Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The factory of the Urban Air Compressed Society (SUDAC), located 3-13 quai Panhard-et-Levassor in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, was designed in 1890-1891 by engineer Joseph Leclaire and architect Guy Lebris. Inaugurated on 3 December 1891, it housed four Corliss steam engines and 24 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, supplying a compressed air network for Paris and its suburbs. Its machinery hall, adorned with a giant clock, and its 45-metre fireplace (dated 1890) symbolized its key industrial role. The factory succeeded two smaller sites, rue Saint-Fargeau and rue Sainte-Anne.

In 1910, the Seine flooded the factory, stopping its services for 13 days and freezing the Parisian clocks at 10:53 pm. Modernized between 1918 and 1920, it replaced its initial halls with a reinforced concrete building and two new chimneys, while its machines were electrified in 1974. Production finally ceased in 1994, but the metal hall and fireplace, classified as historical monuments on 29 June 1994, were preserved.

Disused, the factory became a place of graffiti and illegal occupation (the squat "Le 13", high place of grindcore until 2002). Rehabilitated by architect Frédéric Borel, it has been home to the École nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris-Val de Seine. The director's house (1905), transformed in 2016, and the chimney — with a spiral staircase connecting the buildings — bear witness to his industrial heritage.

The monumental clock, removed in 1967, and the Brown Boveri turbochargers (installed in the 1920s) marked its technical evolution. The site illustrates the transition between industrial revolution and heritage rehabilitation, combining workers' memory and architectural innovation.

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