Born into a family of entrepreneurs and architects, Émile André studied architecture at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1894 and 1900, he travelled to Tunisia, Sicily, Ceylon, India and Persia and twice accompanied an archaeological mission to Egypt. A curious artist, he was fascinated by the civilizations of North Africa and the Middle East, particularly Islamic architecture. Before making a name for himself as an architect, Émile André became known in Paris and Nancy through the works he executed during his stays abroad. The reconstruction of the temple of Kom Ombos in Egypt was hailed by the critics when he exhibited it at the Salon du Champ de Mars in Paris in 1897.

Called back to Nancy in 1900 by his father Charles André, departmental architect, he worked on a number of major projects, such as the transformation of the Vaxelaire stores on rue Saint Jean in collaboration with Eugène Vallin. The following year, he and the architect Henry Gutton were commissioned to draw up plans for the Parc de Saurupt estate, the only example of a private district in Nancy. In 1902, they built the caretaker’s lodge, the villa lesGlycines and villa les Roches. André went on building private villas as well as apartment buildings and shops. He designed several pavilions for the Eastern France International Exhibition in 1909. His many and varied projects (houses, villas, buildings, shops) are more characterised by the plastic study of volumes than by the decoration itself. His masterful use of a wide range of materials, combined with the invention of new decorative forms, inspired mainly by the Gothic style, gave his buildings a singular and picturesque character. The work he produced for private clients demonstrated his inquisitive eye for the most avant-garde European achievements.

Like many European Art nouveau architects, Émile André also designed furniture. Some were created especially for the stores (Magasins Vaxelaire, Roesfelder pharmacy...) and villas that he designed, creating works of total art that were further enhanced by his work on wrought iron balustrades and railings. However, his furniture production was short-lived. He exhibited all his decorative art creations at the Lorraine Decorative Arts Exhibition in 1901, then in Paris in 1903. Like his architectural works, his furniture was the result of personal reflection and attests of his interest in the creations of his European colleagues.

After the First World War, he was involved in rebuilding the destroyed Lorraine villages of Flirey and Limey.

His work in Nancy includes the Huot houses, 92, 92 bis quai Claude Le Lorrain (1903), the Lombard and France-Lanord buildings, 69 and 71 avenue Foch (1902-1904), the Renauld bank on rue Saint-Jean (1908).

From 1901, he was a member of the École de Nancy's steering committee.