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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The ISAI of the Faidherbe group in Amiens is part of the national reconstruction programme launched by the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism (MRU) after 1945. Financed by the State, these dwellings were exchanged for war damage compensation of the affected owners, according to the ordinance of 8 September 1945. In Amiens, where 60 per cent of the homes were destroyed during the war, the project aimed to relocate 80,000 people in an emergency while experimenting with innovative techniques such as over-vitamin windows or individual duct ventilation.

The Faidherbe group, entrusted in 1946 to the chief architect Paul Sirvin (assisted by Joseph Andrieu and Pierre Dufau), marks a turning point in the history of French social housing. Designed for 200 high-quality housing units, it breaks with traditional Amionois individual homes by offering modern collective buildings, integrating new services (mountain-loads, empty garbage, underground parking) and an aesthetic blending classicism (symmetry, trimstone) and modernity (concrete, Art Deco lines). The site, located in the city centre, also includes a park with trees and decorative elements signed Émile Morlaix.

These ISAIs illustrate the collaboration between the state and the city of Amiens to manage war damage and urgent housing needs. Pierre Dufau, architect of both ISAI (building 12) and the global reconstruction of Amiens, embodies this synergy. Although the Amienois were initially reluctant, the whole became a model for future large housing units and housing units in Bon Marché (HBM), foreshadowing public housing policies of the Thirty Glorious. Joined the Historical Monuments in 2024, they now bear witness to post-war architectural and social innovation.

The architectural bias of the ISAI Faidherbe reflects the "Second Reconstruction" amimenoise, where architects avoid the flat table to integrate new constructions into urban continuity. The classic sobriety of the facades, the modern materials (standardized concrete), and the Art Deco touches (curved balconys, blindfold windows) create a balance between tradition and modernity. The absence of regionalism, rare in Amiens, underlines here a desire to break with local codes, in favour of a national reconstructive identity.

The inscription to the Historical Monuments in April 2024 protects the facades, roofs, monumental staircases, the sculpture The Three Graces of Émile Morlaix, the eagle fountain, the light wells in glass cobblestones, and the stairwells with their historic elevators. These elements, as well as the land right-of-way of the garden court, highlight the heritage value of an ensemble that combines functionality, aesthetics and collective memory.

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