Villa Cavrois in Croix is a large modernist mansion built in 1932 by French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for Paul Cavrois, an industrialist from Roubaix active in the textile industry.
Paul Cavrois (1890-1965) was a textile industrialist from northern France who owned modern factories for spinning, weaving and dyeing cotton and wool. In the early 1920s he bought a site located on the hill of Beaumont, in Croix, not far from his factories situated in Roubaix, in order to build a mansion able to receive his family of 7 children and the servants.
Originally the architect and town-planner Jacques Gréber was charged with the project, who suggested a house in the regionalist style, in vogue at that period. Finally Paul Cavrois turned to Robert Mallet-Stevens after he met him in 1925 at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris.The owners gave the architect free rein on the project, and, for the first time in his career, Mallet-Stevens was responsible for the entire work, down to the last details. The villa is conceived by the architect as a total artwork and it represents the outcome of his technical and aesthetic reflections. The villa was inaugurated on 5 July 1932, for the wedding of Geneviève Cavrois, the eldest daughter of the couple Cavrois, after 3 years of work.
At the completion of the work the villa was astonishing for its bravery and modernity, and its style was a total break from that of other neighbouring houses in the suburb of Croix, even those of the same era. Clear guidelines governed the design of the building, which was commissioned in 1929, included: “air, light, work, sports, hygiene, comfort and efficiency”.
The Villa Cavrois is a masterpiece of modern architecture and a unique example in the North of France. The villa is 60 meters long, it has 3800 m² including 1840 m² habitables and 830 m² of terraces and a garden of 17600 m² (originally 5 ha). The Villa Cavrois is a testimony to the modernist vision of the 1920s as it was conceived by designers such as Le Corbusier, Pierre Chareau and the Bauhaus school. Luminosity, hygiene and comfort are the keywords that underlie such buildings. Villa Cavrois illustrates this concept with simplicity and elegance.
The large modern mansion was organized to offer the best possible lifestyle to the nine members of the family and to facilitate the daily work of the household staff. Mallet-Stevens’ work was not limited to the design of the building. He also designed the interior decoration and the gardens which surround the house.
The choice of materials (concrete ceiling, metal, steel, glass, green Swedish marble in the main dining room, yellow Siena marble in the fireplace alcove of the hall-salon, parquets of oak, iroko, zebrawood, Cuban mahogany) and the furniture of the rooms echoed the hierarchy of space: everything was conceived and adapted for use in place. Simplicity and functionality of the furniture prevail in all parts. The luxury of this house does not lie in carved detailing or gilding, it unfolds in the richness of the materials used, such as unadorned marble, metal and wood.
The Villa Cavrois provided for its occupants a large number of amenities especially rare for the time, even in luxury houses. Use of the latest modern technology, especially electricity meant each room was provided with electric lighting, a radio loudspeaker, an electric clock and telephones enabled people to communicate between rooms or with the outside world. The villa was equipped with a modern boiler room and a wine cellar. The water system provided hot and cold water, as well as softened water for cooking and drinking. Lighting was the object of special care. The lighting, both direct and indirect, is very delicate and elegant. In collaboration with the lighting engineer André Salomon, Mallet-Stevens conceived an indirect lighting which fit in the architecture and he has provided most of the rooms of the villa of a lighting device system which direct the light towards the ceiling to obtain an unchanging light closer at the natural one. Hygiene was very important in the conception of the Villa Cavrois, as it is shown by the clinical aspect of the kitchen (metal and white paint) and also by the presence of a swimming pool of 27 metres long and 4 metres depth at the diving boards.
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