Renovating îlot 8 without betraying its architecture

 

Îlot 8 is probably the most accomplished collective housing project carried out by Renée Gailhoustet in the second half of the 20th century, in the characteristic spirit that she initiated with Jean Renaudie. It features the main qualities of this revolutionary architecture: typological variation, functional diversity, clustering of dwellings, green terraces, pedestrianization and street complexity, as well as a theatricalization of the pathways. The neighborhoods designed by Gailhoustet bear a trademark that makes them easily recognizable. The paths are winding, the buildings angular, and the vegetation is abundant and interwoven with the buildings. The polygonal patterns that structure the whole ensure that no two apartments are alike.

In Saint-Denis, this formula, which has already proven itself in Ivry-sur-Seine and Aubervilliers, is enriched by an additional quality: the location of the new district, in the very center of the historic city. A few dozen meters from the covered market, the town hall and the basilica, necropolis of the kings of France, Îlot 8 is part of an exceptional heritage context. The creation of the neighborhood between 1975 and 1986 was mainly a reflection of the political will to provide workers' housing in the city center, and not on the outskirts, as was often the case. The complex was built on the site of a slum area adjacent to the basilica. This old building, poorly maintained, squatted in and impoverished, sometimes dating back to the Middle Ages, was demolished in the early 1970s with no consideration for its heritage value. It was not until 2010 that a “suspended demolition” project by Loïc Julienne and Pier Schneider, centered around a medieval frame in a building doomed to disappear, led to a heightened awareness of the heritage value of the old buildings in old Saint-Denis.

If Renée Gailhoustet agrees to build in place of the old town, she does so in the belief that the neighborhood she is creating will reflect the characteristics of the medieval city. The narrowness of the pedestrian streets and the proliferation of pathways are reminiscent of the effects found in historical frameworks. In addition to this added value for the heritage, the commercial program of Îlot 8 is adjacent to the Saint-Denis market, the busiest in France, housed in a renovated hall that was originally inaugurated in 1893. The shopping center of Îlot 8 is thriving. Far from the empty galleries that are often found in this type of facility, here we find a dynamic commercial ecosystem, in tune with the population of the municipality.

Saint-Denis, first a market town, then a working-class and industrial town, is today a multicultural town. The shopping center of Îlot 8 reflects this, constituting the de facto town center of a diverse community. All the components are in place for this complex to prosper, and that is precisely what has happened. While other large brutalist complexes raise questions about their viability, this one seems to be functioning, as its characteristics seems to be in tune with the urban context in which it is located. A bookshop, an art house cinema and a large supermarket add to the added value of the mixed neighborhood. The proximity of the tramway and the bus terminus make it the embodiment of the core of Saint-Denis.

 

Renovating Îlot 8

 

With the passage of time and the prospect of the 2024 Olympic Games, the historic center of Saint-Denis has experienced its moment of gentrification, with an initial wave of speculative buyers,  followed by a more affluent population, which has come to “reconquer” the city center, with its share of organic shops and trendy cafés that are quietly spreading as the owners change. Îlot 8, being exclusively dedicated to rental, has missed out on this wave of gentrification, to the point where what, in the 1990s, still seemed like an island of modernity next to the derelict old neighborhood, has come to embody the impoverished heart of a city in the process of gentrification. Hence the recent residentialization project, carried out with conviction by the current municipality, determined to include Îlot 8 in this drive to renew the city center.

When asked about the reasons for intervening, Nicolas Trentesaux, architect at RVA, the agency in charge of the project, together with Serge Renaudie, lists the reasons why their intervention is now considered urgent. Renée Gailhoustet's atypical housing units suffer from a lack of maintenance. Renovation to improve energy efficiency is essential, not to mention the fact that the slab no longer functions as it was designed to. Open to all, it is also open to drug dealers, who exploit its porosity to turn it into the back room of their lucrative business. Making it residential would close this space off to dealers and return it to its inhabitants. Except that residentialization in the brutalist labyrinth of Gailhoustet can hardly be achieved while maintaining the porosity and circulatory complexity of the whole. The project involves the removal of several staircases and the transformation of the succession of small squares that structure the identity and ecosystem of the neighborhood into private and distinct inner courtyards.

The most serious aspect of this intervention is the removal of the stairs that provide access to the slab, as well as the footbridges that span Rue Auguste Blanqui and Chemin des Poulies, and connect Îlot 8 to blocks 4 and 12, allowing for fluid circulation between these spaces. This circulatory system and the unitary, raised space it constitutes is at the heart of Renée Gailhoustet's project. The renovation consists of breaking it up. In the new configuration, the cross-connections between the different blocks are removed.

The architects admit to regretting this choice, which was not of their own making. They also regret that the residents' collective rejects any intervention outright and find it difficult to understand their attachment to a slab in a condition deemed unsatisfactory.They point out that it is impossible for the residents of the ground floor to enjoy their outdoor spaces and try to reassure the residents by emphasizing that the residentialization will allow them to reclaim this space. They add that one of the advantages of their intervention is the creation of goods lifts, which do not currently exist and which would improve the comfort of the residents, and categorically reject the fear of Place du Caquet, a real street running through the shopping center, being closed at night. Their attempt to reassure the collective seems in vain, as its members are convinced that the purpose of this intervention is none other than to put part of the rental stock up for sale.

The political will to go ahead with this renovation is strong, and it is unlikely that mobilization will be able to change the residentialization. This remains the only effective formula, because it is generic, for intervening in large housing estates in difficulty.

The fact remains that the case of Îlot 8 deserves tailor-made solutions, which the architects should be able to suggest, and perhaps even impose on the project owner. The system of footbridges and staircases is undoubtedly one of those elements that deserve extra effort to be preserved.

First of all, because they are a constituent element of the architecture of the place. Removing them is a bit like renovating the Centre Pompidou by removing its external staircase. The visibility and theatricality of the walkways are constituent elements of the architecture of the place, and destroying them would irrevocably damage the architectural integrity of the project. It is for this reason that the collective wrote to the architect of the Bâtiments de France in an open letter sent in March 2025.

The fate of the footbridges and stairs is both a source of tension and the prospect of a negotiated outcome. If the porosity, in a context of total openness of the whole, plays in favor of traffickers, how would a pathway between secured residential blocks pose a problem? Today, the slab, despite its state of decline, is a space where children, sometimes young, can be left to play independently. Will this still be possible in a residentialized status? Social landlords rarely allow children to play in private courtyards.

As for the circulation, a precious intangible heritage of Renée Gailhoustet's architecture, it will quite simply be abolished, without the possibility of restoration once the access stairs and footbridges have been demolished. The footbridges and those stairs that can be made safe are an opportunity that architects should seize to influence the position of the social housing organisation commissioning the renovation. A residentialization that would maintain the footbridges and some of the stairs could achieve its objectives of making the slab safe, while allowing extensive internal circulation, reserved for residents with an access badge.

This would preserve a constituent element of the site's architecture: its circulatory spirit. Renée Gailhoustet's work deserves this effort, before her ecosystem is turned into an empty shell, a disembodied decor of the city above the city she had imagined.