Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Lège subdivision, built in 1924 in Lège-Cap-Ferret, is the first urban project by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret for industrialist Henry Frugès. This patron, passionate about architecture and heir to a sugar refinery, wanted to apply the innovative principles of Towards Architecture (1923) to a working-class city for employees of his Guérin sawmill. The project, conceived as a preliminary project of the future city Frugès de Pessac, combined economy (prefabricated elements, planned concrete) and modernity, with evolutionary houses organized around a public square and a Basque pediment.

The works, which began in October 1924, encountered technical difficulties due to the incompetence of the engineer in charge, delaying their completion until 1925-26. The city consisted of six houses (types A and B), a hotel-cantine, and common areas like a shared vegetable garden. Despite structural innovations (concrete posts and beams, roof terraces), housing lacked modern comfort: lack of running water, sanitary facilities, or central heating. The workers were to draw water from a manual pump until the 1970s, and the tracks were ground-cast.

In 1929, the bankruptcy of the Frigès refineries led to the sale of the estate to the Darbo family, the owner of a Dutch sawmill. The houses, nicknamed Moroccan neighborhood because of their roof terraces, underwent major changes (added sheet roofs, changes in openings) reflecting the rejection of the corbusian aesthetics by the new owners. For almost 50 years, the buildings, left unmaintained, deteriorated until a demolition project was avoided in 1988 thanks to the intervention of architect Michel Sadirac.

Ranked as a historical monument inventory in 1990, the estate was purchased in 1993 by social landlord Gironde Habitat (ex-Office HLM 33), who undertook a faithful restoration from 1994 to 1997, with the exception of the Cantine House. Housing, leased from 1998, retained its original social vocation. Archaeological surveys made it possible to find the original colours of the coatings. The collective building, not restored, became property of the city in 2015, with a project to install a museum there.

This subdivision illustrates the beginnings of modern architecture in France, combining social utopia and technical innovations, while revealing the challenges of its reception by users and economic hazards. Its late rescue makes it a rare testimony to the first achievements of Le Corbusier, a precursor of the 20th century workers' cities.

External links