© Centre Pompidou
In 1967, a shanty-town in the 13 district of Paris is being demolished and its population of migrant and minority origin, not wanted in the bourgeois centre, is relocated on the outskirts of the capital.
Nanterre shantytowns © Photothèque EPAD
The architect Emile Aillaud is asked to transform a no man's land flanked between a motorway, a notorious prison and a couple of speed roads into a living place for 13000 people coming from 55 different ethnicities.
© Centre Pompidou
To build this boomtown, Aillaud choses the middle landscape and the garden cities as points of reference : he wants 'La Grande Borne' to be a city for the Children. So he builds vertically to free space for everyday life, conceives poetic, rhythmical apertures, fluid perspectives and succession of play areas, and covers the walls of the estate with a decorative mosaic which becomes its trademark.
© Centre Pompidou
His vision recalls the counter-cultural experiments of the times : the swimming pool's outlook is reminiscent of Drop city's utopian pods.
The estate becomes a huge dormitory town with issues common to all the red suburbs (discrimination, youth criminality, unemployment etc...), a context which sadly gets worse with time.
By chance, one area of individual units called 'Les Patios' will capture some of Aillaud's sense of space.
The smaller settlements are built on marshes as temporary housing for the builders and architects of la Grande Borne.
Following the housing crisis, Les Patios isn't demolished and becomes a council estate.
At first, the few trees can't mask the desolation of its location : there is no post office, no high school, no cinema, no local shops, therefore no social life.
The houses are physical aliens in the landscape : with their radical blinded walls, their unique window on the outside and a flat roof; they become known as the 'garage-houses'.
© Jean-Claude Maugirard
Soon, the pioneer residents reclaim the space by painting the concrete in the streets, by re-designing the lay-out of the units, by bringing tables outside to eat together : they open La Halte, a Self-run Space for social and cultural events.
Les patios is car-free so there is endless space for children to run, climb, hunt, hide : a whole underground culture develops like in most suburbs (youth centres, street-art, Parkour, graffiti, skateboarding, hip-hop, alternative music ...).
© Unknown / Julia Feracci
Thanks to Aillaud, the houses are built around enclosed gardens; inside, a ceiling window overlooks the stars and on the facades opaque windows increase privacy.
While the space of the houses opens onto a contemplative garden, 
the physical landscape around them is enliven by sculptures that size the sun's course (Pyramid, sundial...) : that living experience deepens children's spatial awareness and sense of play.
© Unknown / Julia Feracci
The inside-outside dialectic, the play of light and shadow on the architectural volumes, connect the habitat with the landscape. The hidden gardens slowly grow over the concrete jungle preserving sheltered social/play areas : the harmony between man and nature is preserved through time.
Les patios is not inscribed in a context of romantic vision of the red suburbs but a built utopia well anchored in reality - a place where alternative visions and little spatial disturbances endlessly defeat the urban angst.
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