“Rue des Archives” plunges us into the memory of audiovisual media. This week, spotlight on the large housing estates in the Paris region. Suburbs like Sarcelles, Créteil, Massy, Argenteuil whose face will change in the 1960s.
From the horizontal city to the vertical cities… The 1960s marked an upheaval in the landscape of the Paris region. In the aftermath of the Second World War, of course, the question of reconstruction arose. Baby boomers also need to be housed. And in a period of economic growth, workers coming to France must find a roof.
The solution goes through large groups. Neighborhoods whose construction will be piloted from the 50s by the Ministry of Reconstruction and the Paris Region Planning Service (SARP), in Île-de-France.
First generation of buildings: Sarcelles, around 1955…”A project in which the Caisse des dépôts will invest heavily“, explains Thibault Tellier, professor of contemporary history at Sciences Po Rennes. “Gradually, we are going to move closer to a ‘new town’ model, with more sustained attention to the living environment.“So it is in Créteil: between the Mont-Mesly district and Créteil-Soleil, two generations of large housing estates will follow one another in what is today the prefecture of Val-de-Marne.
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The Mont-Mesly district, in Créteil, was born in the 1960s.
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©Ina / RTF / 1st channel, April 11, 1964
At the microphone of the ORTF in 1964, a young woman recounts having left her Parisian two-room apartment in Ménilmontant, where she was staying “at nine” people, for a four-room apartment in the large complex of Massy. Same enthusiasm for this resident of Sarcelles in 1972: “I like it because it’s a place that reminds me of a place du midi“, he says while a game of pétanque is played.
A point of view far from being shared by certain intellectuals, in this period of intense construction. Interviewed in 1972, the writer René Barjavel said he was certainly convinced that human beings can live anywhere. “Man is an extraordinarily plastic animal.“But for the author of Ravage“Sarcelles and the large complexes that resemble it (…) are theoretical constructions. It was not designed for humans (…) We considered humans as an element of statistics“.
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The writer René Barjavel criticizes the construction of the large complexes of Sarcelles. According to the anticipation author, these neighborhoods are “theoretical constructions”, were not “designed for humans”.
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©Ina / ORTF / 2nd channel, January 14, 1972
Large sets that will serve as a backdrop for the film “Two or three things I know about her”by Jean-Luc Godard, shot in La Courneuve in 1966. At that time, “on wonders about this new urban model which is largely represented by concrete“, adds the historian.
The new towns are a new break in the urbanization of the Paris region. The turn is taken in the 70s.In the Paris region, the new towns must not relaunch peripheral urbanization, but structure a pre-existing suburb, ensure its inhabitants also the right to the city“, declares Olivier Guichard, Minister of Equipment, at the National Assembly, in 1973. A way to mark the difference between new towns and large complexes.
“We will try to bring back nature in particular, through artificial lakes, vegetation…”
Thibault Tellier, professor of contemporary history at Sciences Po Rennes“Rue des Archives” – March 17, 2023
To build new towns, greater attention is given to “living environment and the aspirations of the inhabitants themselves“, concludes the author of “Humanizing concrete” (ed. L’Harmattan, 2022). Evry, Sénart, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Cergy, Marne-la-Vallée are an illustration of this. A new attempt to bring life to the middle of the concrete.
📲 “Archive Street”it’s every Friday, at 11:50 a.m., on France 3 Paris Île-de-France. Find the full issue #21, devoted to large urban complexes in the Paris region.
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When concrete nibbles the fields… In the 60s and 70s, large housing estates sprang up in Île-de-France. Massy, Créteil, Sarcelles… An urban planning concept that will soon come under criticism from residents and observers. With Thibault Tellier, professor of contemporary history (Sciences Po Rennes)
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©France 3 Paris Ile-de-France
