Villa Karidja
Monument
Villa Karidja, 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
- PA62000020
An Art Deco jewel in Le Touquet, Villa Karidja and its twin Glenwood form a 1927 architectural ensemble designed by Pouillet, where sculpted fireplaces and bold symmetry interact on the façade.
History
Nestling in the wooded residential area of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, Villa Karidja is one of the most eloquent examples of seaside architecture on the Côte d'Opale between the wars. Built in 1927, it and the neighbouring villa Glenwood form an architectural diptych of rare coherence, the two residences having been built simultaneously for two sisters wishing to live side by side without sacrificing their respective identities. What fundamentally sets Villa Karidja apart is the richness of its formal dialogue with the façade. Whereas other villas in the Touquet area at the time played the card of the picturesque regionalist or the conventional seaside resort, Karidja and Glenwood proposed a highly modern architectural approach: the chimney became a composing element, symmetry asserted itself as an aesthetic language, and the orientations were thought out as so many plastic choices. Architect Pouillet's work is personal, far from academic. The experience of the villa is first experienced from the street, where the attentive visitor immediately perceives the play of mirrors between the two houses - an imperfect mirror, as each retains its own expression. The volumes respond to each other, the roofs articulate each other, the joinery echoes each other without ever repeating itself. It is this tension between unity and singularity that gives the Glenwood-Karidja complex its distinctive architectural strength. The general setting of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage adds to the interest of the discovery. A seaside resort created from scratch at the end of the 19th century, the town is an open-air museum of resort architecture from the 1890s to the 1930s. The Villa Karidja occupies a special place here: listed as a Historic Monument in 1997, its protection officially recognises the heritage value of this long-neglected twentieth-century building.
Architecture
Villa Karidja belongs to the modernist seaside architecture of the 1920s, which at Le Touquet-Paris-Plage borrowed from the Art Deco repertoire as well as Anglo-Norman influences and the plastic experiments of the French avant-garde. Built of rendered masonry, with a multi-sloped roof punctuated by monumental chimney stacks, it features a carefully composed façade where the verticality of the chimneys meets the horizontality of the bands and openings. The most remarkable element of the composition is precisely this treatment of the chimneys on the façade: Pouillet makes them architectural motifs in their own right, giving them a sculptural presence that visually structures the entire elevation. The symmetry, asserted without rigidity, creates a permanent dialogue with the adjoining Glenwood villa, with the two façades reading like two halves of the same picture while retaining their formal autonomy. The joinery, modelling and masonry details are all part of this quest for a modern expression that does not deny traditional craftsmanship. Inside, the villa is in keeping with the bourgeois holiday lifestyle of the period, with a clear division between reception areas on the ground floor and bedrooms upstairs, and a focus on natural light and views over the garden. The ensemble blends into the wooded plot typical of Le Touquet, where the maritime pines filter the light and give the villas an atmosphere of green retreat conducive to summer relaxation.
Related Figures
Architecte Pouillet — concepteur de la villa Karidja et de la villa Glenwood en 1927, figure de l'architecture balnéaire touquettoise de l'entre-deux-guerresLes deux sœurs commanditaires — propriétaires initiales ayant commandé conjointement les villas Karidja et Glenwood pour former un ensemble résidentiel familialAllen Stoneham — promoteur britannique ayant fondé Le Touquet-Paris-Plage à la fin du XIXe siècle, créant le cadre urbain dans lequel la villa s'inscritHenri Léon Fleury — architecte-paysagiste qui contribua à la planification de la station et au caractère forestier des parcelles
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Villa Karidja located?
Villa Karidja is located in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
When was Villa Karidja built?
Villa Karidja dates back to a period built in the modern era (19th-20th century).
Is Villa Karidja open to visitors?
Villa Karidja is currently closed to visitors.