Maison de type gratte-ciel
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison de type gratte-ciel, located in Pessac (Gironde), is a modern edifice built in the 19th-20th centuries. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Modern (19th-20th century)
- Location
- Pessac, Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- Mérimée Reference
- PA33000142
Jewel of the modern movement designed by Le Corbusier, this "skyscraper" house in the Cité Frugès in Pessac embodies a social and aesthetic revolution of the 1920s, inscribed on the World Heritage List.
History
In the heart of the Bordeaux suburbs, the Cité Frugès in Pessac is one of the boldest architectural adventures of the twentieth century. Of the four types of housing designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret for this exceptional development, the so-called "skyscraper" house stands out for its assertive verticality, in deliberate contrast to the traditional housing of the South-West. Tall, narrow and free of all superfluous ornamentation, it embodies a radically new vision of workers' housing: functional, bright and dignified. What makes this monument truly singular is the unique confluence of social utopia and plastic rigour. Le Corbusier didn't just build low-cost housing; here, for the first time on a large scale in France, he experimented with his famous "five points of modern architecture": flat roofs, pilings, free plan, free facade and entablature windows. The skyscraper house, with its two superimposed storeys and slender silhouette, is the most vertical and most photographed expression of this ensemble. To visit this monument is to plunge into a century of turbulent history. Long altered by residents who added pitched roofs, clerestories and traditional plasterwork, the houses have gradually been restored to their original state, revealing their polychrome hues - Prussian blue, bright white, ochre - which give the town a unique pictorial atmosphere, somewhere between Mondrian and De Stijl. The district is surprisingly easy to explore on foot, with the streets laid out according to a rational plan inviting you to take a contemplative stroll. The attentive walker will notice the subtle variations from one type to another, the play of shadows on the rendered facades and the small allotments that humanise this reinforced concrete utopia. For lovers of architecture and urban history, a visit to the skyscraper house and its neighbours is a rare intellectual and sensory experience.
Architecture
The skyscraper house takes its name from its unusual vertical dimensions for workers' housing between the wars. Built on two superimposed living levels - sometimes three, depending on the variant - it has a narrow, high façade with perfectly clean right angles and no cornices or mouldings, characteristic of the purist aesthetic that Le Corbusier was developing at the same time in his middle-class villas. The walls are made of reinforced concrete, rendered in smooth plaster and painted in a carefully composed palette of bright colours: whites, muted blues, greens and ochres blend from one house to the next, creating a coherent architectural polychromy throughout the neighbourhood. The openings are treated with particular care: the horizontal band of windows, running the full width of the façade, maximise the penetration of natural light and emphasise the horizontal nature of the floors, creating a striking formal dialogue with the overall verticality of the volume. Inside, the free plan of the reinforced concrete structure frees the partitions of any load-bearing function, allowing spaces to be distributed more fluidly and functionally than in traditional housing. The roof terrace, accessible from the upper rooms, is both a technical feat and an additional living space - revolutionary for its time. In terms of urban planning, the skyscraper house is part of a rational master plan in which the different types of dwelling are combined to vary the views, avoid monotony and optimise the amount of sunlight each dwelling receives. This overall approach to the relationship between individual architecture and the urban fabric is a direct precursor of the Unité d'Habitation theories that Le Corbusier would develop after the war.
Related Figures
Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris) — architecte concepteur de la Cité FrugèsPierre Jeanneret — cousin et collaborateur de Le Corbusier, co-concepteur du projetHenri Frugès — industriel sucrier bordelais, commanditaire et mécène du projetPhilippe Boudon — sociologue, auteur de l'étude fondatrice sur les transformations de la cité (1969)Theo van Doesburg — figure du mouvement De Stijl, dont l'esthétique influence la polychromie de Le Corbusier
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison de type gratte-ciel located?
Maison de type gratte-ciel is located in Pessac, Gironde department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France.
When was Maison de type gratte-ciel built?
Maison de type gratte-ciel dates back to a period built in the modern era (19th-20th century).
Is Maison de type gratte-ciel open to visitors?
Maison de type gratte-ciel is currently closed to visitors.