Participative architecture

If a real democratization of the different steps of development of projects of planning and architecture, we would not need participatory experiments.
Reality is quite another story, and still today, despite all the talk regarding the relationships between constructors, architects and future users, there has been but a small development.
The Buisson Saint-Louis project in 1980 just like the two other subsidized housing projects in Yzeure and Genneviliiers, with my friend Yves de Lagausie, is one of numerous experiments in grouped housing in the 70s and 80s. They ranged from ten to thirty housing units in urban and suburban contexts.
The participative architecture experiences can’t be improvised. Organizing and hosting fifty to hundred and fifty work sessions with future inhabitants and the project team requires a real commitment as well as the use of the specific project’s pedagogy and methodology.