A Fading Urban Utopia
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In the eastern suburbs of Paris, one of the city’s most impressive buildings is slowly fading away.
Paris has no shortage of bold buildings. But half an hour to the east of the city — far off the beaten tourist track — you’ll find a concrete palace that rivals the most iconic Paris cityscapes.
Dubbed “the Versailles of the people”, the Espaces d’Abraxas draws far fewer visitors than its royal counterpart. Towering 19-stories tall over a sea of concrete-grey in the Parisian suburb of Noisy-Le-Grand, this palace of the people is no less impressive than that of Louis XIV’s.
Unlike the real Versailles, Espaces d’Abraxas is not a museum. People live there. Exactly how many people inhabit 47 000 square-meter apartment complex is not known. Some of them are not too happy that their home draws curious tourists.
“No cameras!” a young man in a black hoodie barks, as he pokes his covered face out of the hallway. Whatever he and his handfull of companions are doing by the dimly lit staircase is best kept from nosy outsiders.
Tucking away your camera is the last thing you want to do. The surrounding courtyard is quite frankly staggering. The classical forms of architecture and ornamentation might at first glance remind people of ancient Greek temples.
The 591-unit complex is part of the “Grands Ensembles”, massive suburban housing initiative launched by the French government after the Second World War. The goal was to create “nouvelles villes” — new urban towns that would house the babyboomer generation.
The complex of the Espaces d’Abraxas is made up of three main parts of neoclassical architecture: The «Palacio», a pink monumental building providing apartments for social housing assigned by the state. The «Theatre», on the other side of the courtyard, is entirely composed of privately owned flats. In between, a grand “Arc” — in true neoclassical style — connects the two sides.
Initially, in the 1980s, the Catalonian architecture Ricardo Bofill intended to create a space with «monumental and symbolic character» that would bring together people in a «meeting place». But the buildings stand alone, disconnected from facilities and shops nearby.
“The populations have not mixed,” Bofill acknowledged in a 2014 interview with Le Monde. The architect blamed that failure on France’s lack of community spirit. He initially envisioned no more than 20% of immigrants living in the complex, in order for the project of social integration to succeed. 35 years later, the complex, like the rest of Noisy-Le-Grand, is home to a multicultural community.
Architect-enthusiasts are not the only ones who have been drawn to the complex. In 2012, the «Theater » was transformed into «the Capitol», serving as a filming location for the dystopian blockbuster «The Hunger Games».
Since then, tourists from all over the world have come to visit the arena. The attention brought by the Hollywood-visit, is still a source of pride for many residents.
But the increase in tourism also brought problems.
“People have had their cameras broken by residents out here”, a receptionist at the complex says. Noisy-Le-Grand is one of the suburbs of Paris that has a high crime rate. You are more likely to be a victim of theft here, than in the rest of the Ile-de-France region, according to a report of the the National Observatory on Crime and Penal Responses (ONDRP). According to the receptionists, it’s not uncommon for visitors to leave without their cameras.
With increasing drug trafficking and crimes happening in the complex, security is becoming a main concern of the inhabitants. According to the mayor Brigitte Marsigny, the national police has been hesitant to enter the apartment complex. Companies like IKEA and Louis Vuitton have both been forced to abort recordings of commercials because of safety concerns.
Even if it is not on the official agenda, the town hall has debated the potential demolition of the Abraxas complex in the past. “To tear them down would be a lack of culture. It would be an aberration,” Bofill reacts in an interview with Le Monde. But he does not think France would be capable of doing such a thing. “The city of Noisy-le-Grand must learn to manage the building,” he says.
Last November, 35 years after their construction, the architect Ricardo Bofill returned to Noisy-le-Grand to coordinate the renovation of the ancient buildings, planned for the upcoming summer. He will also be responsible for the construction of another 800 apartments in the quartier’s new future complex called « Horizon-Nord ». The estimated costs of the future apartments will be between 3800 and 4400 Euro per square meter.
