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Villa Cavrois in Croix is a large modernism mansion built in 1932 by French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for Paul Cavrois, an industrialist from Roubaix active in the textile industry.
Originally the architect and town-planner Jacques Greber was charged with the project, who suggested a house in the regionalist style, in vogue at that period. Finally Paul Cavrois turned to Robert Mallet-Stevens after he met him in 1925 at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris.The owners gave the architect free rein on the project, and, for the first time in his career, Mallet-Stevens was responsible for the entire work, down to the last details. The villa is conceived by the architect as a total artwork and it represents the outcome of his technical and aesthetic reflections. The villa was inaugurated on 5 July 1932, for the wedding of Geneviève Cavrois, the eldest daughter of the couple Cavrois, after 3 years of work.
At the completion of the work the villa was astonishing for its bravery and modernity, and its style was a total break from that of other neighbouring houses in the suburb of Croix, even those of the same era. Clear guidelines governed the design of the building, which was commissioned in 1929, included: "air, light, work, sports, hygiene, comfort and efficiency".
The Cavrois resided in the villa until the death of Lucie Cavrois in 1985: in the same year the sons sold the furniture of the villa in an auction. In 1987 the villa was sold to a real estate company who wanted to demolish it and divide the land into plots. However, the villa was abandoned and quickly looted, ransacked and occupied by squatters. In 1990, the property and grounds were classified as an historic monument by decree of the Conseil d'État. That same year saw the birth of an association to protect and preserve the house. Since its inception the association has lobbied the state authorities concerning the fate of the villa.1 The French State, through its Ministry of Culture, purchased the building in 2001, and, in 2004, restoration work commenced on the exterior and the reinstatement of the internal features.
On December 18, 2008, the Ministry of Culture entrusted villa Cavrois to Centre des Monuments Nationaux (CMN), with the purpose of restoring it and opening it to the public. CMN conducted the restoration of the interior spaces and decor (floors, wall coverings, paintwork, furniture), in order to recreate, as closely as possible, the condition of the building in the 1930s. One room on the upper floor was intentionally left untouched to show the extent of the damage that was done in the decades before. CMN has also restored the gardens (replantation of trees, restoration of the water features and the original alleys) and the illumination of the park and the villa. The villa opened to the public on 13 June 2015.
The large modern mansion was organized to offer the best possible lifestyle to the nine members of the family and to facilitate the daily work of the household staff. Mallet-Stevens' work was not limited to the design of the building. He also designed the interior decoration and the gardens which surround the house.
The choice of materials (concrete ceiling, metal, steel, glass, green Swedish marble in the main dining room, yellow Siena marble in the fireplace alcove of the hall-salon, parquets of oak, iroko, zebrawood, Cuban mahogany) and the furniture of the rooms echoed the hierarchy of space: everything was conceived and adapted for use in place. Simplicity and functionality of the furniture prevail in all parts. The luxury of this house does not lie in carved detailing or gilding, it unfolds in the richness of the materials used, such as unadorned marble, metal and wood.
The Villa Cavrois provided for its occupants a large number of amenities especially rare for the time, even in luxury houses. Use of the latest modern technology, especially electricity meant each room was provided with electric lighting, a radio loudspeaker, an electric clock and telephones enabled people to communicate between rooms or with the outside world. The villa was equipped with a modern boiler room and a wine cellar. The water system provided hot and cold water, as well as softened water for cooking and drinking. Lighting was the object of special care. The lighting, both direct and indirect, is very delicate and elegant. In collaboration with the lighting engineer André Salomon, Mallet-Stevens conceived an indirect lighting which fit in the architecture and he has provided most of the rooms of the villa of a lighting device system which direct the light towards the ceiling to obtain an unchanging light closer at the natural one. Hygiene was very important in the conception of the Villa Cavrois, as it is shown by the clinical aspect of the kitchen (metal and white paint) and also by the presence of a swimming pool of 27 metres long and 4 metres depth at the diving boards.
One can reach the first floor by the monumental staircase, built into the belvedere tower, with white marble steps and black marble risers. the west wing is reserved to the children and the governess's rooms while the east wing house the parental suite. In the children's wing, the boys' room has not be restored to show the condition of the villa before the restoration work. In the parents' wing, the master bedroom presents itself with a furniture in palm wood and the walls painted beige, which give it elegance et refinement. The boudoir of Lucie Cavrois looks more casual as a result of the blond tone of the furnitures in sycamore, the walls painted in light blue and the navy blue moquette. The master bathroom is a dual-aspect room of around 60 m2. This space is constituted of a part reserved to the dressing, with a black-and-white polka-dot moquette, and a part consecrated to the ablutions (bathtub and shower cabin equipped with water jets) with the floor in white Carrara marble. In this room are presented a barometer and a built-in scale.
The second floor, isolated from the rest of the villa, is constituted by the playroom and the study rooms. The playroom is a huge space with walls in red oilcloth above and aluminium below. From the playroom one can access to the terrace which could turn into a summer dining-room thanks to the dumbwaiter connected with the kitchen. In the basement, the laundry-room is equipped with a mangle, an ironing machine and a drying closet. In this space is displayed the original garden's furniture. Behind the laundry room is the boiler room which accommodates two fuel boilers, one for the heating and the other one for the hot water. The fuel storage tanks are hosted in a separate space in front of the boiler-room. The wine cellar has been converted in a resource center with a large choice of materials presents in the villa and a set original evidences of the villa.
Historian Willem de Bruijn has insisted on the omnipresence of mirrors in Villa Cavrois, believing this reflects Mallet-Stevens’ background as a set designer for films, where mirrors were abundantly used. Through the mirrors, “walls are broken in half” and any “sense of interior stability” is voluntarily broken. De Bruijn also insists on the black mirror found in “the young master’s bedroom on the ground floor,” creating “an impression of darkness and mystery.”Willem de Bruijn, “Black-Mirror Architecture: Para-Historical Musings in the Architectural Peculiar,” Black Mirror, no. 2, “Elsewhere” (London: Fulgur Press, 2019), pp. 73–89: “Villa Cavrois,” pp. 81–83.
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