René Crevel

Architecture

Work

Architecture
At the age of fourteen, René Crevel, following in his grandfather’s footsteps, began his apprenticeship as an architect. He trained for six years with the best firms in Fécamp, seeing architecture as a "total art". Examples are the villa he built in 1926 in Saint-Cloud in the purest modernist style; in 1930, his avant-garde project of roadside service stations was featured on the cover of the magazine Je Sais tout; in 1937, he drew up the plans for the Palais de l'Artisanat at the International Exhibition of Arts and Techniques. As architect and town planner, he was responsible for the design of the Cité ouvrière des Laboratoires pharmaceutiques Debat in Garches from 1939 to 1956.
He also designed and developed several housing schemes, always favouring The Individualistic House, whatever its style. Until the end of his life, he continued to question the standards of his profession; proposing answers to the new challenges facing artists and architects. Criticizing both the concentration of large housing estates and their soullessness , he called for a rethinking of architecture as a creative discipline serving the needs and well-being of all.