THE CONTEXT.
The young Nahel M., 17, was killed by police fire near the Pablo-Picasso housing estate in Nanterre where he was from. The Pablo-Picasso district is a set of winding alleys intertwining around the famous “cloud towers” or “Aillaud towers”, buildings from the 1970s designed by the architect Emile Aillaud. The 18 so-called Aillaud residential towers were built between 1973 and 1981. Major riots hit the neighborhood following the death of the young boy.
THE ARCHIVE.
We are in 1997 and Emile Aillaud praises his non-architectural work imagined for these towers. However, the question of this archive comes back to daily life in this ensemble. “I found it was the year 2000 in a bad science fiction book“explains a resident who, after refusing to settle there, was resigned.
The residents, too, have no harsh enough words against these towers. “We must destroy themsaid a man, pointing out that a bistro was missing. Only one man says he was surprised when he learned that housing was reserved in HLM. “I was happy to think that workers could live in a place so pretty, so good, so clean“.
But the last word went to Emile Aillaud who considered “fakethe question of whether he would live in the Aillaud towers. “It is certain that if I had the obligation to live in an HLM in these towers, and to have no income, certainly I would live there passionatelyhe said, not knowing if he was serious or cynical.
