Today’s Palais d’Iéna, home to the CESE (French Economic, Social and Environmental Council), is a collection of buildings erected between 1937 and 1995 in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
On a triangular plot of land, Auguste Perret designed a palace in exposed concrete with rounded ends, supported by over 100 columns intended to evoke the architecture of ancient Greece.
Palace stories
AIn the run-up to the 1937 Universal Exhibition in Paris, Auguste Perret was offered the creation of a “Musée national des Travaux Publics” as a consolation prize, following the abandonment of a more ambitious project he had submitted for the Chaillot hill.
This palace is set back from the nearby and more prestigious Palais de Chaillot built for the same exhibition (the one surrounding the Trocadero esplanade and facing the Eiffel Tower).
Commissioned in a hurry in 1936, Auguste Perret’s museum could not be completed in time for the World’s Fair.
A first wing only emerged in 1939 along the Avenue d’léna, but the onset of war slowed construction to such an extent that the associated Rotonde was not completed until 1943.
The only 2 parts of the palace built by Auguste Perret, which a few years later were classified as historic monuments, bear witness to his expertise in reinforced concrete, which he used at the same time for the Mobilier National in Paris and for the reconstruction of the city of Le Havre.
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The double suspended staircase, masterpiece of the Palais d’Iéna
An icon of modern architecture, the monumental double staircase in the Salle des Pas Perdus is a marvellous illustration of the art of formwork.
It is bordered and illuminated by three immense glass panels, lined with screens overlooking an inner courtyard.
One of the signature elements of the Palais d’Iéna is its claustras, made up of small V-shaped prefabricated blocks that clad different parts of the building.
They form a veritable lacework of concrete, filtering light and generating a subdued illumination like that of moucharabiehs (see, in another style, the more organic lacework of Rudy Ricciotti’s Mucem in Marseille, France).
The monumental staircase crosses the palace on 3 levels, starting in the basement where it opens onto large, convivial spaces furnished by French designer Pierre Paulin.
At the heart of the rotunda, a glass-ceilinged hemicycle
The 300-seat amphitheatre-shaped conference hall, 25 metres in diameter, in which the CESE sits, is covered by a double dome.
The upper part, invisible from the inside, is made of concrete veil, while the lower part, surmounting the hemicycle, is made of glass paving stones.
In addition to natural light, provided by a row of clerestory panels between the two domes, there is also concealed electric lighting above the glass roof, to maintain the effect of a luminous ceiling at all hours.
The monumental chandelier (not designed by Auguste Perret) was added later, in the center of the dome, to complete the lighting of the room.
The Hypostyle Hall
Measuring 60 m long by 18 m wide and 7 m high, the hypostyle hall features 20 columns in two rows.
The distinctive feature of truncated cone columns is that they are slightly wider at the top than at the bottom, and their function, apart from being aesthetically pleasing, is of course to form the skeleton that supports the ceiling and the upper floor.
The columns feature smooth, carborundum-polished edges, alternating with rougher sections of bushhammered concrete.
The unglazed wall jambs are also made of rough concrete, with smoother edges, as if to imitate certain types of cut stone.
Auguste Perret used this principle to “ennoble” the material, even in less prestigious constructions, such as the entrance halls to his buildings in Le Havre, France.
The ceiling of the hypostyle hall is made of ceruse oak coffers, with glass paste light fixtures in the center.
The “Presidency” staircase
The building’s second grand staircase is located at the end of the hypostyle hall.
Although simpler in form than the monumental double staircase, it remains imposing, and also benefits from large V-shaped cladding panels, which prevent the public from having a direct view of the Eiffel Tower.
As well as leading to the EESC President’s office, the staircase gives access to a succession of administrative offices above the hypostyle hall, and to the 1995 extension (see plan at the start of this article).
The exterior of the Palais d’Iéna
The Palais d’Iéna, as far as the part built by Auguste Perret and his family construction company is concerned, is characterized by colonnades that occupy the interior at regular intervals and encircle the exterior of the building. The unqualified “architect” made no secret of his intention to rival the architecture of the Parthenon, while replacing stone with concrete.
The outer truncated columns are inspired by the shape of palm tree trunks.
While the flared upper section is reminiscent of a capital, the latter, thanks to the concrete, is an integral part of the mass making up each column.
Elaborate formwork had to be designed to transform the round-looking form (actually made up of small, flat sections to facilitate fabrication) into the final rectangular shape.
In the world of Brutalist architecture, this characteristic can be found in the columns of Marcel Breuer’s building at Unesco headquarters in Paris, or in the overall shape of Le Corbusier’s church in Firminy.
As for the rounded main façade overlooking the Place d’Iéna, the V-shaped clerestory bands can be seen at the top, allowing light to pass between the two domes of the rotunda (see the interior of the hemicycle).
Below, the eleven metopes that were originally to be sculpted remained unfinished for over 40 years.
It was only in 1985 that mosaics, designed by artist Martial Raysse, were added to decorate them.
Perret’s raw concrete
Auguste Perret, like some of the Brutalist architects featured on this blog, liked to keep concrete in its rawest form, both inside and out.
For the Musée des Travaux Publics, the future Palais d’Iéna, he even boasted that he didn’t use any plaster!
He refused to correct any formwork defects and patch up the material once it had been demoulded.
But to avoid a certain kind of uniformity, he was careful to alternate between smooth and rough, even allowing himself to use mouchardage, which consists of hammering the concrete after drying to give it relief.
Varying the composition of the stones making up the concrete made the material a little more decorative, and generated subtle variations in color.
A multitude of stones are used to fill the concrete of the Palais d’Iéna, including flint, green porphyry, pink marble, Burgundy stone and Vosges sandstone, not to mention gravel from the nearby Seine.
Today, the Palais d’Iéna stands out as the only Parisian monument built entirely in exposed concrete.
In the spotlight in this blog, discover raw concrete in all its forms with :
- Henri Pottier’s Lyon auditorium.
- Jacques Kalisz’s CND in Pantin (French National Dance Center).
- Auguste Perret’s rebuilt city of Le Havre.
- Oscar Niemeyer’s Volcan in Le Havre.
- Le Corbusier’s church in Firminy.
- Oscar Niemeyer’s Communist Party headquarters in Paris.
- Fluted concrete in Bordeaux.
- Marcel Breuer at Unesco headquarters in Paris.
