Paul Chemetov: a house for every one

The Cité de l'Architecture has concentrated on a very particular aspect of the work of Paul Chemetov, in the creation of a deliberately Spartan exhibition with a precise and political intention: to offer an important filter for re-evaluating the whole of the French architect's work, including the most spectacular architecture and urban planning, without celebrating its strong and recognisable urban symbols. The exhibition therefore omits the projects by the great constructor of the Mitterand era — such as the Finance Ministry, in collaboration with Borja Huidobro — to skilfully reclaim some "humble" projects for single-family houses or ateliers, an important moment for understanding the architect and his connections to the rhetorical aspect of French urbanism.

The result is a workshop, where the ethical drive that Chemetov seemed to have worked with to liberate the city from its "second Empire" symmetry is rediscovered. This occurs via simple gestures that remove the boredom of living in standard urban design. In all his large-scale Parisian projects, Chemetov removes the daguerreotype-like vision of the city as a dull carbon copy of an object simply placed next to the river.

A specialist in large areas of inner city, Chemetov also signed the indelible and ironically Chirac-esque appeal of the Forum des Halles that, worn out from thirty years of use, will undergo renovation soon. Paul Chemetov is certainly a master when it comes to hiding critical contents with poetic but very radical operations.

This exhibition is sly, effective in the way it emerges directly from a souvenir of childhood: the illustrated book by his father (the painter Chem) much-loved by the architect, from which it borrows the title Chacun sa maison ["A house for every one"]. It was a successful publication for Père Castor editions, a real commercial success in its time and has now been republished by Flammarion for the occasion.

Like the exhibition, the book is delightful in the way it offers journeys filled with narrative and content. In the logics of the game, the spectator — just like the children — seems to have to reconstruct the situations, characters and stories that led to the realisation of the projects: commissions, people and budgets; challenges and mishaps to reconstruct the life of the inhabitants involved in the evolution of the architectural history of a building that comes to be realised, or not. Thus, the five-storey Parisian building — the old grey house with turreted skylights where the young Jean lives — bears a great deal of resemblance to the refurbished building that after many setbacks during works, in 1967 became the house in rue de l'Epée-de-bois.

On display we find all the wonder of an autobiographical story that corresponds to Chemetov's own dream for living and contributes to the formation of an ethical and creative process. The architect seems to want to take up the challenge proposing a very fine collection of designs, for which he has put a great deal of effort into reconstructing the genealogy, with notes, mementoes, photographs and other truly minimal material.

This exhibition of traditional models, presented the ancient way on wooden work tables, certainly aims to overturn the logics of the glamorous contemporary façade. It is a criticism of popular building, which Chemetov is an expert in, and seeks to extract from the ideology of the budget — and the horror today of the destruction of that which is judged to be badly built but that could still function (see the example of Courcouronnes). In the end, even in this exhibition, Chemetov opposes with wit the poetic living of certain works of architecture, that continue to hide the horrors and errors of a great deal of suburban planning today.

Projects like the Maison Phénix, a forward-thinking study of a prefabricated structure from the American industry erected in front of the Gare de Saint Lazare in the 1990s, almost an anti-personalised concept that, retrospectively, can already be read as a criticism of the architecture-image made by superstars and royalties. Yet the idea of living and building that sticks after visiting this exhibition is one of stories and projects in their interpretative form. They speak of the living and magic of houses which, at the concept stage, also evoke the life plan of their inhabitants and their future destiny.

Maison Schalit is an example of Paul Cheletov's method, one that combines intimacy and rigour. Built at Meudon and conceived during the "laboratory" years of the sixties student movements, it embodies the combinatory play of constructions, the principle of necessity of the bidonville of the metropolis. The construction and salvaged material short-circuits brutality and elegance in the building. Here brick and metal beam appear as a critical text erected against the aesthetics of the suburban villa. Another challenge: to better demonstrate the logic of an outdated product, first cultural and then commercial. When the house was completed and inhabited, the neighbours asked the architect when the scaffolding would be removed. For Chemetov this was a singular and real compliment. Along the whole route of the exhibition, his wonderful notes work like notes by a therapist that through his analysis seeks to reconcile the figure of the architect with the public. And in the content, expresses the search for a shared desire, that of building an awareness of dwelling. Ivo Bonacorsi