CITÉ INDUSTRIELLE, UNE

Unbuilt project designed by Tony Garnier, completed 1917
Une Cité industrielle, Etude pour la construction des villes (An Industrial Town, Study for the Construction of Towns, 1901–04, 1917),
Tony Garnier’s vast and complex project consisting of 164 plates for an imaginary
industrial town, incorporated classical, contemporary, and futuristic aspects. Modernist
architects considered it a significant pioneering work in modernism, one that retained
classical elements. Garnier himself, however, never participated in the Modern
movement. He practiced architecture without being overly concerned with the conflicts
between modernity and tradition. Later interpretations have compared the affinity of U ne Cité industrielle
with contemporary trends, such as the Garden City movement, debates on workers’
housing, Utopian literature, and the socialist tradition. Une Cité industrielle was foremost an innovation in
regional and town planning.
Garnier won the Rome Prize in 1899 as a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris
and studied in Rome for four years. There he worked on Une Cité industrielle (which outraged the
conservative Académie des Beaux-Arts) and a project for the restoration of the ancient
city of Tusculum. Garnier exhibited drawings for Une Cité industrielle in 1904. The final, expanded 1917
version incorporated numerous projects that were realized in Lyons, Garnier’s native city,
to which he returned in 1905. The same year, Garnier met the 33-year-old radicalsocialist
mayor, Edouard Herriot. The two launched a program of construction that would
last three decades.
Une Cité industrielle is an astoundingly thorough visualization, from its overall conception down to
individual houses. Garnier emphasized zoning, circulation, hygiene, and industry,
considering both communal and individual aspects of life in a town of 35,000 inhabitants.
The general plan is based on the French academic tradition. However, the parklike setting
and the emphasis on pedestrian routes are comparable to the English Garden City
movement led by Ebenezer Howard and to the ideas of Camillo Sitte. The site was to be
near raw materials, sources of energy, and communication routes. The three main
functions of the town—production, housing, and health facilities—are clearly
distinguished. Residential and public areas are placed on a plateau, and the industrial
complex is situated on the periphery by the river. At the center of the residential area is a
cluster of public buildings, including an assembly hall, museums, libraries, theaters, and a
sports center. Around the railroad station is a mixture of tall residential and commercial
buildings, including an open market and a clock tower. Residential quarters are arranged
on an urban grid divided into lots of 15 by 15 meters. Each building is linked to a
pedestrian route so that people could cross the city in all directions independently of the
roads. All houses are detached. Courtyards are eliminated, and every room is lit and
ventilated directly from the outside. Each bedroom has at least one south-facing window
that lets in plenty of sunlight. All the interior walls and floors are made of smooth
material. Only half the residential area was to be built up, whereas the other half was to
form a kind of a communal garden.
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 490
Garnier’s emphasis on hygiene, space, and the separation of pedestrian and automobile
traffic would resonate widely in the early 20th century. His conception of urban zoning
would have a profound impact on 20th-century town planning. Le Corbusier, who met
Garnier in 1907, was the first well-known architect to publicly acknowledge the influence
of Une Cité industrielle in 1921. Une Cité industrielle relies on reinforced concrete for the buildings that gives them a bare and
austere appearance. The houses are mostly free of ornamentation, with the exception of
several classical sculptures. The simplicity of material and means of construction were to
lead logically to great simplicity of expression in the structure, which then would support
a variety of decorative arts. Such ideas reveal an affinity with traditional architectural
theory, emphasizing preestablished harmonies. At the same time, Garnier’s influence
forced French architectural education to be more open to the concerns of New Urbanism.
Intellectual currents of the late 19th century provided inspiration for Une Cité industrielle. Many French
intellectuals embraced ideals of social progress deriving from the socialist tradition of
Charles Fourier, visions of a scientific and technological utopia espoused in both French
and foreign novels, and renewed interest for antiquities. Une Cité industrielle resembles the ideal city in
Emile Zola’s Travail (1900–01); the assembly hall of Une Cité industrielle has inscriptions from Travail. The absence of
a church, prison, court, police station, or military barracks fits with some of the
contemporary Utopian ideas, including the premise that society would provide medicine
and basic foodstuffs. Garnier’s premise rested on a systematic physical organization that
would best sustain the needs of the individual in a regional setting. In Lyons, Garnier
built a series of exemplary public buildings, such as a slaughterhouse-cattle market
complex (1909–13), an Olympic stadium (1913) with Greco-Roman allusions, and the
Grange-Blanche Hospital (1915), all of which were integrated into Une Cité industrielle. Une Cité industrielle enabled Garnier
to integrate his conceptions into Lyons, an existing, complex city, and thereby contribute
significantly to 20th-century architecture and urban planning.