HENRI PETIT Figure emblématique de la « Belle Époque algéroise » (VOLUMEVOLUME I)

Abstract

Louis Henri Paul Petit, born in 1856-Paris, during a period of transformation and architectural metamorphosis. He joined the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Paris in the early 1870s to follow an architect formation in the formal workshop of Louis André Jule, one of the most famous workshops for the interest in technology and new materials, where he received several architectural awards. After being forged in the workshop, immersing himself in the movements vogues in the school, he got his degree in 1880, a qualification that will allow him to begin his professional life in any country but he went to Algeria, which was at that time, a place of exercise for European architects including those graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Paris. His installation in Algeria (1884), was thanks to the invitation of the Architect Louis Dauphin, with whom he will be responsible for maintenance before becoming him successor as the construction site inspector for higher schools of Algiers. For more than four decades of practice between the two shores of the Mediterranean, the architect Henri Petit spoke with a diverse production and extremely varied, which marked in a profound way the Algiers landscape and wider Algeria. His journey as architecte begin at a time exchange and architectural experimentation: qualified in the first place by the transfer of the Haussmannřs architecture and urbanism from metropolis to the colonies, prior to recognize the existence of an art (Arabic) rival or alternative able to regenerate architectural production in colonies as in France. The period in question, described by many historians and researchers of "Belle Époque" is readable from the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century, coinciding with the peak constructive techniques and systems of the after industrial revolution, before the break with the art, for standardization and massive production. Alongside his production of a large number of private building in France, Henri Petit, was the orchestra of a political composition cultivated by the Orientalists echoes and civil society in Algeria. Beyond the purely Ŗclassicicŗ interpretations Henri Petit merges the two affiliations: that of Western architecture used in Metropolis, and that referring to the Arab-Muslim architecture rediscovered in Algeria. His Algiers production in particular reflects this fusion, through remarkable buildings, punctuating strategic areas in the colonial capital: at the beginning of his career, he works on the harbor and waterfront with the consular palace (1892), docks and ramp Bugeaud (1894), he punctuate the Medina by the madrasa "thaâlibiya" (1904) , and marked the crossing of the European city intramural, with the ŖDepêche Algérienneŗ hotel (1906). He went later to the heights of Mustapha and El Hamma to implement the Anglican church (1909) and the Pasteur Institute (1910). He also contributed to the development of new city center "The Place Bugeaud" by his building Au Bon Marché (1923), near the Galeries of France (1914). This production witness of the genius of Henri Petit is today a recent heritage to share between the two shores of the Mediterranean.