Edith Schreiber-Aujame facts for kids

Edith Schreiber Aujame in 1947 in Paris.

Edith Schreiber-Aujame (born April 5, 1919 – died December 31, 1998) was a talented architect and city planner. She was born in Rymanów, Poland, and later became a citizen of both France and the United States. She passed away in France.

Her Life and Education

Edith's family moved from Poland to New York in 1926. She studied at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, earning a degree in History and Economics in 1940. She then got a Master's degree in Economics from American University in 1941. For a short time, she worked for the government in Washington D.C..

From 1942 to 1945, Edith attended the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in Cambridge, near Boston. There, she learned from famous architects like Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

After finishing her studies, Edith moved from the United States to Europe in 1946. She joined the studio of Le Corbusier in Paris. She helped design parts of the Cité Radieuse in Marseille. It was there that she met Roger Aujame, a French architect who later became her husband.

Designing Cities and Buildings

In 1953, Edith was part of a group called CIAM-Paris (International Congress of Modern Architecture). They presented ideas for improving the Paris region. This group included her husband, Roger Aujame, and other architects.

Together with Roger Aujame, Edith worked on several important projects:

• They planned an exhibition about city design for five linked cities in Boulogne-Billancourt.
• They created a plan to update parts of Boulogne-Billancourt.
• They designed a new type of group housing project. This project was shown in Paris and at an international meeting in 1956.
• They also did studies on how towns could grow, like Saint Lunaire.
• They researched better ways to build homes in the countryside of Finistère.

Architecture and Homes

In 1947 and 1948, Edith worked on building the Saint Lô hospital. She designed parts like the intensive care unit and nurses' rooms.

From 1949 to 1950, Edith lived in New York while her husband worked for Le Corbusier on the United Nations building. During this time, she worked for a well-known architecture firm called Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Her son, Luc, was born in New York.

Back in France between 1950 and 1953, she worked for several architectural offices. In 1952, she helped start the "CIAM-Paris" group of young architects. They studied housing in Boulogne-Billancourt.

From 1953 to 1960, Edith worked on her own or with others. In 1954, she joined a group called ATIC (Workshop for building industrialization). Here, she helped design 190 homes for Abbé Pierre (Emmaus) in Argenteuil.

In 1955, she designed and oversaw the building of an apartment building called "Immeuble Liberté" in Boulogne-Billancourt. She and her husband lived on the top floor. She also designed a house in Maisons-Laffitte.

Between 1961 and 1965, Edith lived in Kabul, Afghanistan, where her husband worked for the United Nations. While there, she worked on many projects:

• She designed the landscape for Kabul University, including playgrounds and drainage.
• She planned a center for making educational materials for the Ministry of Education.
• She worked on an Agricultural Training Centre near Kabul.
• She designed libraries for ministries and the Red Crescent.
• She planned a large housing project for a bank in Kabul.
• She worked on the Surgery Service at Ali Abad hospital.
• She designed and built homes using local and modern methods.
• She helped organize a handicraft center in old Kabul.
• With Roger Aujame, she helped create a city plan for Kabul.

In 1968 and 1969, she taught architecture at the School of Fine Arts in Montpellier.

From 1973 to 1985, she was part of an architectural firm called Develop-Build-Equip (A.B.E.). She worked on many city planning and building designs.

Her Architectural Projects

Edith helped design various buildings in Saint Lunaire, including homes for seniors and families. She also worked on the Foyer Soleil club for seniors.

She researched school designs that could be flexible. She designed and built the Computer Center for the Breton Centre for Agricultural Mutual Insurance.

She also worked on many school projects:

• She redesigned an old classroom in Quiberon into a kindergarten.
• She designed the School Group of Etablette (18 classrooms) in Saint Brieuc.
• She planned the expansion of the public primary school in Quiberon.
• She redesigned a school in Mauron into a kindergarten.
• She designed the Persivien primary school (12 classrooms) in Carhaix.
• She restructured and expanded the Middle school of Etel for 170 students.

Education and Building Design

In 1969, Edith helped start and led the Association pour l’Environnement Pédagogique (A.E.P.). This group included teachers, architects, and economists. Their goal was to promote buildings and equipment that help different ways of learning. They wanted to research and share knowledge in this area.

Between 1969 and 1985, she was very active in the A.E.P.:

• She gave talks, showed films, and organized study trips about how modern education affects school architecture.
• She worked on studies for the Ministry of Education and local councils. These studies involved planning schools, colleges, and cultural centers with teachers, staff, and sometimes students and parents.
• She studied the educational plan for the Saint Merri school in Paris.
• She helped plan a language learning center in Paris.
• She designed a complete educational complex for the Quiberon Peninsula.
• She studied and planned a school group of 18 classrooms in Saint Brieuc.
• She surveyed schools in France that used new teaching methods.
• She worked on several projects in Brest, including community centers and school renovations.
• She studied the renovation of the National Institute for Young Deaf in Paris.
• She helped plan the renovation of the Middle school of Etel.
• She planned the construction of a school complex in Persivien, Carhaix.
• She planned the expansion of an experimental school in Tunisia.

Exhibitions and Writings

Edith participated in several exhibitions:

• She showed her work at the "Useful Forms" exhibitions in Paris in 1951 and 1952.
• She helped with an Urban Planning Exhibition in Boulogne Billancourt in 1954.
• She contributed to the Ministry of Agriculture and United Nations stands at the Kabul Fair in 1962.
• She helped with the Afghan Stand at the Paris Fair in 1965.
• She created a display for open-space classrooms in Paris in 1971.
• She helped create a traveling exhibition called "Spaces for learning" in 1977.

She also wrote many articles and publications:

• She wrote about architecture and city planning in the US in 1954.
• She wrote articles for Le Carré Bleu, an international architecture review, from 1967 to 1998.
• She wrote about "New schools in England" in 1971.
• She wrote about "Architecture and pedagogical innovation" in 1973.
• She wrote about "The school in the history of modern architecture" in 1979.
• She also translated a book by Le Corbusier in 1991.

Publications for the A.E.P.

For the A.E.P., she helped with these publications:

• "Educational innovation, architectural consequences" (1973).
• "Furnishing a schoolhouse" (1983).
• "Setting up a Library Documentary Centre" (1994).