Projects by Name

Louis Sayer saw a photograph of the unbuilt design for the Ustinov house that was being used as a backdrop for a display of Breuer’s furniture in a Paris showroom and asked Breuer’s Paris office to construct a version of the house for him in Glanville, France. For the Ustinov House, Breuer had combined the butterfly roof of his houses of the 1940s and 1950s with his interest in hyperbolic parabaloids creating a striking v-shaped roof profile. The Paris office adapted the plans for the Ustinov House for the program requested by Sayer. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls were raised on a concrete base set into a hill and covered by the hyperbolic-parabaloid roof that connected to the supporting triangular buttresses with cross-shaped bronze elements. Presentation drawings show guest rooms and a bathroom on the ground floor; a double-height living room anchored by a sculptural fireplace, a small dining area, kitchen and master bedroom on the main floor; and additional bedrooms and bathrooms on the upper floor.