Tunisian works (1927–1936) of Joseph Hiriart: completing the architectural career of an Art Deco master

Abstract

The Mediterranean Sea separates the French architectural works of Joseph Hiriart (1888–1946) from his Tunisian buildings in North Africa. Among the former are Villa Leihorra (1926) and other works of the late 1920s that were built on the French Basque coast. These were preceded by the La Maîtrise pavilion (1925), which was designed by Hiriart in collaboration with Georges Tribout and Georges Beau on the occasion of the ‘International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts’ that was held in Paris in 1925. These pieces of architecture form the most published and recognised part of the career of Hiriart, a master of Art Deco and a key architect in the interwar period. However, the same is not true of his Tunisian works that span from 1927 to 1936 because, despite the obvious and consistent interest in them as they provide additional features which complement his French works, their dissemination has been incomplete and limited to brief mentions. The paper sets out Hiriart’s biography and best-known works, and then focuses on his time in Tunisia, providing an overview of the architectural projects he carried out there and framing them in the colonial context with the aim to fill this historical void and restore the Tunisian part of his architectural work.