A 1960s Masterpiece With Curved Concrete Windows Brings Palm Springs to France

Half an hour from Paris, Marc Chaya’s house in Chailly-en-Bière is a world away. Its clean white curves and corners seem to float in a flat wooded park on the edge of the vast Fontainebleau forest. It gleams placidly, a world away, too, from the plowed-over fields down the road, where a few remnant heads of lettuce lie forlornly, like guillotined kings. It also bears no resemblance whatsoever to its neighbors, French McMansions of the faux-Norman style. 

The 3,068-square-foot home, with its windows framed in curving concrete, has more in common with Terminal 2 at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Indeed, some say the house is an early work of architect Paul Andreu, who oversaw the airport’s master plan and designed several concourses there, as well as the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, numerous museums, and other major works around the world. 

The previous owners told Marc that Andreu and a friend designed the residence for the friend’s family when they were students at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the late 1960s. But after the original owners chopped up the interior into small rooms and long, dark hallways, Andreu refused to acknowledge any role in its creation.