Fernand Pouillon

Fernand Pouillon (14 May 1912 – 24 July 1986) was a French architect, urban planner, building contractor and writer.

Pouillon was one of the most active and influential post-World War II architects and builders in France.

He is remembered for his use of ‘noble’ building materials (especially stone), his seamless integration of all phases of the building process, his inexpensive and efficient building techniques and for his harmonious juxtaposition of forms.

He was a humanist, as well as an architect.

:6 His stated goal was to meet human needs, and especially, those of middle-class and poorer families who faced severe shortages of dignified housing in the post-War period.

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Due to his success, ostentation and his imperious personality, he attracted the jealousy and ill-will of many.

His was a tumultuous life, including prison time and a prison escape.

Some architectural critics say he will be remembered as one of the great French architects of the 20th century.

Pouillon was born 14 May 1912 in Cancon, Lot-et-Garonne, the son of Alexis Pouillon, a civil engineer and entrepreneur.

The family was in this region because Alexis Pouillon was working on a railroad project.

The family moved back to Marseille in 1919 :206.

At the age of 15, Pouillon attended the School of Beaux-Arts of Marseille, where, for one year, he studied drawing, sculpture and architecture (he did not obtain an official architecture degree until the Vichy period).

He then moved to Paris, where he worked on both the construction and commercial sides of the building sector for several years.

At the age of 22, he built his first project (le Palais Albert I) in Aix-en-Provence (at the time, an architecture degree was not required for such a role).

This prolonged, ‘hands-on’ contact with all facets of the construction process differentiated Pouillon from many of his contemporaries, whose approach to architecture was more academic and not focused on construction techniques.

Pouillon fought as a volunteer in the defence of France from 1939 until 16 July 1940 (he was not mobilised because of ill health).

The World War II period of German occupation proved to be a calm one for the building trades in France.

After demobilisation, Pouillon supported his family by doing small projects and by selling antiques.

He also used this lull in construction activity to earn his architectural degree in 1941-42, :206.

Due to damage from the War and rapid economic and population growth, post-War France had a pressing need for housing and infrastructure development.

In Marseille, in particular, a whole quartier in the Old Port (Vieux Port) had been destroyed in 1943.

The initial phases of the reconstruction process were chaotic.

The tensions among the various actors (ministries and other government agencies, competing architects, construction companies and the citizens whose dwellings had been destroyed during the war) reflected differing views on design and aesthetics, cost control and deadlines, as well as professional rivalries.

Pouillon prospered in the face of this challenge - he was an architect who could answer the call to ‘build fast, build cheaply and build well.’ He started with centres for refugees and prisoners of war — projects with very short deadlines.

:47 Another urban renewal project in Marseille — la Tourette, overlooking the Vieux Port (1948-1953) — made Pouillon’s reputation as an architect who could build beautiful buildings and neighbourhoods, rapidly and cheaply.

This project was the platform from which Pouillon’s career was launched.

During this time, Pouillon perfected, along with his partners in the building trades, a construction system based largely on natural materials and close coordination between builders, artisans and artists.

The system involved designs that (in addition to responding to human wants and needs) could be efficiently built using materials and technical components that had been standardised in advance with project suppliers.

He also developed and used a ‘co-ordinating office’ charged with project design and with regulating the activities of the various actors on the construction site.

,, His architecture firm was technically proficient in construction (which was unusual at the time) and capable of managing a project from conception to commercialisation.

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For the reconstruction of the Vieux Port (1949-1953), Pouillon's designs replaced, rather belatedly, those of another, better known architect, André Leconte.

Leconte's designs had originally been selected for the redevelopment project and construction had already begun, but influential people (the Minister of Reconstruction and Urbanism and the Mayor of Marseille) were starting to have doubts about his project.

:13-14 After a struggle, Pouillon and another architect (André Devin) were asked to take over the project under the supervision of August Perret (Perret was named Chief Architect of the reconstruction process because it was thought that his authority and stature would calm tensions).

,, This bitter disagreement between Leconte and Pouillon was to be the first of many that pitted Pouillon against some of the major architects of his time.

In the early- and mid-1950s, Pouillon’s architectural practice was booming, with numerous projects in France, Algeria, and Iran.

His firms employed dozens of architects.

He earned a great deal of money and showed it—at one point, he owned a Bentley, an Alfa Romeo, two chateaux, a house in Alger, a mansion in Paris and a yacht.

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