La Cité de Refuge is a building in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

. It was designed for the Salvation Army and opened in 1933. Since that time it has been occupied by the French

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

. The building, one of Le Corbusier's first urban housing projects, was designated a National Historical Monument of France in 1975.

History

La Cité de Refuge was Le Corbusier's third building for the Salvation Army. It was built between 1929 and 1933 on 12 rue Cantagrel in the

13th arrondissement of Paris The 13th arrondissement of Paris (''XIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''treizième''. The arrondissement, called Gobelins, is situated ...

. The first design meeting occurred in May 1929, and the cornerstone was laid on June 1930. This was the most ambitious and complex building to be designed and erected by Le Corbusier at this early stage of his career. In order to register for the night, would-be clients of the Salvation Army have to pass through what

Kenneth Frampton Kenneth Brian Frampton (born 20 November 1930) is a British architect, critic and historian. He is the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York. He has be ...

describes as a "'Still Life' assembly of Platonic forms," which "affords the possibility of a rite of passage." The building consists of a single long slab block containing cellular accommodation at an angle to Rue de Cantagrel fronted by the free standing sculptural elements containing communal facilities such as reception hall, dining room, and administrative offices. The facade of the building was problematic from the beginning. It was designed to be a sealed 10,000 sq.ft glass facade with forced air ventilation. The system never worked correctly and was difficult to control. The facade was severely damaged by bombing during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. One bomb in particular, dropped August 25, 1944 in front of the building by the Germans, shattered all of its glass facade. Pierre Jeanneret oversaw repairs to the facade, the addition of a

brise soleil ''Brise soleil'', sometimes ''brise-soleil'' (; ), is an architectural feature of a building that reduces heat gain within that building by deflecting sunlight. More recently, vertical Brise soleil have become popular. Both systems allow low-l ...

between 1948 and 1952 and the replacement of the windows to the roof pavilions. The building was partially restored in 1975. The building underwent extensive renovations beginning in 2007, with the work completed in 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cite de Refuge Le Corbusier buildings in France Buildings and structures completed in 1933 Buildings and structures in Paris Salvation Army buildings Monuments historiques of Paris