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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The New Urban Centre of Douvaine, located in Haute-Savoie, is an avant-garde architectural project launched in 1972 by Mayor Jacques Miguet. Designed by the couple of architects Claude Costy and Pascal Häusermann, under the urban direction of Jean-Louis Chanéac, it aimed to create an innovative urban heart, combining shops, public facilities and modular housing. The three-dimensional land use plan (POS) developed by Chanéac proposed air traffic and volumetric spatial management, abandoning the traditional concept of land parcels.

The project included a round central square surrounded by arcades, a 30 metre mast with a tourist platform, a shopping centre of 30 to 50 shops, and amenities such as an Olympic pool, a kindergarten, a multipurpose hall and a hostel. The housing units, called Domobiles, were to be modular plastic cells, assembled and demountable at will, managed by a local-led real estate civil society (SCI). These houses, scattered on public land, were to be connected by bridges equipped with pipes.

The project began in 1972, but was marked by financial and political difficulties. The first oil shock of 1973 tripped the cost of the Domobiles, reducing their realization to some elements like the changing rooms of the multipurpose room. In 1977, after Jacques Miguet's election defeat, the project was abandoned. Only the kindergarten (1977-1978), the multipurpose hall (inaugurated in 1974), part of the arcades of the central square, and a shelter for electric transformers were completed.

The kindergarten, designed by Claude Costy, is distinguished by its architecture in assembled spheres, with a central dome sheltering canteen and playroom. The multi-purpose room, with a diameter of 50 metres, was able to accommodate 1,500 people and housed a multi-sport lot, stands, and a suspended basin. However, faults (escapes, defective finishes) led to the replacement of its curved roof in 1983. The arcades, partially destroyed in the 1990s, were then used as a primer for primary school.

Long controversial, the project was criticized for its cost and architecture considered utopian. After decades of degradation and alterations (living paints, partial destruction of arcades), its heritage value was recognized: labeled 20th Century Heritage in 2003 by the DRAC, it was listed as a historical monument in 2017. Today, it remains the only built example of prospective urban planning in France and a rare set of bull-architectures.

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