
A poetic vision of Paris’ crumbling suburban high rises - minisys
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2015/10/01/a-poetic-vision-of-paris-crumbling-suburban-high-rises/
======
fredley
Disclosure: I am a big fan of brutalism. I had no idea that there was stuff
like this in Paris. I'm almost tempted to go out and tour it - it's beautiful.

In Britain, where I live, there is a general tendency to view older buildings
as nicer buildings. Generally this is because only the stuff that's nice
enough to keep/protect ends up surviving. This leads me to wonder what will we
choose to keep from the 20th century. Which buildings will still be standing
in 2500?

Buildings like those in the article make me sad. They are currently in
horrifically poor condition after decades of neglect. On top of that, they are
very unfashionable, brutalism seemingly suffering a similar fate in France to
the UK: association with low-quality housing projects, a mid-century utopia
that quickly became a dystopia. In London I am surrounded by treasured
buildings nearly all of which had to fight against demolition at some point -
for example the gothic hotel at St Pancras:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Pancras_Renaissance_London...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Pancras_Renaissance_London_Hotel).
I wonder, if we hung on to them for long enough for the associations to
dissipate, would we come to treasure them?

~~~
davidgerard
I can't find a cite, but I was told that one hideous brutalist UK tower block
was to be preserved as a warning to future generations.

Edit: The tower block that is National Trust listed.
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/architecture/11129845...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/architecture/11129845/Come-
visit-a-tower-block-say-National-Trust.html) Designed by a Bond villain, of
course.

~~~
arethuza
As long as they don't preserve New St Andrew's House in Edinburgh - ghastly
empty hideous thing that has been squatting in the middle of one of the most
beautiful cities in the world like some rectilinear concrete tumour.

[NB Not to be confused with St Andrews House - which is really rather nice.]

------
brohee
If you feel "Les Espaces d'Abraxas" is oddly familiar, it's because you've
seen it before. It's one of the set of the Terry Gilliam movie Brazil ...

If you don't mind the French,
[http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/visuel/2014/02/08/en-seine-
sai...](http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/visuel/2014/02/08/en-seine-saint-denis-
les-illusions-perdues-d-une-utopie-urbaine_4360634_3224.html) has more.

For a more representative portfolio of Paris suburb "architecture", you can
look [http://www.thecinetourist.net/93---seine-saint-denis-la-
cour...](http://www.thecinetourist.net/93---seine-saint-denis-la-courneuve-to-
saint-ouen.html) and it's bleak.

~~~
taoufix
It was also used for "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2".

[http://filmgeek.fr/2014/05/09/tournage-hunger-
games-3-a-nois...](http://filmgeek.fr/2014/05/09/tournage-hunger-
games-3-a-noisy-le-grand/)

------
r0naa
I have a profound distaste for brutalism. To me, it is the antithesis of what
architecture should be about: the design, and invention of timeless places
where humans can blossom, and prosper.

I insist on the notion of timelessness. The Louvre for example, is almost 400
years old and yet; there are few monuments in the world that can rival with
its beauty.

Here is the power of the classicism, and even the baroque movements: creating
masterpieces that are not only useful for the people living in them but also
inspire and please their eyes. They survive time.

~~~
matthewmacleod
I can't agree with this. There's nothing about brutalism that means it
prevents humans 'blossoming' or 'prospering', whatever that means. The focus
of a lot of brutalist architecture was on functionality – that is, discarding
the pomp and frivolity of some older architecture – and making them more
focused around the actual functional needs of humans.

The problem is that the brutalist movement, at least in the UK, overlapped
with the poor construction methods of the 50s and 60s and economic realignment
that resulted in brutalist social housing projects. In the long term, extreme
under-investment in maintenance of these projects means that they deteriorate
into uninhabitable hellholes.

But there are exceptions - the Barbican estate in London, which is as
brutalist as it gets, is a great example of how this sort of architecture can
work when properly funded and maintained.

~~~
pjc50
_making them more focused around the actual functional needs of humans_

This often failed really badly, much worse than other schools of architecture.
The unpopular Brutalist buildings are not just aesthetically hostile but have
poor "UX".

~~~
matthewmacleod
I'd say 'sometimes' rather than 'often'. But the underlying reason for this is
still the same – cheap construction, poor maintenance. And of course those are
the unpopular buildings. But there's nothing inherent to brutalism that means
buildings have to be constructed like that.

My favourite examples of this kind of thing are the 'New Towns' in the UK.
These were build in the late 40s through to the mid 60s to deal with overspill
from cities. Towns like Cumbernauld and Livingston in Scotland were designed
to be very human-focused – easy to walk through, segregated road systems,
distinct districts with local services, central civic centres and so on. A
genuinely utopian vision of the future, in some respects.

The problem is that shoddy construction and poor maintenance made living
conditions unacceptable. Demographic changes and the mass overspill from
cities made for less cohesive communities – segregated underpasses for example
became sites of violent crime.

I think that in most cases the reasons for certain brutalist developments
being unpopular is down to causes distinct from the architecture – and I think
it's a mistake to conflate the issues. Though it does explain the
unpopularity.

~~~
potatolicious
I think blaming this on cheap construction and poor maintenance (true as it
may be) is missing the mark.

Blaming it on brutalism is also, IMO, missing the mark.

The core blame here lies in the fact that these complexes are built in the
style of the Radiant City, which encouraged monolithic buildings surrounded by
"parkland" and public spaces. It was imagined as a utopian balance between
urban and rural - everyone living in a tower would have ready access to ample
public space.

In reality of course these projects are largely defined by their emptiness,
and these public spaces unused (and consequently, unsafe). The shoddy
construction and maintenance surely didn't help, but IMO was not the root of
the problem - we have seen more traditionally built communities fall into
disrepair but never reach the level of isolation and segregation we see in
these buildings.

It's just coincidence that brutalism reached its popular height along with
Radiant City urban planning.

More importantly, even though brutalism has fallen out of vogue, Radiant
Cities have not - most new American urban cores (particularly in the
Midwest/West) are built around this philosophy still, and the net result has
been the gutting of once tight-knit neighborhoods and replacing them with
soaring towers and empty sidewalks (see: Belltown in Seattle). Brutalism may
be gone, but 50 years from now someone will write another article about this
exact phenomenon, with glass-clad apartment buildings in their place.

------
cousin_it
Stereotypical brutalism and stereotypical suburbia have one thing in common:
they both look "dead" to us because they separate housing from commerce. That
idea has been tried in many forms throughout the 20th century, and it seems
like it just doesn't work. Even in cyberpunk dystopias with all these horrible
skyscrapers, the artist will always depict residential areas with tons of
businesses and blinking storefronts to look more "vibrant".

I spent my childhood in the "sleeping districts" of Moscow, which are as
brutalist as it gets. Not a store in sight, just high-rise apartment blocks,
huge spaces between them, and howling wind. Never met a person who could
honestly claim to love it. Now I live in a European city where housing and
commerce are thoroughly mixed, and it's wonderful.

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nnethercote
Those are some of the most attractive examples of concrete brutalism I've ever
seen.

~~~
smcl
My jaw is practically on the floor - the brutalist architecture I'm used to in
the UK is not a patch on these buildings. I had no idea they existed!

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sfjailbird
I first assumed these were concept photoshops of what suburban concrete could
be made to look like. Never seen anything like it before.

[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-
apps/imrs.php?src=https://...](https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-
apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp-
content/uploads/sites/35/2015/09/Laurent-Kronental-Washington-
Post-6.jpg&w=1484)

Beautiful, scenic, futuristic. But it does not look like a place I would ever
want to live in. It really does look brutal, it almost has a fascist vibe.

~~~
makeitsuckless
I personally think it's gorgeous, but it stands and falls with the people who
live there.

It's just like I sometimes see pictures of what in the US are ghetto suburbs
and I think: this could actually be a lovely neighbourhood. (As a European who
has lived all his live in densely populated urban environments it baffles me
how people can't turn a neighbourhood where everyone has a free standing house
with a yard into a pleasant place to live.)

~~~
adventured
As a European, I must assume you're familiar with the ghettos of Eastern
Europe, and those in Paris as well. The question applies equally to those
locations, as it might to Rio, Manila, Mexico City, Delhi, Jakarta or Detroit.

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zhte415
Stunning, especially the pictures 'José, 89, Les Damiers, Courbevoie, 2012.
(Laurent Kronental)' Livable and beautiful brutalism.

Opposed to 'Les Tours Aillaud, Cité Pablo Picasso, Nanterre, 2014. (Laurent
Kronental)' which appears like a regular tower high rise, but with round
windows.

While 'brualism' is a term that refers to concrete structures built in the
50s/60s/70s, take a look at a castle on top of a hill. It is brutalist. Take a
walk down a street in London next to multi-story pre-Victorian office/official
building, it is brutalist. Early US inner-city multi-story apartments (when
the elevator started to become more commonplace) equally. The tripod stlye
Hong Kong housing estates (central life block, with a corridor leading off at
120, 240 and 360/0 degrees, with 6-8 apartments per corridor).

It is brutal. It is beautiful. And a lot of think is evident. It isn't to be
confused with high-rise in general, which be it office or housing, is
dreadful: "We have some land, put a building here, make it tall." That fails.

~~~
liotier
> Stunning, especially the pictures 'José, 89, Les Damiers, Courbevoie, 2012.
> (Laurent Kronental)' Livable and beautiful brutalism.

I lived in one of those apartments for a few years, with stunning view of
whole of Paris - on the 14th July I could see a dozen different fireworks
shows ! Big spaces, large terraces, huge windows... I love this place. The
duplex apartments near the top of the buildings are my dream homes !

Alas it is not well maintained and a vicious circle having taken root it is
now extremely expensive to maintain. Two thirds of the complex have been
emptied and will soon be demolished to make room for a hugely tall Dubaï-like
Russian office/apartment/hotel complex.

> Opposed to 'Les Tours Aillaud, Cité Pablo Picasso, Nanterre, 2014. (Laurent
> Kronental)' which appears like a regular tower high rise, but with round
> windows.

The apartments there are most definitely not as nice as Les Damiers - unlike
Les Damiers, Tours Aillaud is cheap social housing. Used to be a difficult
neighborhood, but being so close to La Défense it has improved a lot. The
roundness and the colors are dear to my heart - I also have fond memories in
those livingrooms with one round wall.

There are far worse places around Paris - those chosen by the author are
absolutely not "crumbling neighborhoods". Vision 80 (one of his pictures),
right on Le Parvis de La Défense as the ideal embodiment of the Athens Charter
even qualifies as luxury brutalist housing - the top floor apartment with
three half levels might not be wheelchair accessible but they are otherwise
gorgeous spaces... I would probably have bought one of them if I had not so
many children. Their Achille's heel is the maintenance and running costs.

Disclaimer: I grew up in La Défense, bathed in construction sites and Charte
d'Athènes - I may not be the most objective person about lovely brutalism.

------
ucaetano
It is sad to see the impact of modernist "Le Corbusier"-style urban planning.
While the buildings are magnificent, they are located in dead neighborhoods,
isolated from mixed-use commercial areas.

It is urbanism for architecture's sake. Where we tried to make humans fit
themselves into immutable ideals.

Such areas stand in stark contrast with favelas, bottom-up vibrant communities
(with a hell of a lot of problems for sure) where nothing is permanent, and
there are no strict rules and zoning regulations.

------
guard-of-terra
Most of those look really nice. He should pay a visit to Novokuznetsk or
Chelyabinsk or whatever blank post-soviet blank industrial city for really
degenerate high-rises.

[http://my-magnit.ru/sites/my-img/st/tuls2.jpg](http://my-magnit.ru/sites/my-
img/st/tuls2.jpg) something along those lines

~~~
cousin_it
That's Moscow, near Tulskaya metro station. The lower levels have been
colonized by tons of shops, so it's not the worst place. The ten lane road
still sucks though.

What I really hate is shit like this: [https://img-
fotki.yandex.ru/get/5602/14833654.30d/0_983eb_cb...](https://img-
fotki.yandex.ru/get/5602/14833654.30d/0_983eb_cbba44c_orig) Miles and miles of
this, as far as the eye can see. Warehouses for people.

~~~
guard-of-terra
This picture is lucky to have sunshine. Without, "it can be very depressing"
(c) Eurotrip

------
aikah
lol, they didn't take photos of the worst neighborhoods. Actually most the
photos here were taken in good or ok places. Even Nanterre is fine. I wonder
why the photographer didn't step into Val d'Argenteuil ... plenty of brutalism
there... pun intended.

~~~
CaptainZapp
A friend of mine used to live in the high rises visible in the background of
the "Les Orgues de Flandre" picture and it was bad.

Between dealing in the lobby to urinating into the elevators you had pretty
much the entire spectrum of shit going on.

Apparently they cleaned it up some by now.

Amazing is the fact that he still lives in the 19th (which is a very cool part
of Paris in lots of respects) some 250 metres away and it feels like a
completely different world.

~~~
greggman
It smells like piss everywhere in Paris. Even my Parisian friends call it "the
smell of Paris"

------
duncanawoods
Jonathan Meades makes some outstanding BBC documentaries about brutalism. The
intellectual density and quality of his writing (narration) makes him totally
unique and he has changed my view of architecture. Well worth a look if you
can find them.

I wouldn't be surprised if he inspired this article given his last one was
called "Concrete Poetry":

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03w7b7x](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03w7b7x)

------
lordnacho
Am I correct in thinking that the people who have a positive view of brutalism
are people with a background in architecture?

Because I've never met any non-architect who thought it was nice. It's part of
a wider observation on my part about certain aesthetic tastes that only people
who are part of specific in-groups declare themselves to enjoy works that 99%
of people find unappealing.

Various kinds of modern art, for instance.

~~~
Lagged2Death
A person with a background in architecture probably has a different
understanding about the meaning and origin of the very word "brutalism" than
the average bystander does, so it's hard to say.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture)

 _" Brutalism" as an architectural critical term was not always consistently
used by critics ... "brutalism" has become used in popular discourse to refer
to buildings of the late twentieth century that are large or unpopular – as a
synonym for "brutal" – making its effective use in architectural historical
discourse problematic._

"Brutalist" in English is a terrible, misleading name. It was about futurism
and misplaced faith in concrete as a miracle material, not brutality. Given
the way so many bad Brutalist buildings look, it's easy to see how people
could make the mistake.

It seems to me that at least a few well-known architectural trends consist of
1) a few amazing masterpieces that become instant classics and 2) 20x as many
cheap knock-offs, which everyone comes to hate, which are consequently not
maintained well, which eventually give the trend a bad name.

The "International Style" is the other example (alongside Brutalism) that
stands out in my mind; for every Seagram building or Lever House, there are
dozens (hundreds?) of copycat school buildings or anonymous low-budget office
cubes that end up looking like prisons.

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AceJohnny2
... "crumbling"?

I've seen way, way worse in dynamic, growing neighborhoods.

~~~
pyb
The journalist is making this bit up, these places are generally well
maintained. There are buildings in bad condition in the Paris suburbs but they
are not those pictured in this article.

~~~
mahyarm
Why aren't they used? I heard paris has a general unaffordability problem,
complete with height restrictions and a museum city planning policy

~~~
Luc
They are used. These images are real in the same way a fashion shoot is real.

~~~
pavlov
Exactly.

The light in the images gives a hint of how the illusion of emptiness was
created. They're all shot early in the morning, waiting for the right moment
when nobody is in the frame.

I have a book called "Tokyo Nobody" which does the same thing with Tokyo city
scenes. It's unsettling because we're so used to seeing the same streets
bustling with people.

------
fauigerzigerk
I find it surprising how little thought architects seem to give to how their
buildings age. One feature you can find in many of these sort of dystopian
cityscapes is rainwater marks below windows that make the buildings seem to
cry.

I can't believe that in this day and age we are unable to prevent that sort of
thing by using the right materials or by directing rainwater to some sort of
drain.

------
brianzelip
Wow, amazing architecture.

Anyone know if the 3rd photo down from the top[0] is part of the setting for
the 1995 movie 'La Haine'[1]? It reminds me of the housing projects in the
movie where the main characters live, especially that great scene where a dj
points his speakers out his window to play for the neighborhood.

The linked wikipedia article about the movie mentions only the Parisian suburb
of Chanteloup-les-Vignes as a filming location, but a cursory web search isn't
turning up more evidence.

[0] [https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp-
content/uplo...](https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp-
content/uploads/sites/35/2015/09/Laurent-Kronental-Washington-Post-1.jpg)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Haine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Haine)

~~~
liotier
> Anyone know if the 3rd photo down from the top is part of the setting for
> the 1995 movie 'La Haine'?

It is not, but your rightly recognized its style - both Les Tours Nuages and
La Cité De La Noé in Chanteloup Les Vignes were designed by architect Emile
Aillaud.

In 'La Haine' the Cité De La Noé appears as 'Cité Des Muguets'.

[http://www.yannarthusbertrand2.org/index.php?option=com_dats...](http://www.yannarthusbertrand2.org/index.php?option=com_datsogallery&Itemid=27&func=detail&catid=39&id=1186&p=5&l=1366)

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MisterZ_
I lived in Noisy-le-Grand for almost 5 years. Those buildings are really
depressing. Some parts of the city are really dark and phantomatic at night,
there is a lot of offices around and not much small local shops. They shot a
few scenes from the movie Hunger Games there.

[https://www.google.fr/maps/place/6+Place+des+F%C3%A9d%C3%A9r...](https://www.google.fr/maps/place/6+Place+des+F%C3%A9d%C3%A9r%C3%A9s,+93160+Noisy-
le-Grand/)

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V-2
Most of it is the pinnacle of bad taste, but surely impressive in its own way,
and it can serve as valuable historic evidence of what was once considered to
be "modern".

------
anonu
I went through the pictures first, before reading the article text and the
point that the photographs were taken on an analog camera. I have to admit,
the "feeling" of the quality of the shots was a bit different. I know, in the
end, you need to scan the negatives and there is probably some post-production
color adjustment. Regardless, the quality of the colors and details is
excellent...

------
Reason077
Crumbling? Some of those buildings are beautiful! If only we had had housing
estates half as good as those in London...

------
danmaz74
I didn't see anything crumbling there. You can like the style or not, but
that's a different thing.

------
vonnik
They have set out to aestheticize a series of projects where humans do not
live well. We consume these photos as art, but the feeling of profound
alienation and danger inherent in such ill-formed spaces doesn't lead to
healthy communities.

~~~
igrekel
I understand most of these ensembles did fail, but I still struggle to deeply
understand why? What made these fails and made other neighbourhoods or
projects succeed. Even if some of the successful ones were emergent and not
subject to a grand plan, I still do not see where the critical difference is
other than maybe people do not like to be told how to live.

------
swah
What is a good book for a layman to understand the architectural movements? I
can't differentiate brutalism, modernism, post-modernism - all "ugly boxes" in
my mind.

------
wobbleblob
Crumbling, really? I find many of them quite beautiful.

------
jwmoz
Those buildings look brutally beautiful.

------
lugus35
Poetic vision of Paris subway :
[http://i.imgur.com/TyPhSok.png](http://i.imgur.com/TyPhSok.png)

Poetic vision of Paris streets :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Mkz5F_yME](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Mkz5F_yME)

------
hoers
Patate de Forain anyone?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5A6RU377-k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5A6RU377-k)

------
cm2187
Architectural hell.

