The restoration of the Villa Cavrois

Turned into a barracks for German soldiers in the 1940s, then divided into three flats by architect Pierre Barbe from the 1950s onwards, the Villa Cavrois has undergone transformations over time that have somewhat altered or modified the original state designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens.

The decade of neglect, between 1987 and 2001, continued to profoundly affect the villa, which rapidly fell into disrepair. Squatted, it was vandalised and its precious materials, for the most part, looted: marble was ripped out, campfires burned on the ground, electrical conduits rusted and masonry splintered. Trees are even growing in the Great Staircase!

The first phase of work focused on the exterior of the building and the grounds. In order to halt the deterioration of the building and protect it from the elements, the building was rendered watertight, thanks to some rather spectacular scaffolding. All the elements that made up the building's external envelope were restored to their original splendour. Damaged bricks were replaced, and the exterior doors and windows restored.

In the park, which had become a meadow, test pits have revealed the paths and the bottom of the water mirror, which had disappeared during the German occupation. On the other hand, the landscape designers removed the species that had been planted successively and reinstated those that had disappeared, so as to bring back to the fore the trees originally planted, which are still present on the site.

By analysing the period features still on site - light switches, wall lights and radiator covers, among others - we were able to confirm and imitate the composition of the materials and the techniques used when the building was constructed.

For example, the Noël parquet floor, made from different types of wood and fixed with magnesian cement - the know-how of which only the Belgian company Jadoul is the repository - was restored, enabling them to rediscover the expertise lost over the generations.

Similarly, the marbles, most of which had been stolen or destroyed during the period of neglect, were able to be reinstalled using the same quarries as the original ones, such as the yellow Sienna marble in the fireplace area of the living room and the green Swedish marble in the parents' dining room.

With the same objective in mind, a material library was created from samples collected throughout the project. Showcasing the richness and diversity of the materials used, the mathériauthèque, housed in the basement wine cellar, completes the tour by showcasing the original materials and those designed identically during the restoration.