François Cointeraux

François Cointeraux (1740–1830) was a French architect. He "discovered" pisé de terre (rammed earth) architecture in the Lyon region and promulgated its use in Paris.

Born in Lyon, he was the nephew of a master mason, with whom he learned drawing, architecture and perspective. He started working in his city of birth and in Grenoble as a construction entrepreneur and a land surveyor for Lyon until 1786, when he entered an examination of the Academy of Amiens. He was accepted in 1787, and moved to Paris the following year. There, he established several schools of rural architecture. His work at that time was mainly oriented towards the construction of incombustible rammed earth buildings built for agricultural purposes. In 1789, he was distinguished by the Royal Society of Agriculture of Paris. In year III of the revolutionary calendar, he was part of the Société des inventions et découvertes.

He was the inventor of the crécise a mechanical device allowing the production of rammed earth bricks. He derived from this device another invention, l'épurateur de légumes, allowing to dry vegetables. He also invented the pierre carton and studies concrete.

He was a productive author, producing 72 booklets relating to rammed earth construction, and these writings were translated and widely spread, helping this construction style to flourish. He was also interested in agriculture, being the first author, with Léon de Perthuis de Laillevault in 1805 and 1810, to study rural construction in the French agronomy, in an apology of rammed earth and its use. He was also interested in manufactures built in an industrial style.

He was the architect of dozens of rammed earth buildings in Lyon and its vicinity, in Grenoble, Amiens and Napoléon-Vendée, a town he was tasked to rebuild in 1807 by Emmanuel Crétet, Minister of the Interior and director of the Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests of Napoleon. The town, destroyed during the French Revolution, was rebuilt by Cointeraux. His use of rammed earth was criticized by the Emperor, who described his work as a "city of mud", and he was accused of having wasted the means available to him.

Published works