Multiple Lives of Armenian architect Gabriel Guevrekian
Gabriel Guevrekian was an Armenian architect, who designed buildings, interiors and gardens, and taught architecture. He worked in Europe, Iran and the USA.
Biography
Guevrekian was born by some accounts in 1900 (Imbert 1993, Turner 1996 ), by others in 1892 to Armenian parents.
He was born in Constantinople, present day Istanbul, and then moved with his family to Tehran where he grew up.
In 1910 he moved to Vienna where he lived with his uncle, architect Alex Galoustian. He studied architecture at the Kunstgewerbeschule with Oskar Strnad and Josef Hoffmann from 1915, and received his diploma in 1919.
He then worked with Strnad and Hoffmann until he moved to Paris in 1922. In Paris he worked with le Corbusier, André Lurçat, Sigfried Giedion and Henri Sauvage. He worked with Robert Mallet-Stevens from 1922 until 1926, where he worked on the designs for Rue Mallet-Stevens while also pursuing his own projects. Guevrekian worked as an independent architect in Paris from 1926.
He was actively involved in the early stages of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) which he chaired from 1928 until 1932, a position appointed him by le Corbusier (Turner 1996). He co-founded the magazine L’architecture d’aujourd’hui. Josef Frank invited him to design two houses for the Werkbundsiedlung in Vienna in 1932.
Houses in Vienna Werkbundsiedlung, designed by Guevrekian
In 1933 he returned to Iran on invitation of the government. He designed governmental, public, and private buildings, including Kakh Dadgostari in Tehran, Kakh Shahrbani in Tehran, residences and villas, of which little is documented, and some built after Guevrekian left Iran .
Compounds of the Foreign Ministry of Iran in which Guevrekian was their architectural planner
1940 he returned to Paris where he worked on the development of pre-fabricated housing while also teaching in Saarbrücken. He then ceased work from 1940-44 refusing to work for the Nazis and the Vichy government in France.
After the war he worked with Georges-Henri Pingusson on rebuilding Saarbrücken and also taught architecture there. In 1948 he moved to the USA to teach at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. He became professor at the University of Illinois the next year, and taught there until his retirement in 1969. Guevrekian became a U.S.-citizen in 1955.
After his retirement Gabriel Guevrekian returned to France with his wife. He died 29 October 1970 in Antibes.
wikipedia.org
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