Sauvage, Henri

(1873-1932)

   architect

   Born in Rouen, Henri Sauvage, after following the Art Nouveau style, moved toward functionalism, becoming a precursor in the use of prefabricated materials. one of the best examples of this is the apartment building at 28, rue Vavin in Paris (1912), on which the facade of white and blue squares gives the building a clean and clear aspect, while the graduated stories recall a pyramid or an urban hanging garden, allowing for maximization of light. Sauvage employed these principles again in Paris in his apartment building on the rue des Amiraux (1925), and in his Project d'immeubles en front de Seine (1928). In Nantes, he built the Decré department store, whose facade consisted of a large glass panel (1931, destroyed in 1943). An innovator and utopian, Sauvage was the inspiration for the italian architect Antonio Sant'Elia in his project Città Nuova in Rome (1914) and perhaps also for the American "Babylonian" skyscrapers, such as the Paramount Building in New York City.