"Immeuble dit "Ty Kodak""
MonumentHidden Treasure
"Immeuble dit "Ty Kodak"", located in Quimper (Département 29), is a modern edifice built in the 19th-20th centuries. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Modern (19th-20th century)
- Location
- Quimper, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.9954, -4.0993
- Mérimée Reference
- PA29000053
A jewel of Breton modernism in Quimper, Ty Kodak (1933) boasts a bold façade highlighted by blue ceramics, a rare example of Olivier Mordrelle's avant-garde architecture.
History
In the heart of Quimper, a town whose name spontaneously conjures up images of Breton folklore and colourful earthenware, stands a building that stands in stark contrast to regional conventions: Ty Kodak. Built in 1933 for the son of photographer Joseph Villard, it got its popular nickname from the commercial activity that developed on the ground floor, associated with the sale of photographic equipment - a nod to the modernity of the time as much as to the family origins of its patron. The first thing that strikes you is the resolutely horizontal elegance of the façade. Two bands of blue ceramic run the full width of the building, punctuating the levels with almost musical precision. This sober but striking ornament anchors the building in a resolutely contemporary 1930s aesthetic, close to the European Modern Movement, while retaining a typically Breton chromatic sensibility - the blue of the sea, of headdresses, of Quimper earthenware. The building is the masterpiece of Olivier Mordrelle, an architect from Quimper who was convinced that a living Breton architecture could not be confined to the picturesque nostalgia of gables with crossettes and medieval corbels. For him, being Breton in the 20th century meant embracing international trends without denying a local identity expressed in other ways - through materials, colours and the right proportions. To visit Ty Kodak is to contemplate an architectural manifesto in action. The façade speaks directly to passers-by, without superfluous ornamentation or old-fashioned rhetoric. Lovers of modernist architecture will find it a rare example of inter-war architecture in Brittany, while photographers will be seduced by the graphic interplay between the ceramic horizontals and the verticals that balance the composition. A discreet monument with remarkable formal coherence, listed as a Historic Monument in 2006.
Architecture
Ty Kodak is part of the modernist movement of the 1930s, characterised by a quest for formal purity, a rejection of anecdotal ornamentation and an emphasis on geometric lines. The main façade is organised according to a strong horizontal logic: two bands of blue ceramic run across its entire width, marking the intermediate levels with restrained elegance. This shade of blue is not a neutral choice - it evokes the Breton chromatic palette while giving the building a resolute modernity, at the crossroads of sensitive regionalism and international architectural language. The dominant horizontalism is nevertheless tempered by carefully placed vertical elements - window surrounds, trumeaux between windows - which introduce a rhythmic counterpoint and avoid any monotony. This dialectic between horizontals and verticals is characteristic of the formal vocabulary of the European modernist architects of Mordrelle's contemporaries, and bears witness to a certain compositional mastery. The materials used, typical of urban construction in the 1930s, probably combine reinforced concrete or rendered masonry with ceramic cladding on the façade, the latter being the building's most distinctive and valuable feature. The building fully embraces its urban nature: designed to fit into a dense urban fabric, it interacts with its surroundings without seeking to dominate them, asserting a sober and convincing modernity that has lost none of its relevance.
Related Figures
Olivier Mordrelle — architecte quimpérois, concepteur de l'immeuble, figure de l'architecture moderniste bretonne des années 1930Joseph Villard — photographe quimpérois, dont le fils commanda l'édifice en 1933Le fils de Joseph Villard — commanditaire direct du Ty Kodak, héritier de la tradition photographique familialeLe Corbusier — figure tutélaire du mouvement moderniste européen dont Mordrelle s'inspire indirectementWalter Gropius — fondateur du Bauhaus, dont les théories infusent l'architecture européenne des années 1930 et influencent l'approche de Mordrelle
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is "Immeuble dit "Ty Kodak"" located?
"Immeuble dit "Ty Kodak"" is located in Quimper, Département 29 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was "Immeuble dit "Ty Kodak"" built?
"Immeuble dit "Ty Kodak"" dates back to a period built in the modern era (19th-20th century).
Is "Immeuble dit "Ty Kodak"" open to visitors?
"Immeuble dit "Ty Kodak"" is currently closed to visitors.
