Eugène Olichon (1879-1950), architecte sur la côte d'Émeraude autour des années 1910

Abstract

"Eugène Olichon, architect at the Côte d'Émeraude around 1910", by Gaëlle Delignon The emergence of seaside resorts on the Emerald coast enabled the architecte Eugène Olichon to start a brilliant career from 1880 onwards, mainly into residential developments. He soon became popular with different sorts of clients, either town-dwellers or people from Saint-Malo, thanks to his talent for architectural drawings and also to a genuine attachment to Saint-Malo and its surroundings. The Anglo-saxon model, to be seen in the layout of the earliest villas at Saint-Malo and Paramé, is adapted to the urban location of the emerging seaside resort, between sea and avenues. This early work was published in La Construction Moderne, and although built for speculative purpose, it is well decorated. A few years later, Olichon left the regular and narrow sites for semi-detached or detached houses, and chose a more personal style. The seaside villas of this period are oriented towards the sea and the planted garden, and shows more luxurious ornamentation and more windows and doors. From 1910, either in Saint-Malo or Saint-Cast, the architect tried to adapt the regionalist styles (from Normandy or Brittany) to his taste for comfort. His bigger villas start assuming forms of local architecture, sometimes combined with other sources of inspiration.