Fernand Pouillon

Fernand Pouillon

Born: May 14, 1912
Died: July 24, 1986
in Cancon, France
Fernand Pouillon, born May 14, 1912 in Cancon in the Lot-et-Garonne, was one of the great builders of the years of reconstruction after the Second World War in France.

He spent his youth in Marseilles where he attended the School of Fine Arts before continuing from 1932 to 1934 studying architecture in Paris. He built his first building at the age of twenty-two in 1934 in Aix-en-Provence. Fernand Pouillon undertakes an ambitious bet in Aix-en-Provence: 200 housing units to be built in 200 days for a budget of 200 million francs. Using stone and economical but quality plans, Pouillon won his bet. In 1953, he renewed this kind of performance by creating the complex of buildings in Diar-el-Mahçoul in Algiers: 1,600 housing units built in 365 days in perfect respect for the local architectural style and above all for the notion of urban space. . In Algiers will follow the ensembles of Diar-es-Saada and Climat de France.

In 1961, while some of the most important large complexes on the outskirts of Paris, in Montrouge, in the Point-du-Jour district in Boulogne-Billancourt as well as the new town of Meudon-la- Forest, he is at the heart of a resounding legal case following the revelation that he is also a shareholder in peripheral companies of the CNL by means of nominees. Indeed, an architect does not have the right to be neither a promoter, nor a contractor, or any other commercial activity related to the building. His friend Jacques Chevallier, the former minister, deputy and mayor of Algiers who never left Algeria, encouraged him to join him there. Fernand Pouillon therefore finds the house he occupied in the early fifties, the Villa des Arcades, which he will restore. It is therefore Algeria that will benefit from the skills of Fernand Pouillon for twenty years, until 1984, two years before his death. With the Minister of Tourism Mohamed Maoui, he will cover the Algerian territory with business or tourist hotels and seaside resorts. The Ministries of Post, Higher Education and the Interior also entrusted him with projects. Fernand Pouillon's bitterness at having been solicited for his highest skill, cheap housing, neither by France nor by Algeria, when the needs were so great, will be immense until his death. In 1982 the Venice Biennale on the theme of architecture in Islamic countries paid tribute to his work, alongside Hassan Fathy, Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier.

While he completed triumphantly and in record time in July 1982 the construction of the El-Djazaïr hotel in Algiers (formerly the Saint-Georges hotel), in France events then rushed. Fernand Pouillon did return to the board of the Order of Architects and was elected to the Regional Council of the Order of Ile de France in 1980, but the total tax debt dating from the CNL is still claimed from him and the amount is very significant. The President of the Republic François Mitterrand will have at heart to help Fernand Pouillon to reintegrate France and to rehabilitate him by raising him to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1984.

He died on July 24, 1986 in his castle of Belcastel in Aveyron, a very dilapidated but majestic ruin that he restored for seven years with a team of Algerian masons.

Movies for Fernand Pouillon...

Fernand Pouillon, l'architecte le plus recherché de France
Title: Fernand Pouillon, l'architecte le plus recherché de France
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 2023
Type: Movie
The work of Fernand Pouillon, "France's most wanted" architect after being imprisoned and mysteriously escaping in the 1960s, now seems to have faded into the background. However, in 50 years he has built more than 5 million square meters, mainly between France and Algeria, at a frantic pace, traveling tens of thousands of kilometers per week, by propeller plane, to go to construction sites. at night or at dawn between Marseille, Paris, Algiers or in the middle of the desert, until you burn your wings. Among others, Fernand Pouillon decided to build houses for the most modest.
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Fernand Pouillon, Une architecture habitée
Title: Fernand Pouillon, Une architecture habitée
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 2017
Type: Movie
In this documentary, Marie-Claire Rubinstein reveals to us, through the testimonies of the inhabitants who live there, the architectural achievements of the French urban planner Fernand Pouillon in Algiers. In particular the vast complexes of hundreds of social housing units, including the most famous Diar E Saâd (1953), Diar El Mahçoul (1954) and Climat de France (1957). The historical context, during the war of independence is related by the historian Benjamin Stora and Nadir Boumaza. This documentary also evokes the personality of Fernand Pouillon in a post-colonial context.
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Fernand Pouillon, Le roman d'un architecte
Title: Fernand Pouillon, Le roman d'un architecte
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 2003
Type: Movie
Constructing freestone buildings on the cheap, Pouillon made a name for himself at the end of the 1940s in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, shaking up his peers who only dreamed of towers and concrete bars. In Algiers, until Independence, he built in record time thousands of homes for the poorest, real urban projects inspired by traditional forms. In the Paris region, to build comfortable buildings quickly and well, nestled in the greenery, he becomes a promoter: this too adventurous bet leads him to prison and retains his reputation. Not very explicit about this complex affair, but seduced by a contemporary architecture that combines technical inventiveness and ancient references, Christian Meunier films by multiplying the angles of view. Today's lively atmospheres are interspersed with archive footage, while Pouillon's writings are read off. Moved, his collaborators evoke a demanding and generous man, with an infectious passion.
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Droit de Réponse
Title: Droit de Réponse
Character: Self
Released: December 12, 1981
Type: Movie
"Droit de Réponse" (Right of Reply) is a French debate program broadcast between December 12, 1981 and September 19, 1987 on the TF1 channel, presented by Michel Polac and produced by Maurice Dugowson. Broadcast live on a weekly basis, on Saturdays from 8.30 p.m., the right of reply has been the source of many controversies, due to the various speakers who have come to present their point of view on the show (which leads to famous scandals , remained in the memory of viewers), but also for the variety and relevance of the topics covered, which ensured the success of the program on the air for several years. On French television, this program is considered by some observers as a “pioneer program in terms of controversy-show or clash, in modern language”.