Cité Frugès-Le Corbusier Museum / Municipal House Frugès-Le Corbusier
Pastel-painted modernist workers' houses with flat roof terraces, once bricked up by the very families who refused to live in them.
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About this audio guide
The guide to the Cite Fruges in Bordeaux follows Henri Fruges, a sugar magnate with money and a restless conscience, hiring a little-known Swiss architect named Le Corbusier after one book convinced him to rethink how his factory workers should live. It traces the plan for flat roof terraces meant for open-air life, the bold blue, green and yellow paint chosen to win the workers over, and what greeted the estate when it opened in 1926. You'll hear Le Corbusier's own shrug when asked what he made of how it turned out. Walk the street and you can still read that unresolved argument house by house.
This audio guide was created using AI.