12 June 2024
The design of the housing complex for SCIC in the Champs-Elysées district by Bernard Kohn...
“Architecture is too important to be left to architects alone.”– Giancarlo De Carlo
If there were genuine democratization of the various stages involved in developing architectural and urban planning projects, participatory experiences would be unnecessary.The reality is quite different, because—beyond the rhetoric—relationships between project owners, architects, and future users have changed very little.
The Buisson Saint-Louis project (1980), like two social housing rental projects in Yzeure and Gennevilliers, carried out in collaboration with my friend Yves de Lagausie, is one of many experiments in collective housing from the 1970s and 1980s: projects ranging from 5 to 30 dwellings in urban and inner-suburban contexts.
Participatory architecture experiences cannot be improvised. Organizing and facilitating 50 to 150 working meetings between future residents and the project team requires real commitment, as well as specific teaching skills and project methodology.
