La cité Frugès de Le Corbusier à Pessac : entre théorie architecturale et pratique populaire du jardin by Frédéric SICHET – Bayeux (France)
The Cité Frugès de Pessac, by Le Corbusier: from architectural theory to popular gardening practice
In Pessac, from 1924 to 1926, upon the request of the industrialist Henri Frugès, Le Corbusier built a modern quarter that offered the architect an opportunity to put into practice certain theories on urban planning, construction in series and on modern architecture, via his five fundamental themes: the pilotis, the roof garden, the free plan, the ribbon window and the free façade.
Whilst the Cité Frugès was part of Le Corbusier’s work during the white villa period at a time of intense theoretical production, it is also renowned since the late 1960s for the extreme transformations on homes made by their own occupants. Claimed to be a failure or even a ‘rigolarium (laughing stock) by its worst critics, the Cité Frugès indeed met with a number of difficulties during its construction, equally due to the implementation of technical features and to the increasing cost of materials, as to the hostility around the entire project. When inaugurated, its houses were not yet connected to a water, gas or electricity supply. Only 51 of the total 127 homes included in the initial programme were actually complete and few of them were occupied.
Whatever the contrasting outcome of the Quartiers Modernes Frugès, today, the project sheds light on a programme of popular housing, raises the question of the garden in Le Corbusier’s work, highlights the importance of the notion of a framed composition and unveils the architect’s passion for trees. A Unesco World Heritage site, the Cité de Pessac also raises questions on the preservation of a living heritage site, equally in terms of landscape, use of private garden plots, public spaces and the presence of trees in the urban landscape.
Frédéric Sichet
Frédéric Sichet is a graduate in history of art and archaeology at the University of Paris I, Sorbonne-Panthéon, with a further CEA advanced study diploma in architecture ‘historic gardens and landscape’ option, delivered by the National School of Architecture of Versailles, the ENSP (National Graduate School of Landscape) and the University of Paris I.
Initially in charge of the ‘gardens’ project for the agency run by Pierre-Antoine Gatier, chief architect and general inspector of historic monuments (1998-2007), he coordinated restoration campaigns in the national estates of Saint-Cloud and Meudon, gardens on the French Riviera (Fontana Rosa and Serre de la Madone in Menton, Villa Cypris in Roquebrune-Cap Martin, the Valrose park and the Abbey of Roseland gardens in Nice, to name but a few), together with the Domaine de Chantilly as of 2005.
A freelancer since 2007, he has been involved in the restoration of around fifty gardens in the French regions of Loire, Isère, Gard, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Oise and Île-de-France. Ongoing projects include the Marquis de Girardin’s gardens in Ermenonville, Vaux-le-Vicomte, the Villa Domergue in Cannes, the Trophée d’Auguste in La Turbie, the former Chartreuse de Salettes and the vase grove at the gardens of the Château de Canon in Calvados.
The author of a number of articles on the history of gardens, their preservation and restoration, together with their hydraulic systems, he is also one of the founders and director of the magazine Polia.
Free entry subject to capacity.
Espace Saint-Patrice
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