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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Bourse départementale du Travail de la Seine-Saint-Denis, renamed the Clara Zetkin departmental labour exchange in 2022, is a major architectural project designed by Oscar Niemeyer. In 1967, its construction was decided by the General Council in May 1972. The construction site extends from 1976 to 1978 in Bobigny, including a glazed stilt building and an overturned shell-shaped auditorium, nicknamed the Gull or the Albatross. Both structures, connected by basements, symbolize functional and aesthetic modernity.

The complex is located in the Place de la Libération, near the T1 tramway (libération station). Its architecture rests on concrete sails and seven grooved beams for the auditorium, while the offices, raised, release the public space. The building was inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 2007, at the initiative of Niemeyer himself, protecting its facades, roofs, conference room, press room and semi-entered reception.

Oscar Niemeyer, a renowned Brazilian architect, works with Jean Maur Lyonnet, an operating architect, to carry out this dual project: a place dedicated to trade union work and a versatile cultural space. The scholarship embodies the political and social commitment of the Seine-Saint-Denis in the 1970s, a period marked by the rise of public infrastructure and the enhancement of avant-garde architecture. Today, the building remains the property of the department and a symbol of modern Franciscan heritage.

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