Context : In March 2025, 13 people who lived in the Maison Radieuse in the 1950s and 1960s meet to discuss the photographs that have been found. Some of the witnesses recognise themselves in the photographs. They reminisce about their days living in the Le Corbusier building.
- Life before and moving in
My family lived on Rue Georges Boutin, which was 50 meters from Le Corbusier’s « Maison Radieuse ». It wasn’t quite the same level of comfort ! My mother told me that in our previous house, during harsh winters, she would collect water, and the next morning, the water would be frozen. The toilets were in the backyard.
We arrived from a house on the banks of the Loire, where it was damp, really rotten. I was sick very often.
My parents left a house in Chantenay, which was rather unsanitary after the war, with only one bedroom, one room, and toilets in the backyard, as was the case at the time. And my parents seized the opportunity when Dad heard that Le Corbusier was going to build the Maison Radieuse.
This housing unit was heavily criticized. It’s true, I may shock some people, but honestly, it’s not very attractive when you look at the building. That choice of very grey building materials, because concrete can be made much lighter than what Le Corbusier used here. Here, he decided to use sand from the Loire, rounded pebbles collected from the coast, which were grey, and not a light grey. So, he added colours, but when you look at the building from further away, it still looks like a very dark barrier. So, everything we’ve said about the ”Maison du Fada” isn’t here, it’s the Marseille Unit that’s called the” Maison du Fada”, but still, the word has reached us here, and it’s true that for people from other parts of Rezé, whom we meet in middle school or high school, we tell them where we live, and immediately they say, “Oh, you live in that strange thing,” that’s it.
It’s true that at the time, it was frowned upon by those around us, family and friends would say, “What are you going to do there, live in a rabbit hutch, a building… ” It wasn’t acceptable back then, they only wanted houses. So they stuck to their guns, and they didn’t regret it, of course, because it was all modern comforts, a radical change. And that was the beginning of happiness.
It was a new notion of comfort : heating, bathroom, because back then, bathrooms weren’t common in homes. There was a basin or a “gargotte” outside. I remember when they lived in Quarron, there was what we called a “gargotte”, which was something we used to do the laundry in. We put a fire underneath it. We used to bathe there when we were kids.
We arrived in 1958, by surprise, well, especially my mother. My father had organized our move without telling her. We lived in the Batignolles housing project. There were three housing projects there, a bit like mining towns. There were wooden barracks. The “Halbwachs project”, the “Marat project”… And so we had been living in these housing projects since I was born, before World War 2. So, again, there was no water in the houses. The toilets were in the backyards. So, there you go. We did have running water when we left the housing project. But we didn’t have a bathroom. There was nothing. There were four of us at the time. The four of us slept in one bedroom.
So, we arrived at Le Corbusier coming back from vacation in Bretagne. My father, pretending to go and get the keys to our house in Batignolles, took us to Le Corbusier, apartment 642. My mother discovered her refrigerator, her sideboard, and everything. My father said to her, “Well, now, here we are. We live here.”
Archive :
Promotional text: “What you will find at the Maison Radieuse that you won’t find anywhere else.”
300 homes built in a wooded park covering more than 4 hectares. Unobstructed views with no neighbours in sight. Soundproofing that many so-called luxury buildings would envy. A nursery school on the building’s terrace. The option of having groceries delivered while you are away from your apartment. Shopping centre, school, and stadium in the immediate vicinity. Bus stop at the foot of the building, post office in the building lobby.
Housing unit managed by the residents themselves, with unbeatable rental prices.
I remember when we moved into Le Corbusier, there was a lot of hustle and bustle everywhere. Almost all of us arrived at the same time to move in. So there were security guards bustling around the elevators, helping people load their furniture and take it up in the elevator.
Arriving in a large hall like that, with three elevators that take you to the so called “streets”… when you’re a child, you say, “No, it’s not a street. It’s a hallway.” But no, here, they’re called streets. You have all these colorful doors that catch your eye. You think it’s very beautiful. Because, on top of that, in the 1950s, it was right after the war. Everything was a bit grey. The city had been bombed. We didn’t have the comforts in the apartments that we had in the city. So, for us, it was a magical place.
Archive :
Information paper from La Maison Familiale, public housing landlord on the Maison Radieuse, 1955.
Le Corbusier’s Housing Unit in Rezé, a project by the low-rent housing cooperative Maison Familiale, 19 rue Crébillon, Nantes.
This Housing Unit comprises 294 apartments with 1 to 6 rooms. The 2.5-hectare park in which the building is constructed contained beautiful trees, which have been preserved. Residents will therefore be able to enjoy this calm and relaxing setting. The orientation of the apartments is based exclusively on the sun, which, along with air and light, is abundantly distributed through large bay windows. There is no need to worry about overlooking neighbours. Furthermore, extreme precautions have been taken to make the apartments virtually soundproof. Each family will therefore be well protected and isolated from their neighbours within their own home. A tour of the apartments, which has already been completed, will allow everyone to appreciate the qualities of these modern, bright, and practical homes.
And on moving day, I remember, I was still sick, and they had put me up at my grandparents’ house. It was in the evening that they came to pick me up by car to bring me here. We drove through the parking lot. So, we pulled up, I got out, and there was nothing around me. And then I saw this huge house.
Yes, it was new. It was very big. Not many people lived there yet. We were among the first. It was empty, in fact. What always struck me were the smells. When I arrived here, there was a strong smell of wood. There is wood everywhere. That was my first impression.
And for us kids, as we discovered this apartment, we felt like we were in a completely different world because it was something we had never experienced before. The space, the light, the smell of newness, and the modernity we didn’t know, that we could never have imagined, it was something good. We made it our own right away with the children’s bedrooms, etc. We immediately made this apartment our own.
So we moved in, and we hadn’t discovered much that was new to us, because we had been living in a house in Albi, so it was a little different, but we already had a bathroom and all that. When Mom saw it, she was a little taken aback. But my father absolutely wanted to be in Le Corbusier, so we stayed in Le Corbusier.
- Visiting the apartment
– We are entering the apartment, where are we?
First there is an entrance hall, which was delivered unfurnished, there were just mushroom-like coat hooks on the wooden wall. This entrance hall has an essential function, which is sound insulation from the street. In today’s flats, some owners have removed the entryway to enlarge the living room, they are now regretting it a little, because there is no longer any sound filter between the apartment and the so-called street.
Well, it’s not exactly the apartment I lived in in 1956, since I lived in a descending duplex. So obviously, that changes a lot of things. But on the other hand, the kitchen layout is the same as we knew it: the pot rack, which is very functional, especially because at the time we had less kitchen equipment and crockery than we do today. There were five of us in the family and we put all the crockery in the serving hatch. But we didn’t have all the appliances we have today.
– On the other hand, did it come about quite quickly in the 1960s?
Yes, and this posed a problem in the descending duplex apartments, particularly with the refrigerator. Because here, in the ascending duplex apartment, the refrigerator has its place under the stairs, which is almost natural. But in a descending duplex, it was more complicated. But today’s kitchen designers can make use of the space and fit everything into the same volume. So, the layout was minimal, really. We just had the sink and the cabinet underneath. Instead of taps, there was a gas water heater that supplied both the kitchen and the bathroom. Actually, there is no bathtub, only a shower. And that was it. There was nothing else.
— What did your parents think of this space?
Well, I think that for my mother, it was a little difficult at first to manage when we had guests. Because then you had to be really organized so that it didn’t turn into a mess. And then, you couldn’t cook your meal in the privacy of your kitchen and then bring it to your guests. It’s all live. And even at my house now, where I no longer have a serving hatch, but a low counter… but since I’ve lived there from the beginning, I know what to do: when my guests arrive, there’s nothing lying around. And I manage to do it so. So, I think that was the hardest part to deal with. Otherwise, in everyday life, being with the children and everything at the same time…
- And your mother…?
Mom followed. What she saw as a disadvantage was that Mom was a seamstress. She loved that job. And at the beginning of their marriage, she settled down at home to work as a professional seamstress. But then, it quickly turned out to be too small.
She thought it wasn’t big enough, and then… On the other hand, it was still modern. She liked the modern aspect. What she didn’t like was the boat doors. Then she got used to it. After that, she lived there practically until… she died at the age of 95. She left 7 or 8 years before… She was starting to have mobility problems. She moved into another house where everything was on the ground floor. Otherwise, she would have stayed.
She had wonderful comforts. Comfort and social contact. Because Mom always loved interacting with the neighbours. So, it was ideal. And everyone was about the same age. I remember that all the women she socialized with were mothers with children, like us, of the same age. It was wonderful. She finally had a home, a beautiful home that she kept a little too tidy. Not every house had shoe covers, after all. And then there were the stairs, polished every week… Well, it ended badly for her, but… After that, it was over.
I think people really enjoyed it… It was new. It’s like when you move into a new apartment. You want it to stay nice and clean. So that’s how it was. And then, compared to what they had known before, it was such a change that you really had to take good care of it. And then, they were still tenants, but at the same time, it was a step towards home ownership. So people took great care of it. It belonged to them.
Archive :
Anne-Marie Raymond and Madeleine Péter for Elle magazine, published on July 25, 1955:
She visited it in private and observed the lives of the mothers of the progressive families that Le Corbusier had in mind.
It is the woman who lives in the house, he says. It is on her that the balance of the home rests. It is therefore she who must be helped and liberated by simplifying her manual tasks. And if the women who live in one of my houses gain two hours a day, I will have won the game.
The modernized woman.
The mother’s happiness is planned, calculated, and meticulously organized, since she is the one who was thought of first and foremost. She is freed from most of the drudgery that weighs on the lives of too many housewives.
The father’s happiness is to return home from work to a comfortable and relaxing interior where he can unwind without being disturbed by anyone. Rezé is a commuter town where almost all the men work in Nantes and are hardly ever at home except to eat dinner and sleep. The Cité Radieuse is designed specifically to allow fathers to make the most of these moments of rest and leisure.
Children at home.
Children’s happiness has not been forgotten. They are no longer little intruders tolerated in a house built without taking their needs into account, but real inhabitants with a right to be there. Their comfort, enjoyment, and safety are part of the architect’s plan.
A playroom, a fully sliding partition separates the two children’s bedrooms, which can be joined together into one large room for quiet play without disturbing the parents.
Safe elevators—the most modern in Europe—equipped with a photoelectric cell: their doors open automatically as soon as a child’s hand is in danger of getting caught between the panels.
Coloured blackboards: the sliding partition in the children’s bedroom is covered with thick paint that can be written on with chalk.
A school and kindergarten on the roof of the building: the municipality of Rezé has installed a kindergarten classroom, a huge playground, a pool, and various games on the terrace.
Doors at their height: these give children, who are forced to live in a world of giants, the pleasure of having their own entrances and exits. The door leading to the terrace has openings at two different heights for toddlers and for four- to six-year-olds.
The tenants of the Cité Radieuse quickly became fanatics of their new world. As in Marseille, they want to initiate a club for all Cité Radieuse’s friends.
There were lots of functions for the staircase, among them playtime. And above all, it serves as extra seating for guests. When there are too many of us, we still do that today. A whole bunch of people on the stairs with their glasses… It makes the space bigger… in the ascending duplex. It’s not possible in the descending duplex.
The two children’s bedrooms are the ones I had when I was growing up. I especially remember the period when the two girls were in one bedroom and the boy in the other; not with bunk beds, but with beds placed end to end. And then, there was the famous sliding blackboard. And our mothers used to complain about that blackboard, with the chalk dust on the black floor. We didn’t have vacuum cleaners like we do today, nor did we have today’s cleaning methods. But anyway, those were definitely the children’s bedrooms of my childhood.
— It’s a blackboard that keeps you busy…
It was extraordinary. In the photo, you can see the girls drawing. And then there’s also the fact that it creates a space for play — something that today’s teenagers vehemently reject.
— So this room is Modulor-sized, meaning it’s 1.83 metres wide? Did it seem tight to you?
It seemed strange to us, rather than tight. And in fact, I think that at first, it didn’t seem strange to us, because we finally had a room! With the parents at one end of the flat and the children at the other, we each had our privacy. It was when we saw the looks on the faces of people who came to visit our flat that we realised it was strange. Our classmates’ girlfriends came from small suburban houses in Rezé… and… well. What a funny room ! But I don’t think it seemed tight or strange to us, because before, we didn’t have a room. And we didn’t really have anything to compare it to either.
We felt good. That’s it. When we arrived, when we walked through the doors of the hall, even before we got to our own flat, we were home.
That’s it. We were… in our own environment, we felt safe. Whatever happened, we knew we could count on the first person who arrived in the lobby. We were at home.
And we were comfortable in the flats too, given their design: the bedrooms, the decor, the comfort, because there was comfort back then. Now, when we see how the bathrooms were designed, they were very small. They’re very cramped, there’s no depth. You wouldn’t want to be disabled in a toilet like that, with oval doors like on a boat. But there you go, we were in a cocoon, in fact. In a cocoon, both in the apartment and in the community life of Le Corbusier — including the park. We were sheltered.
The blackboard, I think it’s a really great idea. Extraordinary. We drew frescoes on it, we developed, I think, an artistic touch, without limits. All we needed was coloured chalk and then…
So homework, of course — multiplication tables and all that — but drawing developed our imagination.
Now I remember, when you mention schoolwork. It’s true that we always think of drawing. We saw photos of children drawing. And my dad was a French, history and geography teacher. And I remember now that, for example, he would make us do conjugations on the blackboard. He would say to me, ‘You’re going to conjugate the verb “to sing” in the past tense.’ So: I sang, you sang… And I couldn’t mess up, you know.
We had our own toilet. We had a bathroom. Even though I hear that it splashed everywhere… Yes, of course, there was a walk-in shower in the corner. But for us, it was fabulous.
So luckily, the toilet was separate from the shower. That’s already better. But Le Corbusier had thought of all that. So yes, it was complicated to manage : one toilet for 12 people… very complicated! We may have had a time limit. (laughs) My father was careful not to let us take reading material with us. That’s normal. And for showers, we organised ourselves. And it worked out well.
I am an ambassador for Le Corbusier. Oh yes! And to those who are willing to listen, I tell them anecdotes. We talked a little this morning about the tiny lockers in the kitchen. As if by magic, my mother — I can still see her — would put a small empty jar of cream with a note saying ‘three baguettes’ and some change inside. And the next morning, when I got up, I would open the locker… And there was fresh bread inside. It was completely magical.
So, the special thing is that there is this little locker — a ‘shopkeeper’s locker’ — which connects the flat to the outside world. That’s another vivid memory from my childhood. So, in the evening, we would put a little note saying: ‘one litre of milk, one baguette’ — actually, we didn’t eat baguettes at the time, it was more like two loaves of bread. Then the milkman and the baker — there were two bakers who would come by very early in the morning. And when we got up, we would find breakfast in the locker.
So, it was important because you have to imagine that we didn’t have a refrigerator. So that’s why milk every day… except on Sundays, of course.
And then, this locker was also used by the grocer across the street since there was a grocery store next to the bakery. And the people who worked — because there were a few couples where both worked — placed their orders, and the grocer came to deliver them to the locker.
Well, let’s say it lasted a good fifteen years. And then, when supermarkets started to appear, and consumer habits changed… Well, it was the baker who came the longest, for the elderly. It was a real service, so she kept going, and then one day it stopped.
But the locker had another function. A much more amusing one. And it’s a shame there are no photos — because there never are, because it’s always urgent. But you must be familiar with our loggia handles. And if you don’t fold them down properly, you can find yourself trapped on the loggia, locked in. And when that happens, what do you do? Nowadays, we sometimes have mobile phones. So we call Franck, the building caretaker. Back then, we would shout ourselves hoarse over the edge of the loggia: ‘Hello, I’m locked in!’ etc. And what could we do? Because sometimes, on top of that, the keys were in the lock, inside. So we would call the caretaker, Rémi Crétin, or whoever came after him. He had a pass, he would open the locker, and then we would send a child or someone slim through the locker to rescue the poor soul who was stuck on the loggia.
But it still happens! On the other side, in the kitchen, it led above the sink drainer. There mustn’t be any crockery there. It happened not long ago with my neighbour, who had a mess and had to try to clear it away first so he could get through. Sometimes things get broken… but at least you don’t have to call a locksmith and incur significant costs.
This is another use for the locker that applies to all Housing Units. We all have stories like this to tell.
- Common areas and communal services
There is a unique lobby at the Maison Radieuse, which everyone must pass through to reach the “village square”. The lobby is quite sparsely furnished, because the Maison Radieuse was built on a very tight budget. There is this beautiful concrete counter. A few years ago, I met the worker who had built this counter, and he said that Le Corbusier was very keen for the wood grain to be visible and that it was important not to try to smooth it down — he insisted a lot on this.
This concrete counter is a kind of sculpture, and that’s where the newsagent was. Madame Blay was the first newsagent. And at the end of the counter was the post office. Later, they were separated: the newspapers were on one side and the post office on the other.
And then there are two small benches, which were partly funded by the town of Rezé, because it was considered that this was going to be the Post Office waiting room.
So, the public payphone wasn’t there from the beginning. There was a payphone associated with the Post Office, and then another payphone, managed by the residents’ association, which was there, opposite the stairs. But it was a… I was going to say a place of passage, no, because there was Mrs Blay. It was still the centre of life, because she was the newsagent, but she also exercised a certain… I don’t want to say surveillance, but she was still a watchful eye, a presence in the lobby.
But it’s true, there were amenities: there was the newsagent downstairs, there was the post office. And then, of course, there was the spirit of the communal washing machines. They were communal things. We tried to replicate that later: having a shared lawnmower… It doesn’t work very well. Well, there’s no proximity. It’s not here, where you can pop over in your slippers to take the polisher or the washing machine to your neighbour’s door. Whereas, well… obviously, in a housing estate, it’s not the same. It’s a different mindset.
— So how did the post work?
Well, first, the post boxes weren’t in that location, because the post boxes were on the central panel.
I even remember — I think the photos taken in 1961 show it clearly — the post boxes are there, there’s no doubt about it.
But as I recall, the very first post boxes were in the wings over there, next door. But I think that didn’t last very long, because it wasn’t practical at all.
The postman’s visit was an event. In the photos, you can see people in slippers waiting for the postman. Well, most of the women were housewives, so they knew what time the postman came. And there was a lot of discussion about the postman’s visit.
When we were little, our parents would send us downstairs to the lobby to post a postcard or letter, or to buy a newspaper. We would set off with our small change to buy the newspaper and some sweets at a penny each — which meant that with one franc, we could buy 100 sweets! So we would try to get our hands on a few francs every now and then to spend on sweets. Did you experience that too?
A street is what, in a normal building, we would call a corridor. But given that our streets are over a hundred metres long — and the building is a village — so, yes, it is indeed a street.
With very little light. There was even less than that originally. And originally, to save money, one side was turned off at night.
But this light is Le Corbusier’s intention. Firstly, because for him, walking through the building is an architectural stroll. And secondly, because there is a contrast between the darkness of the street and the burst of light you experience when you enter the flat.
Yes, it’s dark, but it’s a very colourful world.
— Which the children liked.
Which the children liked very much. And then, on every street, the colours repeat themselves: a yellow door, a red door, a green door… at number 116, the door is yellow and also at 216, at 316, at 416 — all along the column.
Children’s games
Archive :
Newsletter of the Maison Radieuse residents’ association – 1965
Did you know?
According to a survey conducted in 1965, the total population of the Maison Radieuse was 1,208 residents:
- Aged 0 to 15: 514, or 42.5%
- Aged 15 to 20: 114, or 9.5%
- 20 to 65 years old: 545, or 45.1%
- Over 65 years old: 35, or 2.9%
This was therefore a very young population: 52% were under 20 years old, compared to 40.1% in Rezé and 33% in France, according to the 1962 census.
I loved rainy days, my friend and I, we weren’t allowed to run in the corridors or in the streets, but the stairs were a place to play. We could race down all the floors at full speed, and then run back up as fast as we could… our legs were exhausted, of course! We told each other lots of imaginary stories. So, Le Corbusier was the castle, the fortress, it was everything we wanted it to be. And we would go into the corners, sometimes a little dark, near the cellars… And then we explored all the floors. It was very dark, there were some secret places where you weren’t supposed to go. And several times, we managed to climb onto the roof, at a time when they had closed the school for safety reasons.
We had spotted a passageway where the stairs got narrower and narrower, and there was a gate with a door that the caretaker locked. We kept watch. And then, from time to time, he would forget to lock the door… So we would go through, we would manage to get onto the terrace, and there we would look outside and wander around. That was great.
I loved taking the stairs, because it’s exercise when you’re a child — you need exercise and everything. But at the same time, if there was no one else around and you found yourself alone, you didn’t feel very proud, to be honest. It was a bit like a horror film sometimes.
- But were you used to lifts?
Oh yes, they were part of everyday life. Lifts were a surprising feature for the first residents. The children tended to play with the buttons a bit. At the very beginning — I don’t remember it myself — there was a lift attendant, mainly to regulate the first move-ins. But I arrived in February 1956, so a year later, there was no longer a lift attendant. Lifts had become part of everyday life.
Archive :
Note from the social housing landlord
Dear Member,
We regret to inform you that last Sunday January 21st, our caretaker had to intervene to rescue your son and one of his friends from lift number 1, where they had become trapped.
Upon inspection, it was found that the lift had become stuck because of incorrect operation, for which the two children were obviously responsible.
We are therefore obliged to inform you that we will charge your account for 50% of the repair bill we will receive from Otis. The other half will be charged to the account of the second child’s father.
We can only reiterate our request that you supervise your children, as we cannot expect all members to bear the cost of damage caused by any of the children living in the building.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause and remain, yours sincerely,
The Director, Jacques Gauducheau
The problem with security was that Rémy — his name was Rémy — had a sign on the door of his flat. So we knew exactly where he was. We could easily avoid that place… and go and do our mischief elsewhere. So, the usual: doorbells, toothpaste… petty crime. Classic.
– And wasn’t the caretaker a feared figure?
Yes! But the caretaker can’t be everywhere. We feared him! Luckily he was there, we feared him…
Someone said to me: ‘Oh yes, I remember your family. We were on the second floor, you were well known.’ I said: ‘Sorry.’ A big mischief ? When we were kids and we had mopeds, I admit, I’ll confess… We used to ride our mopeds up to the levels where the rubbish chutes used to be, at the ends. We would repair the mopeds and then test them out on the street — which is unbelievable! And that’s where I think to myself how very tolerant people were, and above all, soundproofing… Because no one ever came to tell us to stop. We didn’t spend ages there, but we did test the mopeds. Want to hear one last bit of mischief? I don’t know if anyone’s told you, but what we call ‘the south’ is the street that ends in a T-shape. And at the end was where everyone stored their strollers. So we always had this idea:
- ‘I’ll climb into it!’
- ‘No, you get in it!’
And then we’d race down the street… That’s the kind of mischief we got up to.
Archive :
Note from the social housing landlord
Children’s Games
We would like to remind parents in particular that they must be very careful about their children’s games in the communal areas of the building. It cannot be accepted that children linger or play in stairwells, corridors or entrance halls. They must be taught this and accustomed to running, shouting and playing cowboys (which is perfectly normal) only in the outdoor communal areas (parks, play areas, etc. — but not car parks).
It is also important to teach them to respect personal belongings stored in the shared garages: bicycles, mopeds, children’s cars, etc. We too often hear about broken bicycle headlights, punctured tyres, torn-off reflectors, and so on.
Finally, it is essential to teach children to respect the cleanliness and good appearance of the communal areas: lawns, shrubs, paintwork, which we strive—with great effort (and at your expense, moreover)—to keep clean, cheerful and welcoming. What are we to say about parents who send their children to have their afternoon snack in the stairwell, leaving jam-covered fingerprints on our freshly painted walls?
We will repeat all of this often, and we apologise for doing so. However, we believe it is necessary in order to maintain the appearance of our buildings, which undoubtedly—and we are certain of this—matters greatly to most of our members.
Nantes, January 30 1959
We feared the building caretakers — who were very present and very aware that they had to maintain some discipline. They were the only representatives of authority. So, you had to be a little wary, anyway. I know that one day, I must have done something stupid on the stairs, and Crétin caught us. Like all kids in those situations, we took off running in the other direction. And then two floors higher — well, the sound carries well — but far enough away from him that he couldn’t catch us right away… Apparently — I don’t really remember it directly — I called him a ‘jerk’.
I must have been 9 or 10 years old, and even then, I had no idea what that meant. I’d heard adults say it. I knew it wasn’t right, that it was an insult, but that was about it. Oh dear, he went to see my father, and then there was the explanation. So my father explained to him that I probably didn’t know what it meant anyway….
So, when I was… yes, young, very young. I was what, 12, 13 years old? My friends and I had planned to collect the doormats, which were at the doors at the time, and pick them up from every street and hide them north. So in the morning, well… the doorbells rang, and there were no more doormats. Scandal! We called Mr. Crétin, who was the building caretaker at the time. Then Mr Crétin came to look everywhere: he found them : ‘Well… it’s there.’ But that’s the only mischief we got up to. Apart from the doors — well, the doors were easy, we rang the doorbell and then ran away — but anyway, that’s all I really remember.
Archive :
Letter from a neighbour to the Social housing landlord complaining about the state of his garden – Rezé, May 13th 1960
Dear Sir,
After a meeting with Mr Crétin Rémi, who is responsible for supervising the Le Corbusier building in Rezé, he told me to write to you.
I regret to inform you that my garden, as well as those of all the residents, is being vandalised by a gang of hooligans from this building.
And if we dare to say anything to them, they respond with rather vulgar language.
For someone like my mother, who is 74 years old, this is not exactly the most pleasant experience, you see.
I therefore ask you, Sir, to take the necessary steps with the parents to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.
Otherwise, we will have to resort to other measures.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Chagnaud
It’s not like people haven’t thrown things off balconies before… What fun we had on those loggias! It’s a great place for kids. A big balcony like that, with your parents at the other end of the flat — it’s brilliant. You can get up to all sorts of mischief before they notice.
For example, I didn’t have a record player. There was Yvon, who lived at 545, so he was upstairs. So for me, at my parents’ house, it was downstairs. We had three metres of wire… So he had a record player, so he plugged it in. And I had got hold of a loudspeaker. With a wire, he played records for us, and we listened to them in our parents’ bedroom. Things like that. We were close. But it’s true that there were some people we never went to, because, well, our parents didn’t want us to go to their houses. Whereas our house was quite open. I mean, friends, girlfriends, everyone came there. My mother stayed there, but we had parties during the day. The neighbours came over… Well, small parties. It’s not big enough to have a party here, but anyway. We had a fairly open house. It was always quite welcoming. Whereas there were other people who had children… but the children weren’t allowed to bring their friends over.
We were one of the first to have a television on our floor. My father had been given a free-trial… There was a television salesman in Bouguenais nearby, and he had lent him a television set. In fact, he was promoting it. So we got our first television set. And everyone came. It was during the Janique Aimé era — you might not know it, because you’re young, but it was one of the first television soap operas. It must have started at 6 or 7 pm. So my parents would turn on the TV. And we’d open all the doors. And there was a queue in the corridor. People came to watch. It was really impressive.
- The doctor
My father, as I told you, was the only one who had his medical practice on site. That had been agreed with the Maison Familiale. The trade-off was that it was also the first aid station. All the minor accidents in the building ended up at my father’s place.
— Did he deliver babies?
— No.
— My finger remembers the stitches… They used staples back then.
There was a gentleman we called ‘the Marquis de Ruidas’. He had a bit of a drinking problem. One day, he fell into the toilet. He got his head stuck between the toilet bowl and the door! My father was called, he showed up… “How were we going to get him out?” So my father asked someone to go and fetch some olive oil. And he poured it generously over the man’s head… (laughter)
I have a memory of us eating in the flat, and my father choking on an apricot. He ran out onto the balcony, unable to breathe. My mother said to me — I must have been eight years old — ‘Go and fetch Dr Seidner!’ I was very young at the time. So I ran! I ran to the lift — we were far away — I pressed the button… And then I heard: ‘It’s okay, Marie-Andrée, come back, he’s spat out the stone!’
It was a reflex: if we had a little scrape, we called Dr Seidner. It was great.
He spoke little and was rather austere. He never wore a tie… because he didn’t have any shirts. He always wore polo shirts. However, he had a slight accent. He was born in a city that changed its name four times. He was born in Chernivtsi, which was part of Austria-Hungary before the First World War. He was born in 1905. At the end of the First World War, it became part of Romania. After the Second World War, it became part of Russia. Today, it’s in Ukraine. It’s still called Chernivtsi, but with the Ukrainian spelling.
So his slight accent sometimes caused confusion… I heard anecdotes when I was with Mum: Women would say, “I went to see Dr Seidner, and he said, ‘I’m going to pleasure you. ” instead of “measure you” (laughter)
Oh no! I hope he didn’t… Ah, it’s coming back to me now. When you came down the stairs, the first thing you saw as a patient was the scales and the height gauge for measuring people. A set of scales. And behind it, in the small room behind the toilets, he used to receive visits from medical representatives every other day. That was still the norm at the time. The medical representatives would come with samples, and my father had a whole pharmacy behind him. For people who couldn’t afford to pay for their medication.
My father’s first language was German. Then, in his family in Chernivtsi, they also spoke French. He took his baccalaureate in Bucharest, Romania. Then he left Bucharest to go to Vienna to start his studies in the early 1930s. His name was Seidner. He was Jewish.
Not good at all, at that time. He was lucky enough to study for two years in Vienna, then he left for France. Because as he had taken his baccalaureate in Romania, there was an agreement between Romania and France which allowed his studies to be recognised. He was able to continue his medical studies in Clermont-Ferrand, first, and then in Paris. But he already spoke French at the time — well, with perhaps a slight German accent.
Every week, the newsagent downstairs had a special order for my father. He would buy Der Spiegel, in German, and bring it home. And sometimes we didn’t get it because it hadn’t been delivered… He wasn’t happy. I learned German by reading Der Spiegel with my father.
- The nursery school
In 1955, when the building was completed, there were lots of children, especially very young ones. What did they do in the morning to go to school?
Yes, so nursery school… that was another surprise in this building: a school on the roof ! And as you point out, there were so many children. Michel Seidner told us about a census of 109 pupils, but we have other censuses that go up to 150 children… all the young residents of the building, divided into three classes. Nothing like today! Mothers would bring their children to the lift landing. They didn’t go up with them as they do now, they would leave the children in the lift, which was rarely empty as there was always a whole ‘bunch’ of children. The children went to school, and of course, there was no canteen at that time since their mothers were at home. So the children would come back down for lunch and then go back up. And it was the cleaning ladies who took care of the children’s security on the roof terrace.
Archive :
Note from the social housing landlord on the use of lifts – Nantes, December 13th 1960
A recent incident, fortunately without serious consequences, highlighted the disadvantages of allowing children who are too small to use lifts.
A child trapped in a lift due to a minor malfunction was initially very frightened, then caused panic with his cries.
More serious incidents could be caused by children who are too young.
We would like to remind you that, in their own interest, as well as that of their parents and everyone else, children under the age of 7 are not allowed to use the lift unaccompanied.
If a child under the age of 7 were to cause damage to this complicated and expensive machinery, their parents would be held responsible for the improper use of the equipment.
We apologise for having to remind you of this.
Jacques Gauducheau, Director.
It was our mothers who took us to the lift. My mother, for example, often came in her dressing gown — at 9 or 9.15am. There was no shame in it, there were other mothers in dressing gowns in the street. When the lift arrived, either the teacher or the teaching assistant would meet us. And that was it, the day began.
At midday, we would do the same thing in reverse, and our mums would be waiting for us at the lift. That’s how it worked. These are memories that stick with you: we could go to school without coats, because on rainy days, we were put in the lift in our jumpers. We didn’t need coats because we didn’t go out into the playground. You remember that well when you’re 4 or 5 years old. And we were well looked after by the teachers, it was a warm environment.
It’s different, but I remember the school’s concrete structures.
They were round and soft. When the sun was hot, we could curl up in the hollows of the concrete, and it was very warm. We liked the the warm concrete, it was pleasant, despite everything it might evoke. That’s why I asked Mrs Vittu earlier if we could visit the school again one day, because I’d love to curl up in the sun again.
- You’re too big now!
- No, no, I’d still curl up, just to get that feeling back.
Of course, everything was built to scale. Originally, the floor of the indoor school was black, a bit like Dalami, or like the streets. When the sun shone, there were streaks of colour. Now everything is safe: access ramps, foam pads, etc. Whereas generations of children used to climb on the rocks so they could see over the railing.
The school was designed by Xenakis, not Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier did, however, retain the possibility of developing the space above the school. For a long time, there was talk of building an open-air theatre there. I don’t know if it would have been used properly… But this staircase did have a function at first, even if it no longer does today.
The boys used it to play, sometimes in dangerous conditions! Originally, the basin was designed to hold water. There are photos showing the basin filled with water. But Le Corbusier wasn’t a great expert on waterproofing, and the pool leaked, so we stopped filling it. Then we tried putting sand in it, but that wasn’t a good idea either, because of the wind on the roof terrace. It’s a very mineral environment, but they also can use the park.
At that school, we were as happy as we could be. It gave us the opportunity to play and run around endlessly. Of course, just like in any playground. I don’t remember the teachers being particularly stressed about the gap, even though it was very high. It was well calculated so that the children wouldn’t think of climbing or hanging on to it; it was high enough. And it’s strange, when you see it today, you might think “it’s unbearable”, that you feel like you’re in prison. But no, because it was so well laid out, designed for children, that the space was pleasant. There was a path all around it, and the architectural design played an important role.
She was a teacher using the techniques of Célestin Freinet. So, in these so-called Freinet schools, teachers encourage the active participation of children. It’s not a teacher facing the pupils, but an exchange. Children are given a lot of creative freedom. Lots of things are used to develop this and maintain the children’s interest. It’s not necessarily in books, but even later, in primary school, there’s a lot of interaction. Nantes, as you know, is a port with strong historical ties to France’s overseas territories. Not only because of slavery, but also because of products such as sugar, etc. The teacher would receive cocoa beans, whole pods. She could show the children that it’s not a picture, it’s a real cocoa pod, and explain how to crush it to make chocolate. She did the same with bananas, etc. In a school that uses Freinet’s principles, they seek out this kind of interaction as much as possible, so that the children can see and touch real objects.
Archive :
Inspection report, November 30th 1959, city of Rezé – Le Corbusier building
- Attendance: good
- Dress and cleanliness: very good
- Habits of care and order, toilet training, discipline: very good
- The teacher was able to get the children to actively participate in carefully planned and organised exercises.
- Educational organisation: children born in 1955 and 1956, divided into three groups according to age and development.
- While the younger children are busy with sensory games, the middle-aged children observe leafy stems in a transparent bottle and translate their observations into a quick drawing.
- They are accustomed to drawing pictures to illustrate the concepts that the teacher is trying to teach them, particularly relative positions.
- The teacher favours elements taken from nature, which seems sensible given the artificial conditions in which the children live, with few opportunities to leave the building.
- The introduction to arithmetic is active, as is reading.
- At the beginning of the year, visual attention is focused on graphic symbols.
- Recitation and singing: good.
—School inspector: Mr Bascoulard.
- Outdoor activities
The park was great, now it’s even greater. There was a stream running through Bottino, there was a wetland, there were salamanders, there were frogs, there was everything! There were fruit trees: quinces along the road, plums at the back, and then there were the neighbours’ vines, so we were really, truly in the countryside! There were huts and everything, and then in the summer, the mums… I taught my son and daughter to ride bikes on the concrete part of the big field.
Archive :
Note from the social housing landlord to the tenants of the Maison Radieuse
Children’s clothing
We are all suffering from the heat and it is understandable that everyone is trying to be a little more comfortable by wearing lighter clothing. However, we feel that the building and its immediate surroundings are not a beach, and therefore we believe it is desirable that children do not walk around the building or other larger areas in beachwear. We believe that parents could ensure that children come downstairs in light but appropriate clothing, with shirts, for example, only being removed in the meadow or in the more secluded areas of the park. We are instructing the security service to ensure this with courtesy and firmness.
We are sure that everyone will understand.
Nantes, July 9th 1959.
The Director, Jacques Gauducheau.
The large field was wonderful for exploring, running, etc. The small meadow was good for meeting up with mums and others, and there was also the small wood, which at the time was a place for playing hide and seek and lots of other things, meeting people and so on. It was great.
The big wall in front of the sandpit : how many times I walked along it, climbed on it, being tall enough to climb on the wall…
– The lake?
We weren’t really allowed to go to the lake because there was a risk of drowning, but my room overlooked the lake and the tall fir trees next to it. And it’s true that you said you needed space, etc. And I know that the big thing for me now is to have trees outside my windows: light and trees.
There were little hills everywhere, woods, etc. When you were children, you would go down to the park, meet someone, immediately become friends or not, and immediately organise yourselves to play hide and seek, cowboys and Indians. It all happened immediately, and that’s when affinities developed between friends we liked and those we liked less. We all wanted to be the leader. When we played cowboys and Indians, we never wanted to be the Indians because they were the ones who lost. We wanted to be John Wayne. And then later, we had other concerns, like trying to impress the girls. It was a bit like cockfighting.
I know that when I was little, I liked touching everything that was carved in Le Corbusier’s concrete. It was something I enjoyed exploring, and then climbing on the blocks: when you’re little, you like to climb, and it’s true that there was a photo in the archives you sent, with the children in the trees, and we all said, ‘Oh yes, it was great to climb trees, it was something extraordinary.’
Another game we played at Le Corbusier, well, it’s under the pilotis, as soon as there’s wind, it can turn into a storm, and the big game was to let yourself be carried in one direction along the entire length of the stilts, with the wind at your back, letting yourself be carried along with your arms raised, the wind blowing a little into your coat and acting like sails. Sometimes we felt like we were going to fly away, and the aim of the game was to come back in the opposite direction, fighting like a boxer to try to go up against the wind, which was sometimes extremely violent. We could stand in the pillars to take a little break, and then suddenly there was no more wind, and we’d set off again… that was a great game.
We still had more of a life among ourselves, meaning that I didn’t know many children from outside the Maison Radieuse.
Most children had a lot of freedom from their parents to go to these places. We considered it safe, I don’t think we asked ourselves many questions about the risks for children inside the building, even though there were surely some. Some of the things that are talked about all day long in the mainstream media today, I don’t see why they wouldn’t have happened here. There are perverts everywhere, it’s not because we were in Le Corbusier’s building that there weren’t any! But I remember that we had a great deal of freedom of movement inside the building and that, for example, we would go to the library ourselves without being accompanied or anything. We didn’t ask ourselves these kinds of questions at the time, and perhaps we were wrong…
We had everything we needed right there: we had the terrace, we had the stairs, we had the park. Of course, we sometimes formed little commando units to go and pick cherries, and grapes too, we had friends in Trentemoult so we went there as well. Well, when it was flooded, we went boating and all that, but otherwise we stayed where we were.
We were also lucky because if we hadn’t had the whole park next door, we wouldn’t have been able to do all that. There was already a park, but it wasn’t as big. We had the ROC, the football club that was created by Mr Marteau, who lived here, and we made a football pitch that wasn’t the best, but it existed, so you can see how much space we had! If we’d had less space, I think it would have been a bit different, but anyway, that’s how it is, it’s good, and above all, it’s good that it’s still there.
Archive :
Note from the social housing landlord to the parents
For the good order of our Maison Radieuse and in the interest of our societies themselves, we place special emphasis on the supervision of children. The current period finds them tired from their school year and suddenly freed by the holidays. We are a little alarmed to see the consequences this entails: several damaged cars, vandalised shrubs, inappropriate use of lifts, fuss in the lobby, etc. We feel obliged, while appealing to everyone’s goodwill and understanding, to remind parents that they are civilly liable for any damage caused by their children to persons or property. We instruct the security service to be very strict and to report any damage or theft committed by children to us immediately. Parents will be notified immediately and charged for the cost of the damage. We would like to emphasise the following points in particular: do not leave children unattended, clearly explain to them what they can and cannot do, teach them to respect public property, do not let them play in the streets, lifts, hallways or car parks, and teach them not to throw objects into the lake, which would quickly become a rubbish dump. We thank all parents for this special effort. Nantes, 8 July 1958.
The Director, Jacques Gauducheau.
In the playground, in the park, we did all the silly things you can imagine doing at that age: eating green plums from the trees near the big field, without waiting for them to ripen, so of course there were consequences! The first cigarettes smoked behind the bushes that separated us from other areas, our parents could see us from their balconies, mothers kept a close eye on their children in the park, but there were places where we could hide: there were hedges and things like that, you could see smoke coming out, but you didn’t know who was behind it! So we had a lot of activities in the summer. We didn’t necessarily go on holiday as much as we do today, especially with the mixed population we had in the building. So in the summer there was a lot going on, the kids played outside together a lot. You saw how many children there were, it was a huge proportion! I think more than 30% of the population was under 15, which is quite a lot, and there was a real sense of… belonging to something.
- The residents’ association and clubs
- What do you do at apartment 127?
Well, at 127 we do lots of things! The 127 is the official headquarters of the residents’ association, so we hold meetings there. We don’t have a board of directors, but a collegial council. We also run the cooking club there ; and then, above all, upstairs, there is the library, which is open twice a week. The library is one of the oldest activities, as it has been around since 1956. We don’t have the exact date, but it started with a donation from the Ministry of Education. It was in the central staircase, but it has always been in operation since.
As a kid, I had the opportunity to help at the library, which was a great pleasure. It was just before secondary school, or perhaps during secondary school. It was quite important, and in fact they ended up entrusting, giving me with the key from time to time. I would go in there, and smell the paper, books and everything… and so new books arrived, we had to cover them, catalogue them, make little member cards… When people came in, we would take the card from a little box and write down their names: ah, I was so proud of this secretary job, and especially when there were nothing to do, I enjoyed staying after hours sometimes, I read lots of books! Bob Moran, Alice, detective stories, I really enjoyed the books and all those clubs. These clubs brought such diversity, it was extraordinary. No, I’ll never forget it.
- Which clubs did you join?
I spent a lot of time in the photo-club. We had enlargers and everything we needed to develop film. That’s no longer the case today, but it was extraordinary. There was also a ping-pong club. I went to the guitar club; we went to the library a lot, and I think I also did a bit of bookbinding. It was very diverse!
I went to the library a lot. I read a lot thanks to the library. We had loads of books at home, but they weren’t necessarily books I wanted to read; they were classic literature. I discovered science fiction at the library; they had a great collection of science fiction books. My brother had joined the photo-club, so we started taking photos and stuff; it was fun. I must have played chess with kids my age… Not the TV club, because we had a television at home. I find it hard to remember where it was exactly, but Martine Vittu told me that the library had actually been in several places, which is why I can’t place it. But we made good use of it. I do think that the library in particular was important because it gave a lot of people the opportunity to read things they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to: they didn’t have the financial means to buy and keep lots of books at home, books were expensive and there weren’t many public libraries, I don’t think there was a public library in Rezé.
The youth club was set up in the 1950’s, so it was run by parents who had given us the room of the old television club. This club was for children aged 14 and over only, it was only for boys. At the time, people were very strict about morals, and boys and girls weren’t allowed to mix, so we boys felt a little frustrated because we were 14-15 years old and we had girlfriends outside the club, and they weren’t allowed to come with us, so we didn’t think it was very fair. After a while, we said, “The adults are very nice, but we want to have girls with us,” so we protested. We held demonstrations in the lobby when our parents came home in the evening. We occupied the lobby and said, ‘girls with us’. Anyway, we protested, and after a while, I don’t know how long it took, but we got our way!
So the girls came, and then we also agreed that younger children could come too, because the little brothers were standing at the door saying, ‘Well, we can’t come,’ but we weren’t too strict about age, as long as they didn’t bother us, it was fine. I always say that we were a bit like the precursors of May 1968 because you have to remember that May 68 started – so for us it was happening in 1962, 63 rather – so May 68 started with a problem of gender diversity, at the Nanterre University, girls were not allowed in the university residences, so the students had the same demands as us, namely gender diversity. So that was the start of May 68, and then it developed into much more politicised demands, which of course we didn’t go as far as politics, we stuck to gender diversity.
The caretaker, I don’t remember him being involved in that, it was more the members who ran the residents’ association who were much more reluctant. It also came from their culture, in that mixed-gender relationships weren’t something they had experienced in their youth, and then there were perhaps also certain religious or other factors. But we weren’t aware of that. For us, it was the parents who were obstructing things, and as kids we didn’t understand something that was natural, because outside we got on just fine with girls, we played with girls, we let them join in our games, so there was no reason why they shouldn’t be there with us in our leisure activities.
So there was a youth club that was only for boys: one evening my two older sisters came home, I remember, and said, ‘That’s it, we’ve voted for mixed clubs!’ They were happy, so after that there was only one youth club for girls and boys, and I started going there too, of course. I remember there was a table football game, a ping-pong table where we took turns playing, a record player with records from that era, books, magazines… It was a nice atmosphere, warm and cosy.
At that time, girls were given tasks such as helping in the kitchen and doing the housework, while the boys had fun, it’s true that the sisters obviously looked after their little brothers and sisters and helped with the housework!
Yes, the boys were running riot in the park and the girls were looking after the library… that’s pretty much how it was! It was very funny because we don’t have the same memories at all… there are some overlaps, but boys and girls don’t see things in the same way, yes…
From the beginning, the residents’ association has always operated on a voluntary basis, never paying anyone, no exchange of money, there is an annual membership fee and this annual fee allows you to participate in activities. There was only one activity for which a small entrance fee was charged, which was the TV club, because we had to repay the loan that had been taken out to buy the television, but otherwise the activities have always been free and continue to be so.
Archive :
Decision by the Maison Familiale (social housing landlord) for the pre-financing of the installation of antennas and the distribution network to the apartments
May-June 1957 : beginning of the tv-club.
October 1957: The residents’ association provided 30 chairs to the tv-club, on the sole condition that they could recover some of them for office meetings.
December 1957: Continuing its equipment plan, the tv-club refurbished the floor of the level.
11th January 1958: The tv-club gathered nearly a third of the families.
June 1958: General assembly of the association, it is noted that in one year, 6,000 paid entries, every Thursday : average of 130 children attending for free.
Perhaps it is in initiatives like the tv-club and the library that our primary goal is best realised: to create and develop friendly relations among the members.
We were very happy, very content. It’s true that it was a very special place, it’s true that it’s a village, it’s true that there’s a specific social and associative life, and everything that makes the people who lived here remember it, even those who spent little time here. They all share a common experience that probably doesn’t exist elsewhere, I don’t think so at least.
- Political and Philosophical Commitment
Our parents were very engaged. Dad became involved the moment he moved in Le Corbusier; he became more confident in this and gradually became politically active outside, thanks to all the people he met. He is an example for us. We didn’t necessarily follow him, but it’s true that we are proud of what they did at Le Corbusier. Mum remembers him being invited in the evening after a meeting to have a last drink, he had gone to the bar in slippers, because here, we were always in slippers when you went from one apartment to another. We didn’t wear shoes to visit a neighbour. There were always funny anecdotes like that!
My father was part of the communist cell here. I often eavesdropped these kinds of communist militant meetings at the top of the stairs, with Mr Donbert, Mr Pérot, Mr Merche, a couple of teachers…
I remember, during the municipal elections, there were a lot of militants here, many candidates, and they had a problem. On the candidacy forms, the name and then the address were mentioned. So Jean-Paul David wrote “Cité Radieuse,” Mr Louet wrote “Le Corbusier,” and another one wrote “Boulevard Brosseau”… while they all lived in the same building!
I joined the Socialist Party in 1975-1976 here in Rezé. It was very influential, especially with the Left-wing Union municipality. It was the first Left-wing Union municipality in France, with Alexandre Blanchet, and Yves Roqueton, the leader of Force Ouvrière, who blocked the first factory during May ’68 at Sud Aviation, that’s where May ’68 started. He was a guy who lived at the Corbusier!
What I liked about Le Corbusier is his whole architectural approach, like the Maison du Fada and everything he did in Chandigarh. Starting from a relatively simple concept, he still managed to multiply ideas, and people still living here proves that it wasn’t such a silly thing after all. He was primarily interested in people when he designed his architecture, and that’s what interests me! When the Rezé Housing project was built, Rezé was a hole, there was nothing, a few houses only. Later on they demolished a part of Rezé and the new housing estate appeared. As people arrived, the Maison Radieuse’ inhabitants started being seen as privileged, although we were not more privileged than they were. At the time, their bathroom was nicer than ours! I think it’s linked to the fact that we had such strongs community ties, something they didn’t necessarily have, because it wasn’t quite the same clientele. To live here, to love it, you had to enjoy a certain way of living, associative and all that. These people, in general, were rich, not necessarily in money—I wasn’t rich in money when my parents separated—but we were rich in activities, in action, and that’s the most important thing. That’s why I tell myself we should focus on living well, on taking care of others, that’s important. My mum had a hard time at one point, and there were a lot of people helping her. We didn’t know, we were kids, and later, she paid them back. It was like that. That doesn’t happen today, it didn’t happen elsewhere in Rezé, it might have happened if the housing had been different, because the housing problem is really important in the way people live. Here, we were all together, there were always people who didn’t agree, but generally, everyone got along, so it worked well. Even today, compared to what I knew, it’s not the same at all, but it works relatively well. There are fewer problems than at the other housing project in Rezé. There are also people who like this life, who come to Le Corbusier because they enjoy it. I think that’s it. What I keep when I talk to people about Le Corbusier: Le Corbusier was more attached to people and the land than to silly problems, and I think you can feel it in his architecture, and that’s what it’s about. Of course, people say it’s just pieces of wood, but he thought about a lot of things! His Charte d’Athènes is still interesting to read.
There was maybe the reputation of Le Corbusier. For the family, they didn’t necessarily know how far it went. Dad was probably more cautious; he knew he was someone from the extreme right who supported Hitler’s regime, but well, it remains to be seen, and that’s not at all what he conveyed in terms of his construction spirit. Dad said, “I was curious to see this project,” and he was always like that, going to check out new things.
I’d rather not focus on him too much because there are things about Le Corbusier’s philosophy that I don’t really like! I think what’s important is that he tried to create something that met the needs of the inhabitants, even within the strict framework of social housing : costs, surface, things that can’t exceed certain limits… When you read books about it, you realise how restricting that was for the architect, but he still managed to create larger apartments for the same cost. The apartments were bigger than the usual social housing apartments for the same number of people. There are many things possible in his building that aren’t in other social housing blocks. Overall, I don’t think what was built in Rezé, just a few years later, in the 70s, was very good. There were some real eyesores in Nantes. Honestly, it is ugly, impractical, and ages badly. But there are other aspects of Le Corbusier that I don’t necessarily appreciate, but it’s important to separate the man from the work. But it’s true that when I told my son, who didn’t live here, “I’m going to do something at the Maison Radieuse by Le Corbusier, it’s interesting,” like all young people today, he went on the internet and found articles criticising certain aspects of Le Corbusier’s life or his behaviour, which wasn’t always very nice. I like Charlotte Perriand’s furniture, for example, but damn, he treated Charlotte Perriand really badly! He appropriated designs that she did, and he made money off them… That’s what I understood because, well, I wasn’t there to know, but when you read some things, you realise he wasn’t always a very nice guy. Even here, when you talk to people who know the history of this building’s construction, there are others who are more positively remembered than him, like Wogensky, Xenakis… They have a more positive image than Le Corbusier himself, who could be very harsh in the way he spoke and expressed himself.
What’s interesting is that we kept in touch with the neighbours. Some families moved out of Le Corbusier building at one point; some, for instance, moved to Trentemoult or even to Nantes, and we maintained strong relationships with them. Likewise, my father, the doctor, continued to take care of patients who had moved to Nantes. It wasn’t convenient for him, though… he did it because they were patients, but I think he regretted it a bit. But there was this spirit among the children and adults to keep relationships with those who had lived here, so something was created here that was different, something you don’t necessarily find elsewhere.
Some say it was like a somewhat sectarian community: “You were all together.” Yes, we were all together, but it wasn’t sectarian at all! We didn’t live in a community because everyone was in their own apartment, but everyone communicated. It was rare for families to be left out.
I was used to living collectively; I was already at boarding school. But here, it was a very diverse source of friends, and it was enriching because some of us were in primary school, while others were in high school. Back then, not everyone went to high school. At the time, barely 20% of a generation reached the diploma, so most of the time your future was the school-leaving certificate and then an apprenticeship. That was the path laid out for me, like for many others. But I had friends who were aiming for the diploma, who were already at secondary school, and that encouraged me to try to be their intellectual equal. I opened up a great deal intellectually, and culturally too. It fostered in me a desire to learn, and it also nurtured a sense of collective engagement, of activism later in my professional life, and of trade union and political involvement. So it clearly had an impact on my life.
The good fortune of this building, perhaps unlike the others in Marseille, Metz or Saint-Étienne, is that this one is more alive. I didn’t find much life in Marseille, apart from art. Here, it’s very popular, very lively, with people who are extremely different from one another, and that’s a good mix. I like that. I’m from the working class, I claim that identity, and I think that here you find everything: people with higher education, unemployed people, everyone. It’s real life. I think this building, this “house”, truly reflects life. It is genuinely alive.
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Life in the Le Corbusier Building in Nantes–Rezé from the book “15 days in France”
Nantes is currently the sixth-largest port in France, but recent decisions to reduce the activity of the river shipyards on the one hand, and the remarkable rate of demographic growth in Loire-Atlantique (double the average of other French departments) on the other, have created a sense of unease about future employment opportunities, particularly for workers, who represent nearly half of the active population. A serious effort is currently under way to create new activities: the arrival of gas from Lacq, and the development, to the east of the city, of a new industrial zone.
After a phase of reconstruction, Nantes—severely affected by the bombings of the Second World War—continued its urban expansion into the territory of neighbouring municipalities, notably Rezé (28,419 inhabitants) on the left bank of the Loire. It was here that a handful of men, at the cost of many difficulties, resolved to build a “housing unit of appropriate scale”, designed by the most admired—or the most contested—architect: Le Corbusier.
These housing units, true vertical cities built on pilotis, thus completely freeing the ground, are intended to restore Nature into the city.
As a form of collective housing, they must also allow families to achieve complete privacy, thus meeting the dual requirement of human beings: to live in society while preserving individual freedom. The dwelling, benefiting from remarkable sound insulation, is designed to accommodate the different stages of family life: first as a couple, then expanding with the arrival of children. The interior fittings are developed to the fullest in order to free men and women from the many domestic tasks, so that they may regain leisure time and time for personal development and cultural pursuits.
A wide range of collective social and cultural facilities is intended to enable people to meet and to foster harmonious relations between different social groups, in order to “shape true social clusters”. Unlike the one in Marseille, the Maison Radieuse in Rezé was built within the strict framework of funds allocated to “low-rent social housing”. It was therefore only able to bring part of these ideas to fruition. Nevertheless, it remains an original achievement, housing a strong core of men and women who are now convinced of the beneficial nature of the living environment proposed by the great architect.