He was born in Mulhouse to a large, industrious family that had moved from Switzerland to Mulhouse in 1848 to start up a textile business. The family had a holiday home at Partigon. His parents were Henry Spoerry and Jeanne Schlumberger. Spoerry had three younger sisters: Anne-Marie, a physician, aviator and adventurer, Therese, and Martine. After finishing school, Spoerry studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg in 1930. He became an assistant to Jacques Couëlle during the period of 1932 through 1934. He graduated from Marseille's École des Beaux-Arts in 1943. During World War II, he used an architectural research project in Aix-en-Provence as a cover for working with the French Resistance. In April 1943, he was arrested and deported to Buchenwald and then Dachau.
Career
After the war ended, he opened his first architectural firm in Mulhouse where he associated with a significant number of reconstruction projects. In Mulhouse, he was the planner of the new town centre. He also built in Mulhouse the Tour of Europe, the largest structure in contemporary France whose top floor was a revolving restaurant. He also built several residential structures, including Wilson Tower, the Residence Clemenceau. Residence Pierrefontaine, and others. What is most significance about the work of Spoerry is that he broke with the first principles of Planning CIAM while rediscovering the principles of a dense urbanism. He built and developed several mixed-use, neo-traditional, developments in Europe and North America. At the end of the 1980s, he was known as a member of Amiic and was a lecturer, with Jean-Pierre Thiollet and other important people, of some international meetings of this organization. He is associated with the European Urban Renaissance movement. He was an advocate of "vernacular architecture". Spoerry is the author of A gentle architecture, from Port-Grimaud to Port-Liberté, published in 1991. Apart from the creation of Port Grimaud in Var, Spoerry's major works in France include:
On 27 October 1945, Spoerry married Joy Pierrette Besse. Spoerry and his wife had two sons, Yves and Bernard. His father-in-law, Antonin Besse, was a wealthy merchant with businesses in Aden and Beirut. Also a philanthropist, Antonin founded St Antony's College, Oxford, and saved Gordonstoun in Moray, Scotland from closure. Spoerry was an avid sailor. He died at his home in Port Grimaud in 1999 and is buried at the church in Port Grimaud.
