Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Clichy People's House, listed as a historical monument in 1983, is a pioneer building built between 1935 and 1939 under the leadership of Mayor Charles Auffray. Designed by architects Eugène Beaudouin and Marcel Lods, the engineer Vladimir Bodiansky and Jean Prouvé's workshops, it embodies modern architecture with its prefabricated metal structure, steel plate curtain wall and movable elements (removable flooring, sliding partitions, sunroof). This multi-purpose building was to house a covered market, offices, a 2,000-seat party hall and a 500-seat cinema, while integrating an anti-aircraft shelter built in 1937.

Inaugurated partially in 1939 and 1940, the People's House suffered from the hazards of World War II and subsequent deterioration. Its innovative character, combining social functionality and technical prowess, made it an icon of the Modern Movement, quoted by figures such as Frank Lloyd Wright or Kenneth Frampton. Despite restorations between 1995 and 2005, the building has experienced recent controversies, notably in 2016 with a 96-metre tower project rejected for its threat to the integrity of the monument.

Today, the People's House remains a major architectural symbol, despite the reduction of its initial uses (only the market remains). Its future is being debated, between projects of conversion (media library, culinary manufacturing) and preservation stakes. Ranked for its pioneer curtain wall and transformable mechanisms, it illustrates the audacity of the 1930s, where technique and social ideal combined to rethink urban space.

The architects collaborated with specialists such as lighting designer André Salomon and Schwarz-Haumont engineers for the frame. The initial cost (1.5 million francs, i.e. €700,000 today) was covered by the state and the department. The 838 plans drawn, mostly by Jean Boutemain, bear witness to the complexity of the project. The anti-aircraft shelter, added in 1937, reflects the geopolitical tensions of the time.

The 1983 protection, obtained after alerts from Jean Prouvé and support from Jack Lang, saved the building from irreversible degradation. The restorations (1995–2005) focused on facades and asbestos removal, but persistent problems (floods, fire standards) limit its current use. In 2021, his transfer to the Ducasse group to set up a culinary factory revived the debates on the balance between preservation and contemporary adaptation.

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