Renée Gailhoustette. A committed French defender of social housing leaves us at the age of 93
07/01/2023.
[PAR] France
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
French architect Renée Gailhoustet awarded by Royal Academy Architecture Prize last summer, passed away aged 93, in Paris. Gailhoustet died at her home in the Le Liégat apartment complex and studio after the project was completed, which was one of her best-known projects.
Gailhoustet dedicated her entire career to developing better social housing in Paris’ suburbs, she designed numerous housing blocks, including her best-known works: the 10-storey Le Liégat complex in Ivry-sur-Seine and the terraced La Maladrerie apartment block in Aubervilliers.
Gailhoustet dedicated her entire career to developing better social housing in Paris’ suburbs, she designed numerous housing blocks, including her best-known works: the 10-storey Le Liégat complex in Ivry-sur-Seine and the terraced La Maladrerie apartment block in Aubervilliers.
'La cité des Etoiles' in the city of Givors, work of Renaudie and Gailhoustet.
Ivry-sur-Seine Social Housing Project, by Jean Renaudie, Renée Gailhoustet, 1969. Photograph by Lorenzo Zandri
Ivry-sur-Seine Social Housing Project, by Jean Renaudie, Renée Gailhoustet, 1969. Photograph by Lorenzo Zandri
Ivry-sur-Seine Social Housing Project, by Jean Renaudie, Renée Gailhoustet, 1969. Photograph by Lorenzo Zandri
South Facade. Le Liégat, Ivry-sur-Seine, 1971-1986. Image Courtesy of FRAC Collection Archive
Homes. Ivry-sur-Seine Social Housing Project, by Jean Renaudie, Renée Gailhoustet, 1969.
Homes. Ivry-sur-Seine Social Housing Project, by Jean Renaudie, Renée Gailhoustet, 1969.
Aerial view of the Jeanne Hachette complex. Image courtesy of Ivry Archive
Renée Gailhoustet, ZAC Casanova, La Maladrerie, Aubervilliers, s. d. Esquisse de plan masse, éch. 1:200. Ink and marker on tracing paper. 53.7 x 67.6 cm. Collection Frac Centre-Val de Loire Donation Renée Gailhoustet.
Renée Gailhoustet, Ecole maternelle, La Maladrerie, Aubervilliers, s. d. Plan 1er étage, décompte des surfaces et plan des limites par rapport aux logements, éch. 1:100. Felt pen and collage on tracing paper. 77.9 x 109.9 cm. Collection Frac Centre-Val de Loire Donation Renée Gailhoustet.
Renée Gailhoustet, Logements de personnes âgées en foyer soleil et logements HLM, bâtiment AD, La Maladrerie, Aubervilliers, 1976 Axonométrie vue est, éch. 1:50, 1976. Ink on tracepaper. 84 x 121 cm. Collection Frac Centre-Val de Loire Donation Renée Gailhoustet.
Urban legends say that architects never live in the houses they design, an example that disproves the cliché was Renée Gailhoustet who lived and set up her studio in the Liégat apartments and before in the Raspail tower, built not far from the Ivry town hall -sur-Seine (Val-de-Marl).
A natural choice for the one who was in charge, at the end of the 1960s, of the master plan for the new city centre that the municipality governed by the communist party intended to create. A monumental achievement, a combination of concrete buildings with oblique walls and facades, green terraces, pedestrian walkways and collective facilities mixed with housing.
An architectural gesture that he developed with his partner Jean Renaudie, who signed the most emblematic buildings, and that some too often forgot who also worked with him there despite the fact that he always emphasized their joint realization, whose work was finally recognized with the Prize of Architecture from the Royal Academy last summer. It was in one of these brutalist houses, with sharp angles and a lush garden, where the architect died last Wednesday at the age of 93.
Committed to her communism, she focused on a little-recognized issue at the time: social housing. At the age of 24, she joined the studio of Marcel Lods, where she met Jean Renaudie. They will live together for fifteen years, have two daughters and work together on many projects. Common guidelines are found in their respective works: a staggered organization of the dwellings, particular attention to the duplex organization, a desire to eradicate the corridors to project the dwelling around a central room, a large space left to the green space in the form of deep terraces.
The couple separated in 1968, although their intellectual relationship continued developing the renovation of the Ivry city centre in the south of Paris, being named principal architect in 1969, having already built the Raspail Tower in the city in the early 1960s. 1960.
After Ivry, Renée Gailhoustet will design numerous homes in the Parisian suburbs, continuing her exploration of multi-level housing architecture, equipped with terraces but sometimes also patios, with unconventional shapes. "Living is a private matter, so it is normal for the variety of individuals to respond to multiple spatial proposals," she wrote in 1993 in Eloge du Logement.
In a 2018 video by the Ordre des architectes, when asked what her womanhood brought to her profession, she was sceptical:
"There has been a tendency to say that women don't make the same accommodation as men, but I think that is not true. A man can very well worry about how the family lives in a house, it is not a feminine privilege... If we really want to find a difference, perhaps it would be that we argue less in the play when it is a woman than when it is a man. And again, I'm not sure..."
Renée Gailhoustet
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Renée Gailhoustet
Renée Gailhoustet, was born in Oran, French Algeria on 15 September 1929 and died in en Ivry-sur-Siene, Paris, on 4 January 2023. After first embarking on philosophy, she studied architecture at the École des beaux-arts in Paris under Marcel Lods, graduating in 1961. She dedicated her entire career to developing better social housing in Paris’ suburbs. Her approach to architecture evolved from early projects such as the Spinoza complex to the distinctive style of her best-known works: La Maladrerie and Le Liégat. The latter was been her home and studio since the project was completed.
Her interest in Parisian suburbs was piqued in 1962 when she joined the office of French architect Roland Dubrelle and participated in the urban renewal of Ivry-Sur-Seine. It was in this hugely influential project that she eventually became, together with Jean Renaudie, chief architect. In 1964, she established her own firm. Together with Renaudie, she put forward plans for a terraced approach to construction at Ivry. Rather than large complexes, she planned varied types of buildings, separated by open spaces, creating new horizons for the town and its social housing developments.
One of the instantly recognisable features of Gailhoustet’s projects are the staggered and planted terraces that allow nature to permeate domestic spaces in ways that are rarely seen in high-density housing. By using innovative geometries and mixing uses in her buildings, Gailhoustet has created a compelling argument for blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior, and, collective and individual.
In Ivry, between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s, Gailhoustet designed the Raspail, Lénine, Jeanne-Hachette and Casanova towers, the Spinoza complex and the terraced apartment buildings, Le Liégat and Marat. Her development of the La Maladrerie district at Aubervilliers, completed in 1984, with a rich blend of flats, an old people's home, artists' studios and shops, is a good example of her approach. By providing a variety of options, she believed "each inhabitant can use the town as he wishes." Gailhoustet's works are to be found mainly in the Paris suburbs, first and foremost at Ivry-sur-Seine and Aubervilliers, but also in Saint-Denis (renovation of the Ilot Basilique, 1981–1985), Villejuif, Romainville and Villetaneuse. In addition, she also undertook two developments on the island of La Réunion.
Renée Gailhoustet also taught at the École Spéciale d'Architecture from 1973 to 1975 and published a number of books.
Her interest in Parisian suburbs was piqued in 1962 when she joined the office of French architect Roland Dubrelle and participated in the urban renewal of Ivry-Sur-Seine. It was in this hugely influential project that she eventually became, together with Jean Renaudie, chief architect. In 1964, she established her own firm. Together with Renaudie, she put forward plans for a terraced approach to construction at Ivry. Rather than large complexes, she planned varied types of buildings, separated by open spaces, creating new horizons for the town and its social housing developments.
One of the instantly recognisable features of Gailhoustet’s projects are the staggered and planted terraces that allow nature to permeate domestic spaces in ways that are rarely seen in high-density housing. By using innovative geometries and mixing uses in her buildings, Gailhoustet has created a compelling argument for blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior, and, collective and individual.
In Ivry, between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s, Gailhoustet designed the Raspail, Lénine, Jeanne-Hachette and Casanova towers, the Spinoza complex and the terraced apartment buildings, Le Liégat and Marat. Her development of the La Maladrerie district at Aubervilliers, completed in 1984, with a rich blend of flats, an old people's home, artists' studios and shops, is a good example of her approach. By providing a variety of options, she believed "each inhabitant can use the town as he wishes." Gailhoustet's works are to be found mainly in the Paris suburbs, first and foremost at Ivry-sur-Seine and Aubervilliers, but also in Saint-Denis (renovation of the Ilot Basilique, 1981–1985), Villejuif, Romainville and Villetaneuse. In addition, she also undertook two developments on the island of La Réunion.
Renée Gailhoustet also taught at the École Spéciale d'Architecture from 1973 to 1975 and published a number of books.
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