Bulles Six Coques, Jean-Benjamin Maneval, 1964-1968

*Private area. Visible only during temporary exhibitions, guided tours or by appointment.

Trained as both an architect and a town planner, Jean Maneval (1923-1986) was involved in the reconstruction of post-war France. In the 1960s, he was one of the first to exploit the possibilities offered by plastic materials in architecture. As early as 1963, he produced the first sketches of the six-shell Maison bulle. The result of a collaboration between the Maneval agency and the petrochemical industry of the ELF Aquitaine group, 300 of these houses were produced between 1968 and 1970. Formed by assembling six independent polyester hulls raised on a concrete base, this house was designed as a cellular habitat: Maneval sought to rationalise a 36m2 space by providing all the modern comforts (sanitary facilities, heating, electricity, etc.). The interior was designed according to the customer's wishes, using integrated furniture with curved shapes that follow the structure of the shells. The six-shell Maison Bulle is one of the first French examples of plastic architecture. Lightweight, strong, easy to shape and inexpensive to produce, plastic allows the creation of nomadic architecture that is easy to transport and quick to assemble (three days maximum). What's more, Maneval's house was part of the Pop movement characteristic of the period. The choice of curved shapes, bright colours and low-cost marketing made this house a non-conformist, futuristic dwelling that was both a consumer object and industrial architecture. Responding to the development of paid holidays and leisure activities, Maneval designed his house from the outset for holiday use. The model presented at FIAC 2012 comes from the holiday village of Gripp (Hautes-Pyrénées), which housed around thirty of these houses and operated until 1998. Designed to accommodate up to six people, they were a great success with holidaymakers, thanks to their playfulness and ease of maintenance. Here in Piacé, the art trail features three Bulles Six Coques: a white bubble (former home of an aeroclub in Boos near Rouen), a brown bubble and a metal-coloured bubble (Ibai Hernandorena).  Close to the Archigram group in its experimental spirit, and to architects such as Emile Aillaud and Antti Lovag in its deployment of organic forms, the six-shell Maison bulle appears to be a synthesis of the trends of its time, an emblematic achievement at a time when architecture was being questioned. (Notes written by Ekaterina Gorbunova, Roma Lambert and Thibault Creste, students at the Ecole du Louvre, for FIAC Paris 2012)

Here in Piacé, the art trail features three Bulles Six Coques: a white bubble (former home of an aeroclub in Boos near Rouen), a brown bubble and a metal-coloured bubble (Ibai Hernandorena). 

Close to the Archigram group in its experimental spirit, and to architects such as Emile Aillaud and Antti Lovag in its deployment of organic forms, the six-shell Maison bulle appears to be a synthesis of the trends of its time, an emblematic achievement at a time when architecture was being questioned. (Notes written by Ekaterina Gorbunova, Roma Lambert and Thibault Creste, students at the Ecole du Louvre, for FIAC Paris 2012)