Jean Fauny, architecte
Jean Lucien Fauny (1895-1973), a young architect in Paris, after winning the Côtes du Nord departmental architect competition in 1924, was appointed deputy architect for the department until July 1926, and then architect in title until 1956.
According to article 1 of the prefectoral decree of July 1924, “the departmental architect is responsible, under the authority of the prefect, for drawing up all projects, examining all issues relating to the properties, furniture and buildings of the department, as well as providing maintenance services [? …], draw up and keep up to date inventories […] and generally deal with all matters of interest to the department […] relating to the construction, repair, maintenance, cleanliness, safety and hygiene of buildings”.
In this capacity, Jean Fauny was entrusted with a large number of public commissions and building refurbishments throughout the department. He was also the project manager for health centres, police stations and schools. He also carried out repairs to church towers and refurbished communal buildings.
The Saint-Brieuc Chamber of Commerce and Industry commissioned him to build the La Plaine air terminal in Ploufragan. He also worked on a number of social construction programmes, including low-cost housing.(“habitations à bon marché – HBM”)
Alongside his work for the department, as a freelance architect, he worked for a number of private clients, including individuals, shopkeepers and industrialists. His projects in this field mainly concerned cinemas, hotels, shops and numerous residential houses.
Jean Fauny used a very diverse vocabulary, but always with great decorative restraint.
For public commissions (gendarmeries, schools, dispensaries, etc.) he most often drew inspiration from the Anglo-Norman style, combining half-timbering and rough granite.
In a completely different way, and very often for private commissions, Jean Fauny used a modern style close to Art-deco, with concrete, white rendering, portholes, tubular steel railings and flat roofs, in the image of the great transatlantic liners of the period. In Saint-Brieuc, examples include the Mirador (rue Montesquieu), Émile Daubé’s house (rue de Brest) and the house at 20 boulevard Clémenceau. The Le Royal cinema and the Quincaillerie bretonne in Saint-Brieuc also belong to this style, as does the cinema-dancing in Saint-Quay-Portrieux, one of its finest achievements”.
The Bâtiments de France architect wrote on this subject in the file that led to the inclusion of the entire complex in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments in 1995:
“Jean Fauny perhaps gave his all in the creation of the cinema-dancing in Saint-Quay-Portrieux. This is one of the most interesting facets of his work, which still sets the standard today”.
Jean Fauny died in Saint-Brieuc on 15 May 1973.