Historique de Port Grimaud: Interview with Mr. Spoerry

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Interview with Mr. Spoerry :

In June 1995, Mr. François SPOERRY, already very weakened by his illness, accepted nevertheless and with much sincerity and kindness, to answer our questions...

In all honesty :

Y. LHERMITTE : Your work, PORT GRIMAUD is complete. With the hindsight and the experience of these past 29 years. If you had to rebuild it, would it look like the one we know today?

F. SPOERRY :

       PORT GRIMAUD would look exactly the same as it does, with two exceptions:
       The first is that there would be 70 social housing units in the place of the garden on Rue du Septentrion with their entrances on the Chemin communal. These dwellings were always foreseen on the initial plan to allow the installation of a permanent population and to establish, as in all Provencal villages, a pleasant mixture of all social classes.
       The second is that I should have provided for Port Grimaud parking spaces near the houses as was done in P.G.II and P.G.III

François Spoerry and his collaborators.
barre Port Grimaud

Y. LHERMITTE :       About PORT GRIMAUD which review affected you the most?

F. SPOERRY :
                         - That of having wanted to make social housing, (criticism made by the residents).
                         - That of having created a "village of the rich", with very few permanent residents, while I had planned and obtained a building permit for social housing.

Y. LHERMITTE : How do you find the PORT GRIMAUD of today with its inhabitants, its visitors, its problems, its life?

F. SPOERRY :

       I am very disappointed by the criticisms that are made of PORT GRIMAUD, the main ones being:
       - lack of permanent inhabitants
       - change of a part of the shops initially planned, replaced by ice cream and French fries
       - the progressive decrease in the number of sailboats in favor of motorboats.

      I find that despite its flaws, PORT GRIMAUD has still grown to be a pleasant city, which is copied in the world and wishes from all heart that it remains the capital of sea lovers.

Y. LHERMITTE : What future would you like for your lake city ?

F. SPOERRY :
That there are more and more permanent inhabitants and that it loses its aspect of vacation city.

Y. LHERMITTE : In order for PORT GRIMAUD not to deteriorate shouldn't (and can?) your architectural firm play a larger role?

F. SPOERRY :
Steps have recently been taken to coordinate building alteration initiatives that we hope will be kept to a minimum, or else the aesthetics of PORT GRIMAUD will be totally altered.

Y. LHERMITTE :       You are one of the rare architects to have created an entire village and to have given it life thanks to essential businesses that remain open all year round : Self-service, Pastry shop, Hairdresser, Bank, Bars, Newspaper shop, but also Post office, Dental and Medical practice and... Church Faced with the enormity of such a work, can the work of the architect stop at the laying of the last stone ?

F. SPOERRY :
                         Certainly not, because like human beings, PORT GRIMAUD requires constant monitoring and care. The most difficult thing is to keep the spirit of authenticity and simplicity that I wanted from the beginning and which, unfortunately, from time to time tends to slip.
                         It would be very important to persuade the Administration that the architect must be consulted in all cases of construction or modification to avoid what happened with the beach lights.

Y. LHERMITTE :       In your opinion. the consecration for an architect is:
       - Have your name in the dictionary?
       - May his work stand the test of time?
       - That when he died, God humbly confessed to him, "I have loved what you have done very much. My universe is imperfect, help me to rebuild it?"

F. SPOERRY :
                         The third proposal...

Thank you Mr. SPOERRY...

F. SPOERRY has left us...

barre Port Grimaud

the work of François SPOERRY...