector Yvon Poullain, who made it a museum until its disappearance in 2011.

Ranked a historic monument since 1993, the building underwent a thorough restoration in the 2000s, preserving its original volumes and materials. Between 2014 and 2016, it housed the Musée Mendjisky-Écoles de Paris, dedicated to artists from the Écoles de Paris, before being acquired in 2018 by Xavier Niel. Today, it hosts Matrix, an innovation institute organizing artistic residences. The public can discover this during European Heritage Days, thus perpetuating its architectural and cultural heritage.

Collection

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