Immeubles formant la rue Mallet-Stevens, Modernist residential complex in 16th arrondissement, France.
The Immeubles formant la rue Mallet-Stevens is a residential complex of five private mansions and a caretaker's house built with reinforced concrete facades featuring geometric forms, clean lines, and right angles throughout. The street reads as a unified ensemble where each building responds to the others in scale and language, creating a cohesive modernist composition.
Architect Robert Mallet-Stevens designed this complex between 1926 and 1927 on land owned by banker Daniel Dreyfus as a statement of modern residential living. During World War II, the Allatini Hotel at numbers 3-5 was seized by German occupation forces and used as an administrative facility.
The street features artistic details like stained glass windows by Louis Barillet and wrought iron doors by Jean Prouvé that visitors notice as they walk through. These elements reveal how the designer collaborated with skilled craftspeople to create a cohesive residential community.
The street is freely accessible and can be viewed from outside, with the facades reading best in daylight as you walk along the block. Photographers find the clearest views from the center of the street where the geometric proportions and lines become most apparent.
The Allatini Hotel within this complex housed the Gestapo during the occupation and functioned as an administrative headquarters, a fact few visitors notice. This dark chapter remains embedded in the buildings even as the street today appears calm and residential.
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