Garden cities, ancestors of HLM and architectural revolution, yet little known in Tours

Several garden cities, dating from the interwar period, surround the city center of Tours. They bear witness to a revolution in the way the city is built.

In the 21st century, city centers are popular, and are generally the most popular areas of large cities. Which was not the case 100 years ago. Promiscuity, unsanitary conditions, lack of greenery… the problems of old centers were numerous at the beginning of the 20th century.

French town planners then had the (good?) idea of ​​importing the concept of the garden city from the United Kingdom. A way to cope with the rapid increase in population in cities, while offering new housing, with wide paths, nature, and all the modern comforts of the time.

In Tours, several neighborhoods are striking examples of this architectural revolution, initiated by public intervention. There are four of them, and surround the city center. The public force in question is the municipal office of Tours, created in 1921, after the vote of the so-called “Bonnevay” law in 1912. This legislative text, therefore, allows cities to invest massively in housing cheap.

Or, “in a non-industrial city like Tours, we cannot count on the paternalism of the bosses to build workers’ cities, we need the intervention of the public force“, explains Frédéric Dufrèche, heritage coordinator for the city of Tours.

The Bords de Loire garden city, located along Avenue Proudhon, is made up of three buildings built around a central park.for collective and ventilation purposes“. 72 dwellings, all through, with two or three bedrooms and a common living room. Around, a few individual houses surround the city, which was also populated with rental gardens. “It’s cheap housing with the possibility of enjoying a space outside.“Not so common at the beginning of the 20th century. A way of.”to make a city different from the tight streets of old Tours, to bring in nature and air“.

For Frédéric Dufrêche, the creation of the Bords de Loire garden city, avenue Proudhon, is a “prowess“. “There are earthenware worktops, quality materials, oak joinery on the facade which has disappeared, mosaics on the floor… elements of daily life that are rather rare in modest housing at the time“, he explains. To limit flows, several stairwells are built in each building, and only two apartments overlook each level.

The lessor Tours Habitat is responsible for a large part of the city’s garden cities, and is aware of the importance of this heritage. “We know, this is not just any subdivision“, assures Grégoire Simon, director of Tours Habitat. The lessor has also spent 10 million euros for the renovation of three garden cities (Jolivet, Beaujardin and Bords de Cher) in the metropolis. Because, if “comfort was important for the time“, it is necessary today”bring up to standard, isolate, rehabilitate“aging homes.

The city of Tours has, in recent years, attempted to highlight this more discreet heritage than the half-timbering of Place Plumereau. Frédéric Dufrêche recounts the “success with the people of Tourange“visit circuits dedicated to these cities.”They were happy to discover a lesser known heritage around them.”

For their heritage and historical value, the garden cities of Tours have received the “Remarkable Contemporary Architecture” (ACR) label., awarded to a heritage that is a little too recent and a little too confidential to be considered a historical monument. A label which serves above all as a communication operation, but which is not accompanied by any particular protection rules.

However, the garden city of the banks of the Loire could lose its ACR label. Because, 100 years after construction, a place automatically loses the famous label. And the garden city was built between 1926 and 1930. Will it then plunge back into oblivion?

Nothing has been decided but, when the secular deadline arrives, the services of the regional directorate of cultural affairs (Drac) can take charge. And “discuss the place in the regional commission by saying: do we remove the label, or do we classify it as a historic monument?“, specifies Sylvie Marchant, advisor for the promotion of heritage at the Drac Centre-Val de Loire. So much so that, without being an automatic pass, the ACR label can facilitate classification as a historic monument. For the garden cities of Tours, “I think we will ask the question, and that the commission will be sensitive to it“, she adds.

Which does not mean that every labeled building will ultimately be classified. For Sylvie Marchant, in certain contexts, it is completely impossible, particularly for everyday architecture. And, therefore, the garden cities. “In the context of large complexes, buildings, the need for regular maintenance and major restorations“complicates a classification as a historic monument, which automatically comes with very strict protection rules. And complex to apply to constantly evolving collective housing.