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,
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 354
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
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 356
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
Entries A–F 357
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.
Gordon Bunshaft
Architect, United States
Gordon Bunshaft was a partner in the New York office of Skidmore, Owings and
Merrill and was an adherent of European modernism as well as one of the leaders of a
generation of architects who made buildings of glass, metal, reinforced concrete, and
travertine familiar in North America. At his best, he created works of highly refined
proportion, efficient function, imaginative construction, and adaptation to sites that were
often difficult. His later works were often bulkier and simplified in geometric form;
nevertheless they include imaginative solutions to complicated problems, humane
consideration for those who work in them, and dramatic boldness. His work encompassed
institutional buildings such as the Beinecke Library (1963) for rare books and
manuscripts at Yale University (a building he thought might potentially be his most
enduring work), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (1974) on the Mall in
Entries A–F 349
Washington, D.C., and the presidential library for Lyndon Johnson in Austin, Texas
(1971). Corporate headquarters built to his designs included Lever House (1952) in New
York City, the Banque Lambert (1965) in Brussels, the American Can Company offices
(1970) in Greenwich, Connecticut, and the National Commercial Bank (1983) in Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia. Buildings for business constituted most of the works for which he became
well known, although he also designed other types of structures. These included the
Venezuelan Pavilion at the World’s Fair of 1939 (held in New York City), the Istanbul
Hilton Hotel (1955) in association with Sedad Eldem, a pristine cubic addition to the
Albright-Knox Museum (1962) in Buffalo, New York, the Philip Morris Cigarette
Manufacturing Plant (1974) in Richmond, Virginia (where garden courts alternate with
work areas), the spectacular Haj Terminal at the Jeddah airport (in collaboration with the
engineer, Fazlur Khan), and a one-story house for himself and his wife in Easthampton,
New York.
Bunshaft was the son of immigrants from Russia and attended public schools in
Buffalo, New York, before receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was there that several of the
younger instructors showed him the new forms, generated in Europe by Le Corbusier,
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, among others. Bunshaft found their work
inspiring, but did not execute mere copies of their works; instead, he adapted European
ideas to the specific circumstances of American commissions that differed in type,
materials, location, and legal constraints. With the help of a Rotch Traveling Fellowship
from MIT, Bunshaft visited Europe for several months in 1935–36, and then sought work
in New York City. After working briefly for Edward Durell Stone, Raymond Loewy, and
other practitioners, he secured a position in 1937 with the young firm of Skidmore,
Owings and Merrill. Louis Skidmore’s experience in exhibition design secured work for
his firm at the World’s Fair of 1939, and the firm expanded rapidly thereafter. Bunshaft
returned to the office in New York, after serving in several branches of the military
(1942–46), and became a partner in the firm in 1946.
Bunshaft’s work on such varied projects as Manhattan House, a large apartment house
in New York City, and the Fort Hamilton Veterans’ Administration Hospital in Brooklyn,
is characterized by a taste for geometric form, siting to enhance both efficiency and
amenity, refined proportion, and attention to landscaping and ground-level amenity.
These characteristics reappeared at Lever House (New York), a modestly sized corporate
headquarters that was the first glass box, commercial office building in the city. During
the next decade, Bunshaft designed other buildings that often appeared delicate despite
their substantial size, including the glass-walled branch bank for the Manufacturers’ Trust
Company in Manhattan, the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (1957) in
Bloomfield, Connecticut, and the Reynolds Metals Company headquarters (1958) in
Richmond, Virginia, where the company’s aluminum formed a substantial part of the
exterior surface.
During the 1960s, Bunshaft’s style included attention to dramatic structure, with large
boxlike buildings supported on small pin joints; the Beinecke Library is one example of
the style, and another is the American Republic Life Insurance Company headquarters
(1965) in Des Moines, Iowa. At this time, he used concrete more often than glass and
metal, but continued his intense interest in designing the thinnest possible metal and glass
curtain walls, as he used at 140 Broadway (1967) in New York City.
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 350
The taste for dramatic buildings continued into the 1970s, with
sometimes-clumsy results, as in the Hirshhorn Museum. The museum is a
doughnut-shaped building that attempted to mediate between the disparate
shapes of neighboring museums. By contrast, praise abounded for his
National Commercial Bank (Jeddah) where he ingeniously placed
multistory openings on a prismatic, largely blank building, allowing partly
cooled air to help ventilate the office tower in a hot, dry climate.
National Commercial Bank, Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia, designed by Gordon
Bunshaft (1983)
The
Tefloncovered tents at the terminal in Jeddah for the pilgrims to the annual Haj, earned universal admiration, providing as they do, an elegant, airy solution to
climatic and social problems.
These buildings are too intricate to have been designed by one person, and Bunshaft
acknowledged his debts to his administrative partners as well as to his design assistants
Entries A–F 351
and engineers. His architectural colleagues included William S.Brown, J.Walter
Severinghaus, Natalie de Blois, and Sherwood A.Smith. A practical person who was
interested in specific situations rather than in theory, Bunshaft was a man of great energy,
a decisive decision-maker with a habit of blunt speech, and a man of fundamental
honesty.
His interests in landscaping and in the placement of works of modern art inside and
outside the firm’s buildings are lesserknown aspects of his work, but they were essential
to his idea of good architecture. He favored the sculpture of Henry Moore, Joan Miró,
Alberto Giacometti, and Isamu Noguchi, whose works were in the private collection that
he and his wife willed to New York’s Museum of Modern Art. His collection included
paintings by Miró and Jean Dubuffet and modest examples of African sculpture.
His building designs earned him 12 First Honor awards from the American Institute of
Architects, the Gold Medal of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters,
and the Pritzker Prize, which he shared with Oscar Niemeyer.
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