"When the French architect Renee Gailhoustet died in 2023, the residents of Le Liegat, a social housing block she completed in 1982, put up a large handmade sign saying: Merci Renee. Architects are often accused of designing impersonal rabbit hutches that they themselves would never deign to inhabit, but when Gailhoustet died at the age of 93, she had been living in her Liegat duplex in the Parisian suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine for more than 40 years."
"Characterised by their riotous informality, Gailhoustet's free-plan apartment blocks invariably featured cascading terraces and loggias covered with a foot of soil, so residents could cultivate and enjoy un jardin derriere, a back garden. Over time, planting has enrobed the angular contours of Le Liegat, as it has her other housing schemes, softening and subverting its concrete armature in a kind of post-apocalyptic, nature-takes-over way that plays well on Instagram."
Renee Gailhoustet lived for decades in her Le Liegat duplex and specialised in social housing and urban planning after graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts in 1961. Her free-plan apartment blocks used cascading terraces and loggias filled with soil so residents could cultivate private back gardens. Dense planting has softened concrete structures and created nature-dominant facades, offering shade and cooling that can mitigate urban heat. Her projects often combined housing with communal shops and cafes, forming formally complex, adaptable megastructures located in the less privileged suburbs beyond Paris's périphérique. Her designs prioritised residents' access to green space and choice.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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