19 - Résidence Point-du-Jou

19 - Résidence Point-du-Jour - Fernand Pouillon - 1957

Rue du Point du Jour, Paris

Fernand Pouillon (France 1912-1986) is a French architect and urban planner. He was one of the great builders of the reconstruction after the Second World War. His achievements are characterized by an insertion in the site, a balance of masses born of harmonic proportions, noble materials, including in social housing, and the collaboration of craftsmen. Point-du-Jour was going to be his ideal realisation, but he went to prison for financial fraud during the construction. Soon after his sentence of three years, he left for Algeria, where he designed many public buildings.

This complex brings more than 2,000 housing units located on the banks of the Seine on a complex plot of land. From the urban scale to that of the building, the forms result from a varied assembly of several simple basic modules. The dwellings are all open to the outside, with bay windows letting in light. The materials are all similar: concrete is used for the internal structure and stapled stone for the exterior decoration. The dwellings are organized around a collective space. Prefabricated squared panels decorate the facades, and the monumentality of the architecture reminds us of the order of the colossal (the 2nd and 3rd floors are set back from the first one so the building seems less imposing). The artifices of optical illusion are skilfully used to avoid making this densely packed residence oppressive: the glass reflects the sky, the elongated structure emphasizes the horizontal vanishing lines, the different heights let the sun shine in, and the masses are weighted for a pleasant scale. Today, the complex is aging well and the apartments have increased in value.

The high density of the operation is compensated by the important presence of vegetated exterior spaces, and the operating mode allows for a very high quality and efficiency - including financial - to be achieved. This ensemble is emblematic of Pouillon’s work, who believed that “The more modest the housing, the more monumental the architecture must be”. Point-du-Jour was awarded the “Heritage of the 20th Century” label in 2008. 104