The forgotten designer of the Paris Metro will have a museum: "It's the end of a historical injustice."

The metro canopy, with its fan-shaped glass canopy, seems about to take flight among the foliage of Porte Dauphine . Popularly known as the Dragonfly, it is the only surviving type B structure that has stood the test of time in its original location. It was designed in the early 20th century by the modernist architect Hector Guimard (1867–1942) , who designed up to 167 entrances to the Paris Métropolitain , half of which have disappeared.

It's hard to believe that the quintessential icons of Art Nouveau and the Belle Époque were once scorned by Parisians, as was the Eiffel Tower. Some considered the metro entrances too "extravagant," "confusing," and "impractical." Others dismissed them as "un-French" and at odds with Haussmannian urban planning.

For decades, Hector Guimard was unjustly forgotten in his own land and ended his days in exile in New York during World War II. It took Salvador Dalí, in the 1970s, to praise the "divine entrances" in the subway as "holograms of radical reality" for Parisians to begin to look at his work with different eyes.

"The logic of destruction has finally given way to preservation," warns Fabien Choné , a collector and promoter of the architect's work through the organization Hector Guimard Diffusion . Choné highlights the historical contrast between international recognition, driven primarily by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the disdain shown by the city of Paris, which rejected his widow Adeline's offer to convert the iconic Hôtel Guimard into a house museum.

"The end of a historical injustice"

The creation of Le Cercle Guimard 22 years ago gave renewed impetus to the man who is beginning to be regarded as the true "precursor of design" , with celebrated works such as the Castel Béranger , the synagogue on rue Pavée or the Hôtel Mezzara in the 16th arrondissement, which has withstood the test of time virtually untouched. At the end of 2027, the Hôtel Mezzara will reopen its doors, converted into the Guimard Museum , with its spectacular skylight and wrought ironwork. Nicolas Horiot , architect and president of Le Cercle Guimard , believes that this will be "the end of a historical injustice" .

His architectural projects, both built and destroyed, his furniture pieces in the "Guimard style" (he himself eschewed the cliché of Art Nouveau ) and his original designs will be some of the museum's main attractions, including the story of how the architect managed to impose his unique vision with organic forms as an emblem of the Parisian metro.

In fact, Paris was considerably late to the underground craze that began in London in the second half of the 19th century and first spread to cities like Vienna and Budapest. The 1900 World's Fair finally gave impetus to the Chemin de Fer métropolitain de Paris (CFP) , which organized a competition for the design of the entrances, canopies, and balustrades for the underground network. Initially, 21 entries were submitted, but all designs were rejected.

The CFP's president, banker Adrien Bérnard , had a special appreciation for Art Nouveau , and so the board of directors was seduced by Guimard's designs. The architect had just a few months to complete the design and mass-produce the street furniture, using lightweight materials such as wrought iron for the structure, glass for the roofs, and enameled lava for the panels .

"Descent into the subconscious of living aesthetics"

Guimard drew inspiration from elements of nature for the design of two variants for "the descent into the subconscious of living aesthetics" (again, in Dalí's words). Type A , the most common, consisted of two serpentine posts joined by an arch. Type B , "bolder and more dynamic," was roofed and topped with a glass fan inspired by dragonfly wings.

Detractors were quick to clip the wings of the delirious aediculas. Guimard himself suffered the humiliation of having to dismantle one of his metro entrances next to the Paris Opera and see it replaced "with a more classical model" in the name of harmony. The architect responded sarcastically in the local press: "Should we harmonize the Père-Lachaise Cemetery station with an entrance that imitates a tomb?"

After the initial uproar, Guimard entered into conflict with the metro company over unpaid bills. Once the debts were settled, he sold his models and manufacturing rights and refused to do anything else. Between 1900 and 1913 , 167 "Guimard-style" metro entrances were built. A total of 88 are still standing, almost all of which have been blown out of their original locations.