The American Architect
The ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW
VOL. CXXIV
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1923 NUMBER 2428
BUILDING ACTIVITY in DEVASTATED FRANCE
BY SAMUEL CHAMBERLAIN
Illustrated with Sketches by the Author
RECONSTRUCTION is a very live and positive term in the devastated provinces of France at present; there can be no lingering doubt of that. Only by an extensive and sufficiently protracted tour of the towns and villages bordering the one-time Western Front does one appreciate the remarkable activity of the French builders, and the magnitude of the task that confronted them after the Armistice.
A surprising and gratifying progress is observed at once in the smaller towns along the Aisne, the Marne and the Champagne. Many are completely rebuilt, shining with creamy white walls and bright roofs, their shops painfully new, their inhabitants not yet feeling quite at home. But for every village that is
complete, there are two or three about it in the course of growing up anew, bustling with activity, the streets clogged with sand and bricks and neat piles of salvaged stone, scaffolding shooting up like monolithic weeds, Spanish and Italian workmen chattering and chiseling everywhere.
At the same time, there are proportionately almost as many villages, not so fortunate, whose battered, weed-covered walls have not yet been touched, or else have been converted into temporary habitations. These are sad places indeed, scraggly, bleak, sunbaked villages of barracks and dugouts and huts made of huge semi-circular sheets of corrugated iron. But everywhere is the sign of activity, especially in the fields. No better token of the everlasting industry of the French could be found than in the progress they have made in regenerating their soil during these last five years. To get their fields in working order was more important than to have a permanent place to live, resulting in the phenomenon of these forlorn villages in the midst of prosperous fields.
A newly built house in the Aisne Brick, while stone and blue slate roofing have been used here with sufficient judgment to make this a most harmonious and pleasing house from the standpoint of color
(Copyright, 1923. The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.)
Reims
The ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW
VOL. CXXIV
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1923 NUMBER 2428
BUILDING ACTIVITY in DEVASTATED FRANCE
BY SAMUEL CHAMBERLAIN
Illustrated with Sketches by the Author
RECONSTRUCTION is a very live and positive term in the devastated provinces of France at present; there can be no lingering doubt of that. Only by an extensive and sufficiently protracted tour of the towns and villages bordering the one-time Western Front does one appreciate the remarkable activity of the French builders, and the magnitude of the task that confronted them after the Armistice.
A surprising and gratifying progress is observed at once in the smaller towns along the Aisne, the Marne and the Champagne. Many are completely rebuilt, shining with creamy white walls and bright roofs, their shops painfully new, their inhabitants not yet feeling quite at home. But for every village that is
complete, there are two or three about it in the course of growing up anew, bustling with activity, the streets clogged with sand and bricks and neat piles of salvaged stone, scaffolding shooting up like monolithic weeds, Spanish and Italian workmen chattering and chiseling everywhere.
At the same time, there are proportionately almost as many villages, not so fortunate, whose battered, weed-covered walls have not yet been touched, or else have been converted into temporary habitations. These are sad places indeed, scraggly, bleak, sunbaked villages of barracks and dugouts and huts made of huge semi-circular sheets of corrugated iron. But everywhere is the sign of activity, especially in the fields. No better token of the everlasting industry of the French could be found than in the progress they have made in regenerating their soil during these last five years. To get their fields in working order was more important than to have a permanent place to live, resulting in the phenomenon of these forlorn villages in the midst of prosperous fields.
A newly built house in the Aisne Brick, while stone and blue slate roofing have been used here with sufficient judgment to make this a most harmonious and pleasing house from the standpoint of color
(Copyright, 1923. The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.)
Reims