37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 326THE JEAN RENAUDIE AND RENÉE GAILHOUSTETCOLLECTIVE CONCEPTIONS: VALIDITY ANDRELEVANCE AT THE CONTEMPORARY DEBATESSánchez Cayuela, Carlos AdulfoDepartment of Graphic Expression in Architecture and EngineeringUniversity of the Granada, Spaine-mail: cascayuela@yahoo.comKey words: Topic III, Social Housing, community, identity, Jean Renaudie, Renée GailhoustetAbstractThis is the Self-service Period, one of the most emblematic devices of second half of XXCentury, and the dominant model in almost all vital sectors, such as family, politics, religionor consumer life. The intermediates disappear: finally, the consumer and the merchandise,face to face. The independent consumer has to choose, and that causes a competition forsearching product and the wrapping’s seduction. All the system, consequently, from themarketing to our own habitats, has produced a collective power’s weakening and its ownrules, confronting the private enjoyment to the public dissatisfaction, destroying theconception of society.Today, it’s necessary to give answers from architecture and urbanism trying to bond andstrengthen social relationships. The concepts of identity and sense of belonging, communityand collectivity, studied in the ’60-‘70s by Team X and their contemporaries, have to beactualized and revised for defining how we can understand them as collective experience inthe XXIst century, far from huxleymanians models, in the new relational context.The social housing development of almost forgotten french architects Atelier de Montrouge,Jean Renaudie and Renée Gailhoustet are full of validity and relevance, despite of their fallinto obscurity. Their works are based on the principles of social contact, complexity, nonhierarchicalstructure, mixed uses at different levels and a profound social commitment,which makes them real built utopias. The paper studies some of the projects of thesearchitects, focusing in their most interesting proposals attending to its potential contribution tothe contemporary debate.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 187