The Maison Coilliot (Coilliot House) is an

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

house located in

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, designed by

Hector Guimard Hector Guimard (, 10 March 1867 – 20 May 1942) was a French architect and designer, and a prominent figure of the Art Nouveau style. He achieved early fame with his design for the Castel Beranger, the first Art Nouveau apartment building i ...

and completed in 1900. It became a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

on 16 March 1977.

History

Louis Coilliot, a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

ceramic entrepreneur, was fond of enamelled lava and wanted to popularise the technique. To do so, Coilliot commissioned Hector Guimard, an architect he had met at the 1897 fair ''La Céramique et tous les arts du feu'', ("Ceramic Arts & Glass Making"), to apply the technique to his house's façade. Coilliot's factory and warehouse were located to the rear of his house, and therefore the façade held a double purpose, both decorating the front of his home and advertising his business.

Description

The Coilliot House is constructed of bricks and cut stone, with decorative elements in

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

and enamelled lava. There is a shop on the ground floor, and apartments make up the rest of the three upper floors. The house has two façades: a street façade aligned with the neighbouring buildings’, and a recessed façade which stands at an angle. The two façades are linked by balconies on the two upper floors. Green tiles of enameled lava flank the street façade, whose

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

is surmounted by a wooden roof. Round the back of the house is a 744 m²-plot on which two buildings that used to be owned by the Coilliot family still stand: the Coilliot company's warehouse, designed by

François Hennebique François Hennebique (26 April 1842 – 7 March 1921) was a French engineer and self-educated builder who patented his pioneering reinforced-concrete construction system in 1892, integrating separate elements of construction, such as the column ...

, and a block of flats the family would let for additional income. The whole lot was built on a skewed plot of land; as such, the block of flats has its own address at 13/17 rue Fabricy. While only the Coilliot House itself is a registered building (including its interior), the block of flats and warehouse also feature Art Nouveau details deemed worthy of preservation. For instance, elements of the apartment block's façade at 13/17 rue Fabricy and its ceramic fireplaces were added by the DRAC to the national heritage register in October 2011. The house is private property and visitors are therefore not allowed in. The house was open to the public only once on 17 September 2000. However, the house's Art Nouveau interior decoration and furniture can be seen in a short clip shot in 1983 and now accessible on the INA website.

Recent developments

In September 2008, the whole lot was to be broken up and sold off piecemeal to different buyers.

References

External links

{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Lille Art Nouveau architecture in France Works by Hector Guimard Houses in France Art Nouveau houses Houses completed in 1900 1900 establishments in France 20th-century architecture in France