Projects by Name

In 1971, Breuer and his partner Robert Gatje designed a recreational area on the Atlantic coast between Biarritz and Bordeaux. The resort, known in the office as Aquitaine, was part of a larger project sponsored by the French government to develop approximately 5,000 acres as a vacation spot for the nation’s workers. Breuer and Gatje developed designs for “Aquitaine Project No. 8,” one of the twelve available parcels. The scheme would have housed 50,000 people on 500 to 600 acres bounded by a pine forest and a long beach. The development incorporated housing, artists’ studios, theaters, galleries, a hotel, shopping and recreational facilities on the coast and along artificial inland waterways that could accommodate sailing and bathing. Breuer planned the project as a walkable community with cars parked in a peripheral lot. An interministerial council for the Aquitaine would have managed the development, but political scandals within the French government scuttled the project.