Le Havre
Augusztus végén egy kis prezentációt tartottam Le Havre-ról, ahol május végén voltam pár napig. Jól sikerült út volt, a város egészen elképesztő. Lelkesen meséltem róla a kedvenc könyvesboltom francia tulajdonosának, aki megkért, tarstak róla egy nyilvános kiselőadást.
Fogalmam sem volt, kikhez fogok beszélni, csak abban voltam biztos, hogy nem építészekhez. Íme a prezentáció anyaga, illetve a jegyzeteim ép mondatokká alakítva, angolul, erősen redukált képanyaggal.
I would like to thank Ian for listening to my enthusiastic account of my trip to Le Havre and inviting me to share it with you, thus launching the architecture-series at Arkadia.
Why did I go to Le Havre?
I believe that there are places which get burnt into our mind somehow. Maybe we don’t even know the exact reason why, but the place is there inside of us and one day we find ourselves walking in that particular place.
Le Havre was a place like that to me. Was it because of my the fascination with port citites, or was it because of the admiration towards the architecture of the Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer? Maybe. Also, I’ve always been interested for planned cities, to study how they were born, why they succed or why they fail.
So I went to Le Havre and I found a welcoming small city which has very ambitiously begun to exploit its potentials, and I bet in the next years it will get a lot of attention and it will become an important destination for the „cultural traveller.” The visit to the city also gave me many things worth studying further. Now I am amased what a big world is packed into this small city. We find the whole world in every little thing if you ’re looking at them with open eyes and curiosity.
Le Havre was founded 1517 by the French king Francois I on the estuary of the Seine, to replace the small ports of Harfleur and Honfleur, which were silting up. Until the beginning of the 18th century, Le Havre was mainly a naval port, but then trade gradually gained importance. The era of the Industrial Revolution brought the golden age to the city: the port flourished. It has always been an important port of the trade with the Americas, and the begining of the 20th century and the years between the world wars brought the great transatlantic steamliners to the city.
The worldfamous art deco liner, Normandie sailed off for her maiden voyage from Le Havre in May 1935, and was crossing the ocean between Le Havre and New York until 1939. Under the growing political and economical tensions of the ’30s, the liners still meant glamour, champagne, movie stars, a promise for a new beginning. It must have felt special to be a resident of Le Havre and to watch those ships and their passengers every day.
The WW II put an halt to the civil commerce and transport. The strategic Le Havre was under German control from June 1940. The operations of the D-Day in June 1944 took place to the South of Le Havre, but it took 3 more months, after already Paris was liberated, for the Allies to turn to Le Havre. In that devastating battle for the srategic town the Allied carpetbombed the city, while the Germans took there share by exploding the port behind them. 5000 were killed, 80000 were left homeless, the center of the city was destroyed totally.
The reconstruction of the city started immediatly after the war, and about the why and how of the reconstruction I will talk later.
There must be several reasons for the fact, that, inspite the steady growth of the city in the 30 glorious years of post-war France, Le Havre did not gain its shine back. Of course, the tradition of the ocean liners gradually shifted from the main transportation means between Europe and the Americas to a time-absorving holiday for those who could afford it. But also the outcome of the reconstruction must have had an effect for the faded image of Le Havre. Up until the millenium it was considered as a grey town on the English Channel, which the passengers of the ferries hurriedly left.
Only after 2000 did the city lay down its ambitious plans for rewoking its fame. Mostly with EU-fundings, they started to modernize the industrial port, and boosted city-rehabilitation projects, with great emphasis on sustainable developement. After 60 years, the area of the reconstructed city center was listed as world heritage, but more importantly, the trend of gaining the areas of unused, deteriorated industrial ports for public use, making them the most desirable parts of their cities, has arrived in Le Havre. This trend started some two decades ago and with it, a new area of architecture has arised: waterfront architecture. To mention some other cities with great harbour-rehabailitaion projects, there is Barcelona, London, Hamburg or of course our own Helsinki. And cities closer to the scale of Le Havre: Bremerhaven, Rostock, Gdansk.
The port areas adjacent to the city are now undergoing vast changes. As Le Havre did before, so also now it won great architects to work on the image of the city.
Here are the three important architects shaping Le Havre:
Auguste Perret 1874-1954 Oscar Niemeyer, 1907- Jean Nouvel, 1945-
After the war, the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism, which coordinated the planning and the financing of the reconstruction projects, found itself mediating between two different approaches of reconstruction: the more functional one following the theses of the Athens Charter published in 1943 (separate functional zoning of the cities, hygenity, broad green spaces), and the full reconstruction of the old cities.
In Le Havre, the planning of the reconstruction was given to the office of Auguste Perret in 1945. His studio went ahead the task already in 1944, founding the Atelier of the Reconstruction of Le Havre, and contacting the Ministry. Also, he represented a kind of middle way between the two principles of reconstruction. (Actually he only followed his very own principles, which was understood as the middle way.)
Perret was then already over 70, behind him a rich and significant career. As important a role he had in the developement of the international modernism, especially in the personal growth of Le Corbusier, who was 13 years younger then him, as rigidly he held onto his neo-classisicts ideas throughout his life, as rigidly he rejected the ideas of the modernists movement.
The reconstruction of Le havre can be seen as a summary of his life’s work, and even here he wasn’t able to, wasn’t willing to develop something new. He striclty adapted his ideas to the task - of course this was for the best of the economical situation. So there are a lot of issues, tensions between generations, anxieties, concerning the outcome, and maybe exactly those make the city interesting.
At the beginning of his career, he had a multi-disciplined firm with his brother, offering besides planning, also structural planning, construction consulting and even construction services to their clients. It was already then, when his devotion to concrete, to the beauty and clarity of structure begun.
One of his apartment houses in Paris (23 Rue Franklin, 1903-04) is celebrated as the first apartement house with a free-flowing plan. For this Perret felt misunderstood, for his goal was only to optimize the possibilities of the structure and the requierements of the program, and then leaving the structure to show. It was only a natural outcome of his planning methods, that there were no loadbearing walls, only pilars in the middle section of the apartments.
It’s easy to see how his works inspired the younger generation, who then manifested the idea of the free-flowing plan.
What Perret actually had in common with the modernists, was the distaste for ornaments. (He found modernity, the „less” in the classical building of Greek temples.)
He was said to be a desciplined man, who firmly believed in his ideas and evoke honour whenever he was present.
He worked with the same methods on all the building types, and on every location. He used the same methods on the city plan, as on buildings. The apartement houses in Le Havre are based on a 6.24 m module, which was then the optimal spam of a concrete beam. Actually, the whole city is based on this module. Perret didn’t believe in the distinction between architecture and urbanism. According to his beliefs, which come also from his love of mathematics, the city sort of grows out of the module of the architecture and only so will the outcame be harmonious and right. He also believed in the most humble fulfillment of the program, to be „banal”, because only that will stand the test time. You should build in a way, as if your building would’ve always stood there.
The layout of the reconstruction followed to some extent the old structure of the city. The main square, the City hall gardens are located at the same spot, where the old town hall has stood. Three avenues meet here, two of which are essential elements in the Perret-design.
The Paris Avenue leads to the South, towards the ferry terminal, and the industrial port. This avenue is a true urban avenue, arcades on both sides, the first floors with mezzanines hosting all kinds of small businesses, shops. The avenue Foch leads to the West towards the beach, and it is an avenue for strolling, wide green lanes and wide pedestrian lanes, under the shade of the trees. The Avenue ends with the Ocean Port, a pair of higher apartement buildings welcoming the sea in the city.
The modularity in Perret’s work, the stadardization suited the economic situation of the reconstruction perfectly well. The modular apartements of the reconstruction were felxible, and they were fitted with all the newest household technology of the after-war years, they were a model for modern and healthy living.
I was thinking, what is it that makes these monotonous and even slightly frightening facades of the apartement houses still very human in a way. I thought of the use of French windows. Later I found out, that a lot of years before, in 1923, Perret had a big debate with Le Corbusier about the windows as such. Perret rejected the horizontal strip windows of the modernists, and insisted on the deep cultural significance of the vertical window. The vertical window is like the upright human being. As I was reading about this, I realized, that I think I know how it feels to open a French window, altough I think I have never actually opened one! I walk up to the window, grab both handles of both side panes, and open up the window with a motion of my arms, opening my arms as if I was going to embrace someone! According to Perret, the French window rather opens up the interior towards the outside world, and as it is a window to the world, the inhabitant can freely close or open it. On the contrary, the horizontal strip window brings the world constantly into the interior, and Perret found this too overwhelming. (On the other hand, the horizontal window brings light more sufficiently to the interior. and it has has also a significant antropomorphological justification, thus the eye scans horizontally.)
Perret's own apartement,
1929-32
Le Corbusier, Villa Savoy, 1929
There is only one building which rises above the strong horizontality of the reconstructed Le Havre, that is the church of St Joseph. Its shape and of course its location resembles a light house. It is a curious curch that you could call brutal, ugly, even frightening. But the inside reveals a warm space bathed in light, actually it is a lighthouse that works inside out. 4 groups of concrete pilars hold up the central tower, which is hollow, and is fitted with thousands of stained glass plates, darker on the lower parts, and fading toward the top, which gives the effect of an endless space above you. It is quite moving, to stand beneath that tower.
It is the most striking to get close to the material of the building, in the case of this seemingly frightening church. Perret used two different finishes on the concrete besides of leaving it intact after the formwork was taken off: bush-hammering or washing, thus exposing the aggregate. Both finishes give a very tactile surface, that are good to touch. (Even if it gave me some disturbing associations.)
The reconstruction of Le Havre was mostly critisized because of its monotonity, being too overwhelming, because of using the same language in all types of buildings. The reconstruction apartements have always been appreciated, altough the social structure of their inhabitants was not like it was planned for. Even if the construction was fast, it took several years before the first apartement blocks were ready. By that time most of the families left homeless did establish already a solution for their needs. High procentage of the apartements were sold, not rented, and the inhabitants haven’t been changing until the recent generation change.
I am not sure if Perret has realized his theory „build as if your building had always stood there” in Le Havre. But surely the spaces of the city are harmonious. Even if our first reaction is a chill we get, because its monotony, its monochromity evoke unwanted associations, being and moving around the city today doesn’t let such feelings arise.
I guess it is an eternal conflict of the human mind, that the beauty of logic and mathematics so easily evokes our distress.
At the end of the 1960s, a need has arised in Le Havre for a cultural center, that would be separate from the Malraux museum (part of the reconstruction), and a central plot was assigned. Oscar Niemeyer was first commisioned to make plans for the center in 1974. He was then living in exile in Paris (1972-81) and was a protege of the French Communist Party. By that time he already had realized the buildings in Brasília, a city in which the influence of one single architect is so strong, as maybe in no other city in the world. So, it is a curious paralell, he building in the city bearing the very strong mark of an architect too.
Niemeyer by then had already finished also some projects in Europe. The leader of the communists in Le Havre intended to win the financial support of the leftish ministry of cultural affairs for the project by appointing Niemeyer for the job.
The cultural center is called the Volcan, and it has a theatre, a movie theater, galleries, a library. Its base is sunken underground. It has a dramatic contrast to its surroundings, its shape, its bright white color. But at the same time, it has things in common with its environment: as the church is a lighthouse, the volcan is the exhaust pipes of a ship. As its backdrop, it is also made of concrete, celebrating the possibilities of this material, altough in different ways.
Both these architects were/are obsessed by concrete, even if in different aspects. As you can touch the concrete finishes of Perret, so you can see and touch the lines of the framework that has formed the parabolic hyperboloid of the volcan. And an other paralell between the two architects: both are said to be men of the senses, loving good food, loving women.
Today, among the first buildings to be realized along the old docks, is a swimming pool from the French architect, Jean Nouvel. It is a strict gray box fitting into the industrial milieu, which surprises the visitor as he/she steps inside. It is an all white heaven of water and light, without doors. Between the main door and the water pools, you’re not going through any doors…
The new Sea and Sustainable Developement Center called Odyssey 21, which was scheduled to open in 2011, is also Nouvel’s work.
I hope you now know a little more about Le Havre, and I hope you may once visit the city.
During the praparation for
the presentation, I was reading the following material: Karla
Britton's
book of Auguste Perret, and the
websites of the city of Le Havre.
A flickr set of wonderful pictures of the swimming pool here.
- 2009-10-07 22:18:17
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