Rue Franklin Apartments (1902)

Rue Franklin Apartments by Perret are considered to be the first reinforced concrete building in the history of Architecture.

Reinforced-concrete apartment building at 25 Rue Benjamin Franklin, Paris (1903)

image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Perret#/media/File:Paris_16_(25437741212).jpg

auguste perret, Rue franklin apartment building, paris 1903-1904.

: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/5e8532e5-d724-4146-b744-ab00392be924 by seier+seier


The building of Franklin Street is the perfect type of modern luxury building: elevator, cellar, electricity, bathroom, toilet, telephone, caretaker, and rooms for the domestics. The building was moreover considered from the beginning for its comfort and its modernity. It adopts all the possibilities for modern building and the use of new materials. The reinforced concrete skeleton and the cover of ceramic floral decorations assure the elegance and the lightness of the building. With this building, Perret wanted to achieve efficiency, quality, and a good arrangement of spaces.

Main Info

Architect: Auguste Perret                       Location:  Paris, France

Construction period: 1902 to 1904       Style: Early Art Deco

Building: apartment block

The Skeleton 

Rue franklin apartment building, paris 1903-1904

image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/8499ec92-3613-423a-8ddb-03d9bf342878 by seier+seier

While combining his modern conception of architecture and the use of a new constructive method as well as state-of-the-art materials, Auguste Perret succeeds in realizing a building with a visible skeleton. It consists of posts arranged in the extremities of the segments which divide up the internal space. Walls are not any more carriers as in the traditional constructions.

The Plan

Apartment plan

image source: http://www.arth.upenn.edu/spr01/282/w4c1i01.htm

This skeleton allows for every floor to have an arrangement of possible partitions of rooms, according to the desires of the inhabitants. Each floor is organized with the main and service stairs to the rear (each with its elevator), the kitchen to one side, and the principal rooms to the front. These last are divided up from left to right into rooms assigned to smoking, dining, living, sleeping, and reception.

Auguste-Perret-1925. French architect (1874 –1954) 

image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/3907fb78-c097-492b-894d-0af9d9ad6ed1

Info source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Perret

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