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Résidence Victor Hugo, Pantin - Paris
Rue Victor Hugo, Avenue Jean Lolive, Rue Delizy
1955 - 1957
In this design Fernand Pouillon conducts the residents from the Avenue Jean-Lolive along an attractive and diverting promenade to the end of the parcel,
covering a distance of 157 meters. The insertion into the landscape is an important concern for the architect. At the entrance to the residential development
is situated a tower-like building. The facade of this tower, overlooking the avenue, is banal - for sure more beautiful than the adjacent buildings existing
at the time - but nothing more. No rupture with the immediate environment and no glorification. The facades of the buildings which develop perpendicular to
the avenue contrast with the tower and have the ambition to be more beautiful, animated by narrow and vigorous bays. This effect is by intention,
considerd to be the invitation to enter. A dense outline, enlivened by light and shadows on the stone, tells the passerby: "the entrance is here."
The central parkway, made of two tree lines, conducts the visitor to the heart of the residence, where is located a central portico, a somewhat distant
signal so far anyway. At first glance we are delighted by the changing lines when walking along the façade of stone and pink marble to the left,
while on the right-hand side we look towards a front where we we do not perceive the end. Even before boredom could take over, there appears in the
distance a beautiful paved square with a circular pool whose center is decorated with a figure whose size could not previously announce its existence.
It is simply the implementation of a very modest scale by the artifice of optical illusions. Artifices which were brought to the highest sophistication
by Lenôtre in the development of the gardens of Versailles, in which Fernand Pouillon loved to promenade and analyse them.