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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

La Cité de Refuge, located at 12 rue Cantagrel in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, is a building designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret between 1930 and 1933. Sponsored by Albin Peyron for the Salvation Army, this pioneering social housing building was designed to house 500 people in need, while sheltering social services such as a clinic, nursery and laundry. Inaugurated on 7 December 1933 by President Albert Lebrun as Refuge Singer-Polignac, he paid tribute to Princess Edmond de Polignac, a benefactor who had imposed Le Corbusier as an architect.

The project illustrates the modernist principles of Le Corbusier, with a reinforced concrete structure and a south façade initially equipped with a 1,000 m2 glass curtain wall. However, technical problems, including the failure of the air conditioning system in 1952, led to its replacement with opening bays protected by polychrome sunbreakers. Between 2011 and 2016, the building underwent a major restoration to preserve its architectural heritage, while maintaining its social vocation.

Ranked a historic monument since 1975 for its interior elements (vestibulum, stairs, decoration) and facades, the Cité-refuge remains a symbol of architectural innovation in the service of social housing. Today, it continues to welcome people in difficulty, while opening its doors to the public during guided tours provided by its trained residents. The site is also used as a decor for film and television productions, as in the Baron Noir series.

The building embodies a double ambition: to meet the urgent needs of the poorest while experimenting with avant-garde architectural solutions. Its history reflects the technical and social challenges of its time, as well as the evolution of practices in emergency accommodation and reintegration. La Cité-refuge remains a unique testimony of the Parisian heritage of the twentieth century, where modernity and solidarity intersect.

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