Cité des Poètes, Gian Paolo Minelli.
The Cité des Poètes is a housing complex of some 900 homes within the suburbs of the town of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine in the Seine-Saint-Denis region near Paris. Part of the complex, the Georges-Brassens social centre and the Robert-Desnos apartment buildings, were designed by the architects Yves and Luc Euvremer, Jean Renaudie and Mila and Geronimo Padron-Lopez. The Robert-Desnos buildings are comprised of a series of blocks with intricate, extremely varied plan-forms and staggered sections which created tiered apartments many of which had their own cultivatable terraces. On the perimeter of the complex, the Georges-Brassens social center sheltered the blocks from the adjacent motorway.
The construction of the complex was subject to multiple delays, with construction onsite suspended for a year before 1981 and final completion not achieved until 1994. The complex suffered from maintenance issues and deterioration even before completion and was the subject of not a little controversy and adverse publicity. The planned social mix of tenants was never realised and the suggestions of several rehabilitation studies were never acted upon. Authorities considered partial demolition less than a decade after the project was completed.
In 2004 residents expressed their protest against the prospect of demolition, through a petition signed by 811 tenants. Architects also joined the chorus of protest; a coalition, including the French branch of Docomomo, drew up plans to demonstrate the economic advantage of renovation. But by 2010 the legal wrangles culminated in a court order to allow the proposed demolition work to proceed.
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