Pierre Chareau's Maison de Verre, 1932

At the far end of a courtyard on the rue Saint-Guillaume, in Paris, an entire façade made of glass block. Built between 1928 and 1932 by Pierre Chareau with the architect Bernard Bijvoet, the Maison de Verre is one of the most radical interiors of the twentieth century — and the birth certificate of clear glass in the home.

A house-machine

A commission from Doctor Dalsace: a medical practice on the ground floor, an apartment above. Chareau devised an exposed steel structure, movable partitions, retractable staircases, pivoting storage. Everything moves, everything adjusts — industry in the service of the intimate, thirty years ahead of everyone else.

Glass as a wall

The wall of glass block filters daylight into a milky, even sheet, and glows from within at night. No facing neighbours, no curtains: light becomes a building material. It is the opposite of the smoked glass of the 2010s — a deliberate, demanding transparency.

Visiting it

Still lived in and private, it can only be visited by appointment, in very small groups — one of the most coveted architecture tours in Paris. Best to book months in advance.

Its influence today

The return of clear glass, of domesticated industrial materials (steel, exposed rivets), of screen-like partitions: it all comes from here. When a contemporary interior owns its structure rather than hiding it, it quotes Chareau without knowing it.

Spotted a detail, a lamp, a partition? Beyit works back from the image to the piece — and to where to find it.