Right to Difference - The Architecture of Jean Renaudie

This publication asks what lessons contemporary urbanism may learn from a radical French architect of the 1970s, Jean Renaudie. Renaudie rejected the strictures of functionalism and focused instead on creating housing that stimulated social exchange. His political commitment was matched by a striking structuralist sensibility. The low-cost housing at Givors, for example is formed of star-shaped clusters of apartments, each one different, and each one equipped with a garden terrace, while the plans for the new town of Le Vaudreuil seem to borrow as much from science fiction as from the social sciences. Visionary and animated, the architecture of Jean Renaudie has particular resonance today, as we search for means to establish a sense of community and place in our increasingly introverted cities.