Gabriel Guevrekian

Gabriel Guevrekian (or Guévrékian) (November 21, 1892 (?) Istanbul - October 29, 1970 Antibes) was an Armenian architect, who designed buildings, interiors and gardens, and taught architecture. He worked in Europe, Iran and the USA.

Guevrekian was born by some accounts in 1900 (Imbert 1993, Turner 1996 ), by others in 1892 to Armenian parents. He was born in Constantinople, present day Istanbul, and then moved with his family to Tehran where he grew up. In 1910 he moved to Vienna where he lived with his uncle, architect Alex Galoustian. He studied architecture at the Kunstgewerbeschule with Oskar Strnad and Josef Hoffmann from 1915, and received his diploma in 1919. He then worked with Strnad and Hoffmann until he moved to Paris in 1922. In Paris he worked with le Corbusier, André Lurçat, Sigfried Giedion and Henri Sauvage. He worked with Robert Mallet-Stevens from 1922 until 1926, where he worked on the designs for Rue Mallet-Stevens while also pursuing his own projects. Guevrekian worked as an independent architect in Paris from 1926.

He was actively involved in the early stages of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) which he chaired from 1928 until 1932, a position appointed him by le Corbusier (Turner 1996). He co-founded the magazine L’architecture d’aujourd’hui. Josef Frank invited him to design two houses for the Werkbundsiedlung in Vienna in 1932.

In 1933 he returned to Iran on invitation of the government. He designed governmental and public buildings, including Kakh Dadgostari Tehran, residences and villas, of which little is documented. He returned to Europe in 1937 and worked in London for three years, but due to the advent of World War II none of his projects were realised. 1940 he returned to Paris where he worked on the development of pre-fabricated housing while also teaching in Saarbrücken. He then ceased work from 1940-44 refusing to work for the Nazis and the Vichy government in France.

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