Bureaux d’Etudes Henri Chomette

Architecture firm, France and West Africa
The Bureaux d’Etudes Henri Chomette were architectural firms created in 1949 by
Henri Chomette, a French-born architect who established himself in Africa ten years
before the independence achievements.
Active in Africa from 1949 until 1993 and concentrated in Francophone West Africa
(Senegal, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Benin, and Togo) and central Africa (Cameroon and
Gabon), the Bureaux d’Etudes Henri Chomette in 50 years gained a sustained reputation
based on the contribution of African architects, engineers, craftsmen, and artists in the
building of modern African states.
Born in Saint-Etienne (a city near Lyon), Henri Chomette (1921–95) developed early a
passion for architecture. A student of Tony Garnier in Lyon (1941–45), Othello
Zavaronni, and Gustave Perret at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1945–46), Chomette
earned his degree in architecture in 1946. An admirer of Le Corbusier and intern in his
atelier de la rue de Sèvres 35 in Paris, Chomette rapidly gained recognition as a major
architect for the Reconstruction period after World War II throughout his practice in
Paris, Le Havre, and Lille. In France, the difficult period of Reconstruction with
“normalized architecture” and the takeover of geometers and engineers in the
architectural project limited architects’ initiative, creativity, and control over their
projects for public buildings.
In 1948 Chomette won an international architectural competition for Haile Selassie’s
Imperial Palace in Ethiopia. The competition, organized by the International Association
of Architects (UIA) in Paris, gave Chomette the opportunity to access another continent
with major potentiality in terms of urban planning, architecture, and project management.
Although never built, the Imperial Palace in Addis-Ababa nevertheless gave Chomette an
official entrance to Ethiopia and to the African continent. In Ethiopia Chomette was
commissioned for public buildings such as theaters, housing projects, the State Bank of
Ethiopia (1949–53), and the Headquarters of the Organization of African Unity (1963).
Appointed major urban planner, he also developed urban grids (1953) for the city of
Addis-Ababa. He then moved to West Africa, where he established and managed
architectural firms for more than 45 years.
As a liberal private-sector architect unlike his contemporaries (who were primarily
salaried-employees paid by the French government and working temporarily in Africa),
Chomette depended entirely on public and private commissions to manage his firms and
pay his collaborators. Architectural firms connected to the private sector, the Bureaux
d’Etudes Henri Chomette represented a body of professionals from architects to
economists, from draftsmen to craftsmen, who autonomously managed the totality of the
projects in any country in which they practiced.
Another fact differentiated architects working for the Bureaux d’Etudes Henri
Chomette from their peers: their originality in reflecting and respecting African cultures,
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architectural patrimony, and environment in all steps of the projects, from beginning to
finalization. In opposition to many practitioners of the time, who merely transplanted
European architectural epitomes derived from the International Style and from all types
of revivals (including classical, Normand, and Provençal), Chomette and his colleagues
intensively produced both a local and a modern architecture considering cultures and
their environment. In their quest for authenticity through simplicity, all partners of the
Bureaux d’Etudes Henri Chomette clearly understood that modern architecture in Africa
needed use technology in order to serve social values and to suit popular needs.
Romanticized imagery about giant thatch-roofed cabins in the middle of a modern
city, as well as out-of-place urban-planning theories derived from “masters” such as Le
Corbusier were not apropos in the architectural repertoire and agenda of Chomette’s
firms. The latter offered an African alternative based on society, economy, and
technology during transitional periods preceding and following the independence
processes.
Numerous projects in the heart of capitals such as Dakar, Abidjan, Niamey, Lome, and
Cotonou, and in secondary cities are attributed to the Bureaux d’Etudes Henri Chomette.
Their activity included urban planning, housing projects, public administrations,
embassies, hospitals, schools, transportation, hotels, banks, private residences, and
industrial buildings and structures.
The following buildings and structures cover only an infinitesimal portion
of the substantial contributions of the Bureaux d’Etudes Henri Chomette
in African architectural and urban landscapes: State Bank of Ethiopia
(1953), City Hall of Abidjan (1956), National Palace of Benin (1963),
Nour-Al-Hayat Mall (1965) in Abidjan, French Embassy (1966) in
Ouagadougou,
National Saving Bank of Yaounde (1973), Charles de Gaulle Bridge (1967) in Abidjan,
Department of Finances Building (1976) in Abidjan, Ivorian Society of Bank (SIB; 1976)
in Abidjan, the Yopougon and Williamsville dwellings (1975) in Abidjan, and the School
of Librarians (1980) in Dakar.
Similarities can be seen between the Bureaux d’Etudes Henri Chomette’s early works
in the 1950s and the later ones in the 1990s. Some of these concepts greatly influenced
new generations of African architects, such as Abou Koffi, Andree Diop, and Habib
Diene, who acknowledged the pioneering and quintessential work of the Bureaux
d’Etudes Henri Chomette. Major innovations and concepts include the following:
1. Integration of cultural features and
connections referring to the
population concerned in the concept,
design, spatial organization, and
aesthetics of public and private
buildings (the stairway of honor of
the National Palace of Benin in
Cotonou [1963] consisted of several
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royal insignias and seals of Abomey,
former capital of the kingdom of
Dahomey)
2. Use of local materials and modern
techniques
3. Structural transformation of
buildings (for the City Hall of
Abidjan built in 1956, the facade was
composed of revolving wooden
panels for natural ventilation that
later were turned into a revolving
thermal double glazing in the 1970s)
4. Partnership with African
craftsmen, artisans, and artists in all
steps of the projects
5. Integration of Plastic Arts into the
architectural project
One observes the longevity of the Bureaux d’Etudes Henri Chomette through a solid
local structure and independent management, the knowledge and enforcement of all the
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rules connected with building markets throughout West Africa, and the quality of
economically realistic and culturally oriented projects.
The quintessential partnership with local architects, engineers, craftsmen, and artists
reinforced the cultural identity of the architectural work of the Bureaux d’Etudes Henri
Chomette, whose existence and expression served primarily Africans by defining and
designing a modern architecture completely African in its concept and its destination.