The architect Auguste Perret always dreamed of leaving Le Havre aboard one of the great ocean liners, leaving behind the port, the city, France, the continent. Many dreams have started here: those of emigrants to America, of coffee and cotton traders, of fishermen and naval soldiers, of the French and the English who lie close to each other across the Channel. On September 5, 1944, all dreams were put on hold. England destroyed the German occupiers who, since 1940, had turned the city of Le Havre into the largest war harbor on the Atlantic with 40,000 men.
In just a few hours, more than 5,000 people died and 12,500 buildings disappeared under a barrage of bombs - half the city was gone. 80,000 people lost their homes overnight. The French government responded with a radical plan. In 1945, the government commissioned architect Auguste Perret to quickly rebuild the city of Le Havre according to a master plan. On 130 hectares, housing was to be created for 60,000 people. Facing a massive pile of rubble and a shortage of building materials, Auguste Perret turned necessity into a virtue and processed the rubble into concrete surfaces that displayed almost picturesque qualities.
Rough or smooth, colored, waxed, molded, adorned with ornaments, quotes of Greek columns, or French classical elements - Auguste Perret created something entirely new. "My concrete is more beautiful than stone, surpassing the beauty of the noblest building materials." The new city was to be humane, open, airy, and bright.
Light, air, electricity, and running water for all. Social and modern in the spirit of Le Corbusier. Auguste Perret, who died in 1954, could not see his complete masterpiece. And the discussions that his radical architecture of Le Havre provoked: "The city has no soul anymore," cried the critics, talking about a second destruction. Auguste Perret remained firm in his convictions, as solid as concrete: "It has its own poetry."
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Chapters
▷ 00:00 - Intro
▷ 00:23 - Le Havre - The Poetics of Concrete, France
▷ 14:32 - Credits
#documentary #unesco #treasuresoftheworld #heritageofmankind #lehavre #france
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