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Origin and history

The city of cheap dwellings (HBM) of square Dufourmantelle was built between 1930 and 1934 in Maisons-Alfort, Val-de-Marne, by architects André Dubreuil and Roger Hummel. Sponsored by the Departmental Office of the HBM, it has 600 brick social housing units, organized according to a plan inspired by the Viennese closed cities of the early twentieth century. Its architecture is distinguished by a large central axis punctuated with a square, courtyards connected by vaulted passages, and seven shops on the outskirts. The Viennese influence is found in the distribution of spaces and the choice of materials, marking a break with the traditional workers' houses of the time.

The facades, the roofs, the floor of the plot and the sculpture Le Petit Chaperon rouge de Maurice Saulo were inscribed in the historical monuments by order of 27 June 2007. This protection recognizes the heritage value of the whole, both for its architecture and for its role in the history of social housing in France. The city, conceived as an autarchic space with integrated services, reflects the hygienist and social ideals of the 1930s. It will later be served by the station Le Vert de Maisons du métro parisienne, strengthening its anchoring in the local urban fabric.

The architects Dubreuil and Hummel, also authors of the Condorcet and Jules Ferry school groups in Maisons-Alfort, designed the city as a model of social urban planning. The project is part of a period of high demand for safe housing for the working class, responding to the challenges of the Loucheur Act (1928), which encouraged the construction of low rent housing. The presence of Saulo's sculpture, an artistic element integrated into public space, also underlines the desire to embellish these ensembles, often perceived as purely utilitarian.

Located between Rue Jean-Jaurès, Rue de Rome, Avenue de la Liberté and Square Gabriel Fauré, the city illustrates the evolution of housing policies in Île-de-France. Its closed city plan, with secure common spaces, aimed to create a welded community, while providing improved living conditions compared to the slums of the time. Today, it remains a major testimony to the social architecture of the 1930s, combining functionalism and aesthetic ambition.

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