Familistere Guise / h2o architectes

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Homblières, France
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Original Park

Master Plan

The Familistère is a vast housing complex founded by Jean-Baptiste André Godin in 1859 in relation with the stove manufacturing business. Until 1968, this Social Palace was the theatre of a unique social experimentation in the industrial world: the Familistère was a sort of utopia for an industrial society composed like an urban transition between the town and the park of the city island nearby.

Familistere Guise / h2o architectes - Image 15 of 31
© Stéphane Chalmeau

The development suggested by the agency respects three fundamental themes: unity of place, heritage and experimentation.

Familistere Guise / h2o architectes - Image 5 of 31
© Stéphane Chalmeau

The project establishes a new readability of the site by creating a new sense of unity between its different existing parts. The great mineral square in the centre for example creates a new tension between the different buildings and reactivates the original axial planning. At the heart of the site, a series of thematic “islands” at a reduced scale allow for an easy and constantly renewed use.  The program of events on these « thematic islands » is open to constant improvisation and experimentation, echoing Godin’s philosophy about invention and incompletion.


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Project location

Address:2 Rue de Guise, 02720 Homblières, France

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Familistere Guise / h2o architectes" 08 Mar 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/484268/familistere-guise-h2o-architectes> ISSN 0719-8884

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