Slum Clearance & Rehousing; first report of the Council for Research into Housing Construction, London, 1934. - Paris; Bagneux and Drancy
The Council for Research on Housing Construction was a body largely drawn from the private sector, with members from companies associated with building and construction, and consultants from the housing departments of the UK's major cities. This first and lavishly produced report looked at contemporary new housing and their construction methodologies to see what could be achieved by 'mass production' or standardisation. The Report looks at both UK and continental schemes.
This spread looks at two schemes in Paris, at Bagneux and Drancy, constructed using a form of prefabricated concrete panel system developed by Eugene Mopin. Construction of these schemes started in c1930 and were completed in c1935. The system was a complete failure - largely due to inadequate concrete coverage of reinforcement - and sadly it rather presaged some of the post-WW2 systems that were touted as 'quick wins' in the post-war drive to replace housing. The one large scale example in the UK to use a similar system was the massive Quarry Hill scheme in Leeds, opened in 1938, that was demolished in 1978.
However Drancy has a far worse place in world history. Designed by Eugène Beaudouin and Marcel Lodz as a modernist community (known as La Cité de la Muette ("The Silent City") the scheme was confiscated by the Nazis after the fall of France in 1940 and by 1941 it became used as an internment and transit camp for the Jewish community. Until Drancy was liberated on 17 August 1944 it is believed that 67,400 people passed through this ghastly place and that the vast majority perished in the death camps. Seldom can architecture carry such a stain. The horrors of Drancy are commemorated by a series of memorials on the site.
Slum Clearance & Rehousing; first report of the Council for Research into Housing Construction, London, 1934. - Paris; Bagneux and Drancy
The Council for Research on Housing Construction was a body largely drawn from the private sector, with members from companies associated with building and construction, and consultants from the housing departments of the UK's major cities. This first and lavishly produced report looked at contemporary new housing and their construction methodologies to see what could be achieved by 'mass production' or standardisation. The Report looks at both UK and continental schemes.
This spread looks at two schemes in Paris, at Bagneux and Drancy, constructed using a form of prefabricated concrete panel system developed by Eugene Mopin. Construction of these schemes started in c1930 and were completed in c1935. The system was a complete failure - largely due to inadequate concrete coverage of reinforcement - and sadly it rather presaged some of the post-WW2 systems that were touted as 'quick wins' in the post-war drive to replace housing. The one large scale example in the UK to use a similar system was the massive Quarry Hill scheme in Leeds, opened in 1938, that was demolished in 1978.
However Drancy has a far worse place in world history. Designed by Eugène Beaudouin and Marcel Lodz as a modernist community (known as La Cité de la Muette ("The Silent City") the scheme was confiscated by the Nazis after the fall of France in 1940 and by 1941 it became used as an internment and transit camp for the Jewish community. Until Drancy was liberated on 17 August 1944 it is believed that 67,400 people passed through this ghastly place and that the vast majority perished in the death camps. Seldom can architecture carry such a stain. The horrors of Drancy are commemorated by a series of memorials on the site.