Jacques Couëlle

French architect

Jacques Couëlle (1902–1996) was a French architect, whose work was marked by the movement known as architecture-sculpture.

Biography

Couëlle was a self-taught architect. Uncategorised, he remains on the margins of major movements in architecture and in particular the Modernist movement. His architecture, with its sculptural forms of concrete designed and carved,^[1] evokes the movement of architecture-sculpture born after the war. Couelle was nicknamed "the architect of billionaires".

In 1946, Couëlle founded "the Research Centre of natural structures".

An eccentric character, he was a friend of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. He worked together with his son Savin Jacques Couëlle (1929–2020).

For his artistic merits, Couëlle was awarded the Legion of Honour at the French Academy.

Achievements

Bastide Saint-François (1925–1936) in the Alpes-Maritimes
Villa Goupil in Chevreuse (78)
Village Castellarras-le-Vieux (1955–1963) on the Côte d'Azur
Hotel Cala di Volpe (1962) in Sardinia
The House stones at Louveciennes (1994)^[2]
Villa Super, Cannes

References

^ The versatility of concrete allows for creativity and individualism Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine adopted from an article by George Perkin. Reprinted courtesy of CONCRETE QUARTERLY, Cement and Concrete Association, 52 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW 1, England
^ "Maison " Les pierres levées " | Jacques Couëlle | Louveciennes (78)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-04-01. Retrieved Jul 19, 2022.

Bibliography

Michel Ragon, "Jacques Couëlle,inCimaise, No. 103, August–October 1971.
Luigi Gilbert Couëlle Jacques:architectural brackets, Brussels, Peter Mardaga, 1982.
Luigi Gilbert,Jacques Couëlle: live elsewhere now,the catalog of the exhibition at the Pompidou Center, Paris: Center Georges Pompidou, 1988.
"Jacques Couëlle, Architecture Movement Continuity [fr] (AMC), No. 69, March 1996, p. 18-19.
Frances Arnold, "Jacques Couëlle: houses carved in stone, Architecture Movement Continuity (AMC), No. 77, February 1997, pp. 56–59.
Jacques-Couelle Castellaras-le-Vieux houses landscape a 52-minute documentary by Patricia Civel and Jerome Sadler