Villa Glenwood
Monument
Villa Glenwood, located in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (Pas-de-Calais), 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
- Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 50.5188, 1.5871
- Mérimée Reference
- PA62000019
The Art Deco jewel of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, Villa Glenwood and its twin Karidja form a fascinating architectural duo, designed in 1927 by a visionary architect for two inseparable sisters.
History
In the heart of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, the seaside resort par excellence in northern France, Villa Glenwood stands as one of the most eloquent witnesses to the architectural effervescence of the 1920s. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1997, it forms, with its neighbour and mirror, the Villa Karidja, an absolutely unique ensemble in the French resort landscape: two adjoining residences, designed in unison for two sisters, whose assertive symmetry itself becomes a strong architectural statement. What makes Glenwood truly unique is the way its architect - the inventive Pouillet - played with the theme of the fireplace and the façade to turn them into an aesthetic manifesto. Where other villas in the Touquet region at the time focused on profuse ornamentation or Norman picturesqueness, Glenwood adopted a sober, controlled modernity, playing with symmetry without ever becoming rigid. The façade, a veritable composite painting, reveals a careful consideration of orientation, volume and visual balance. To visit the Glenwood villa is to plunge into the hushed, elegant atmosphere of Le Touquet in the Roaring Twenties, a time when the English aristocracy and the Parisian haute bourgeoisie met on the boards and in the tea rooms. The surrounding residential area, planted with maritime pines and dotted with other remarkable villas, invites you to take an architectural stroll unlike any other in France. The seaside setting of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage amplifies the villa's charm: just a few minutes from the fine sandy beach and the famous boardwalk, Glenwood benefits from that special Nordic light, changing and dramatic, which sublimates the play of shadow and relief on its façade. Photographers and architecture enthusiasts will find plenty of food for thought here.
Architecture
The Glenwood villa is part of the seaside Art Deco movement of the 1920s, interpreted with remarkable freedom and personality by the architect Pouillet. The building, adjoining and symmetrical with Villa Karidja, forms a coherent whole in which the main façade becomes the central architectural feature. The emphasis is on the chimney as the dominant visual element, treated not as a simple technical device but as a decorative and symbolic motif structuring the entire front composition. Far from being academic, the symmetry is lively and sensitive, brought to life by the interplay of volumes, recesses and projections that create a sophisticated façade rhythm. The materials used are in keeping with the building traditions of Le Touquet and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region: light-coloured or tinted rendering, occasional exposed brickwork, neat joinery and steeply pitched roofs typical of the Nordic seaside vocabulary. The judiciously proportioned openings balance the need for light typical of summer homes with the reassuring mass of domestic architecture firmly rooted in the ground. The Glenwood villa also draws its uniqueness from its location in a dense residential urban fabric, characteristic of the garden city of Le Touquet. The Glenwood-Karidja complex can be seen as a coherent architectural parenthesis, a micro-neighbourhood designed as a single unit, a rare example of a successful twin project in French seaside heritage. Inside, the layout is based on the codes of bourgeois holiday living: convenient layout, reception rooms facing the garden, generous living spaces.
Related Figures
Pouillet — architecte concepteur de la villa Glenwood et de la villa Karidja (1927), auteur de plusieurs réalisations remarquables au Touquet-Paris-PlageLes deux sœurs commanditaires — propriétaires initiales des villas Glenwood et Karidja, dont l'initiative singulière de faire construire deux maisons jumelles est à l'origine de cet ensemble architectural uniqueJohn Whitley — promoteur fondateur du Touquet-Paris-Plage, figure clé dans la création de la station et du cadre urbain accueillant ce type de villaAllan Stoneham — investisseur et promoteur britannique ayant contribué à façonner l'identité cosmopolite du Touquet, contexte dans lequel s'épanouit l'architecture de Pouillet
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Villa Glenwood located?
Villa Glenwood is located in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
When was Villa Glenwood built?
Villa Glenwood dates back to a period built in the modern era (19th-20th century).
Is Villa Glenwood open to visitors?
Villa Glenwood is currently closed to visitors.