by Claude Parent
(en)
(...) The birth of AA goes back to the Thirties, and curiously enough arose from the invention of synthetic rubber, so-called industrial or artificial, which had interested a young engineer just out of the Ecole Centrale after one year of studies. A rare phenomenon, which would have enabled this young prodigy named André Bloc, born in Oran, I think, to become a student of the Ecole Polytechnique, or the National School of Mining Engineering, if the crisis had not convinced him to put an end to his studies and find work (which was hard) at a time when young engineers were accepting cleaning positions. André Bloc was lucky. His boss, an amateur publisher, entrusted him with a review on rubber, and in view of the young engineer’s interest in modern industry, offered him the editorship of a small review on architecture... (read)
Photo credits : scanned original cover page (personal archive)
