Legendary French Architect Renée Gailhoustet Passed Away at the Age of 93

Renée Gailhoustet, a French architect, social housing pioneer, and 2022 Royal Academy Architecture Prize holder, died at 93. According to the Royal Academy, she died in her home in Le Liégat, Ivry-sur-Seine, one of her most notable projects, which she finished in 1982.

Renée Gailhoustet was a significant supporter of social housing throughout her career, dating back to the 1960s, exemplifying a vision of spacious accommodation in harmony with their urban contexts via her work.

©Raphael Chipault

Renée Gailhoustet’s Background

Renée Gailhoustet, born in Oran in French Algeria in 1929, studied at the École des beaux-arts in Paris until joining the studio of French architect Roland Dubrulle, where she began working on Paris housing projects such as the rebuilding of Ivry-sur-Seine.

She continued designing limited terraced residences for the Ivry-sur-Seine neighborhood even after opening her studio in 1964. She also collaborated with Le Liégat to create the Marat and Spinoza structures.

Also read: 6 Social Houses that Can Never Look Any Better

Ivry-sur-Seine ©thefunambulist.net

In the south-eastern Paris suburbs of Ivry-sur-Seine, Gailhouste was the project’s lead architect in 1969. The project was a solution to the overwhelming postwar housing need in Paris. Gailhoustet’s proposal for the area rejected massive complexes in favor of an assortment of different building styles divided by outdoor land. The final product was a unified urban environment with creative variation in spatial design, which is still in use.

Ivry-sur-Seine ©Vitra.com

“Renée Gailhoustet’s accomplishments extend far beyond what is being created as social or economical housing elsewhere in the world. Her art is characterized by a deep social commitment that combines compassion, aesthetics, sustainability, and inclusiveness”. Stated Farshid Moussavi, RA, Chair of the Jury for the 2022 Royal Academy Architecture Awards.

With the use of stepped terraces, urban gardens, and an effort to integrate brutalist housing with its street-level surroundings, Renée Gailhoustet innovated a more urban style of Brutalism. Her projects frequently deviate from the aesthetic norms of Brutalism to produce pleasant, vibrant living areas with large windows and welcoming spaces. Her spaces engaged with the people and the city through compassionate gestures and are now an example and a concept of what generous social housing genuinely involves.

Aubervilliers by Renée Gailhoustet ©Marc Pataut

Other Renée Gailhoustet’s Notable Projects

Renée Gailhoustet’s designs did not stop at Ivry-sur-Seine. Gailhoustet, on the other hand, designed the Raspail, Lénine, Jeanne-Hachette, and Casanova towers, along with the Spinoza complex and the terraced apartment complexes, Le Liégat and Marat, between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s.

Renée Gailhoustet will live on in the memory of future generations for her groundbreaking work in establishing architecture as a sociocultural act, the compassion and delicacy with which she treated social housing, and the originality of her architectural forms.