He devoted eight years of his life to restore the house of a sacred monster of architecture

“I don’t know why, it has become obsessive. Vincent Donet devoted eight years of his life to restore one of the 51 houses in the Cité Frugès in Pessac (Gironde), imagined by the famous architect Le Corbusier. Basically, the man was neither a handyman – “I had never held a trowel of my life” – nor passionate about architecture. But fate has made it helped to resuscitate a part of the work of this Sacred monster of modern movement. Narrative.

The story goes back 50 years back. Vincent Donet lives the first three years of his life in this house, which his parents bought in common with his grandparents, until they decided to move to a subdivision in Cestas. The building is then widely transformed and even cut into three dwellingsso that it no longer looks like its initial architecture at all.

A priesthood

THE wide windowsplanned to let a maximum of light pass, are partly rebuilt. On the ground floor, the laundry room is annexed to make a room. The flat roof is replaced by a sloping Evening roof. “Things had been added, others had been deleted,” sums up Vincent Donet.

On the death of his grandparents, the original Pessacais was asked by an ancestor to recover it and retype it. “From thread by needle, the idea came into my head. I was going on my 30th birthday, I left to buy like everyone else, ”summarizes this employee of the National Institute of young Deaf (INJS) in Bordeaux. He moved there in 2003.

At the time, the young owner was employed in mass distribution. He starts very early in the morning and when he finished his work day around 11 a.m., he embraces with a second day of work in his house. “I spent all my time there, I was completely devoted. I slept in the work, ”he recalls.

He saved “one of the five irrecoverable houses”

From profane, Vincent Donet has become passionate about Le Corbusier. During the construction of his building, he found himself exhuming his work. “I knew that plastic, the bricks that were used to plug certain windows and other materials were not original so I could break. I learned to observe, I did theArchitectural archeology To restore the house its original appearance, ”explains the fifties.

When he bought it, his house was considered “One of the five irrecoverable in the neighborhood”. Eight years later, Vincent Donet managed to give him back his original drawing with its geometric and refined shapes.

Indeed, by imagining the Cité Frougès, Le Corbusier has carried out “an unprecedented experimentation project”: the city considered as One of the first Workers’ garden cities Made around the world, according to the canons of modern aesthetics.

“It was my way to Compostela”

This project allowed at the beginning of the 20th^e century, the date on which the subdivision was delivered, to offer Workers’ accommodation accessible to the property and equipped with the most innovative comfort elements.

A century later, the comfort criteria have evolved and these houses may seem a little outdated. But Vincent Don feels good there. Even if the thermal insulation leaves something to be desired for example. ” It is like an old car Without Airbag, it has its charm, ”he compares.

The owner did not want to renovate his house when he embarked on the work. However, at the time, the Cité Frugès was not yet listed on the World Heritage List of Humanity by UNESCO, under the architectural work of Le Corbusier. It happened in 2016. Vincent Donet could therefore have given himself to heart choice, without having architectural restrictions, but he wanted Keep this soul habitat soul.

And regardless of the comfort today questionable of his place of life: Vincent Donet found “his little corner of paradise”. “Having restored this house is My greatest pride. For years, I have devoted my life to it, I cut myself a little from the world, but if I had to do it again, I would do it again. It was my path in Compostela, it allowed me to grow. This house is a part of me. »»

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