Contenu du sommaire : Etudes

The Caisse des dépots and the HBM, a long learning
From 1894 until 1921 France's CDC was assigned a central role in the financing of the social housing sector created at the same time. The archives of the CDC, particularly the papers of its principal committee, together with the details of the loans that it agreed, provide an opportunity to revalue the role that it played during its first twenty-five years of operation. Its achievements–its creation of an administration, its assistance to newly formed HBM housing societies, its questioning of the principle of funding for social housing– invite us to rethink the role of the CDC: did it not lay the very foundations for France's future social housing policy?

Le Coin du feu in Saint-Denis (1894-1914): a cooperative HLM housing society, a pioneer experience for the CDC
The period that sees the founding of the social housing sector in France provides evidence of the strength of the links between the Société des Habitations à bon Marché (SFHBM) and the CDC, the principal source of funding for this form of housing. This study, focused on the cooperative HLM housing society, Le Coin du Feu, in St Denis, clearly confirms not only the initial caution of the CDC towards the possibilities created by the loi Siegfried but then the growing availability of funding for HLM housing by the start of the 20th century, as well as pioneering role played by the SFHBM and the Expositions Universelles. The loi Bonnevay and then WWI signal the end of this first period of the development of the social housing sector in France.

Housing construction and Urban Infrastructure Investments from the 1930s through the mid-1960s
Since the 1930s, the financing of urban infrastructure building accompanying housing construction has raised very serious political problems. Not only the consequent local governments' financial difficulties delayed the house building programs in face of all the urgent needs to be satisfied, but also the dissatisfaction and anger of the suburban mayors could give rise to a local or even national political crisis. Several actors took part in resolving this problem, forming shifting alliances among them; members of Parliament, prefects, mayors, Ministries of Interior, Finances, and Construction (formerly Reconstruction and Housing), and finally the CDC and its subsidiary semi-public corporations. However, the article's detailed analysis shows that from the 1930s through the mid-1960s, the CDC never played an important role in arranging the successive solutions to the problems of financing the urban infrastructure building.

‘‘SCIC'', the first large scale housing developper in France (1953-1958) On June, 11 1954 the CDC created its first technical branch the SCIC, in what may be considered a major event in the history of housing and architecture in France's post-war boom era. As the biggest developper of large scale housing in France, the SCIC established an authentic ‘‘builder's architecture'' deployed through the sixties in the ZUP. By favoring quantity and rapidity, the SCIC removed the prerogatives of architects and local authorities, developping a new housing model centered on the scale of the individual project while resting compatible with rational organization at the territorial level.

The CDC in Villiers-Le-Bel from 1950 to 1965: Builders and bankers This article summarizes a study focused on the example of Villiers-Le-Bel, a town which shows various actions and housing projects lead by the CDC from 1950 to 1965. This research is based on municipal and the Ministère de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme archives. It has to be noted that the SCIC archives were unavailable and that those of the CDC were not classified. We want to demonstrate that the CDC had an action not only in building planning but also in the evolution of some areas in the geographic perimeter where Villiers-le-Bel is settled (North of Paris suburbs). This study raises a question: is the CDC action motivated by a defined strategy or by a mere succession of opportunities?

Mayors and social housing: from the origins to the golden age of ‘‘grand ensemble'' (housing compound) (1920-1960) The 23rd December 1912 Act first created the offices publics (public housing committees) marking the commitment of local authorities in social housing policies. From few dozens in 1919, the number of these committees soon reached 300 on the eve of 2nd World War. The Loucheur Act dated 1928 would further boost the public housing sector as the CDC, the French State arm in charge with funding public investments was then to be associated to public housing policies. Between 1920's and late 1930's public housing committees aided by the CDC achieved nearly 130,000 HLM (low rate housing). In the 50's, over 360,000 of these HLM were built amounting to 57% of total HLM in France to which one must add housing of ‘‘SEM municipales'' (municipalities' social housing). These programs, even if unevenly spread over French territory, were often conducted by the regional leg of CDC, evidencing how local powers could commit to urban policies. The latter strengthened the status of the Mayor as a ‘‘Builder.''

When the SCIC shot films about tower blocks (1959-1973) Like other actors of the economic and social life in France, the SCIC was very active. Since the end of the 1950's, it produced many films that portrayed tower block housing estates. We do not have any written documents that can help us shed light about the context in which the production and distribution were carried out. Therefore, this study is particularly interesting as it analyses the relationship with other sound and video productions that television, cinema and actors from the construction industry were issuing about this type of building in the same period of time. SCIC's films show tower blocks when they were being built, but this is not the only reason that makes them unique. They represent a reaction against the criticism they gathered. They show us the ambition the maker who wants to be portrayed as a cities' builder rather that an apartment-building constructor.

‘‘To give a new spirit to the new towns'', the social plan of the CDC. Mostly expanded by François Bloch-Lainé general manager of the CDC from 1952, the SCIC social policy was supposed to make new residents setting easier in the housing developments it was building. Progressively, it tried to make the inhabitants partners in their environment valuation. Though the CDC managers pretender to give ‘‘a new spirit'' to those recently built estates, we have to question about the SCIC social plan limits during the 50s/80s. Was it a matter of imposing a new social development pattern or fitting those new housing types in with the social modernization process that France experienced during this period?

New Towns vs CDC According to many witnesses, the CDC was not involved in the building of the French New Towns, neither were its subsidiary companies, the SCIC and the SCET. Studying the archives show why these important bodies were kept apart. When the Fifth Republic started, the CDC was a major partner of national as well as regional development. It helped in particular to create the ZUP, which announced the New Towns program. While launching the Plan for a Greater Paris - Schéma directeur d'aménagement et d'urbanisme de la Région parisienne (SDAURP) Paul Delouvrier consulted with Léon-Paul Leroy, head of the SCIC. But, at this time, in the mid-sixties, the CDC had to face quite a lot of problems within its own structure, while the policy of high productivity that it has promoted until then was contested by civil service leading staff. In 1968, The French government finally left the New Towns set-up to another type of organization, the Etablissements publics d'amé-nagement (EPA). This decision limited the influence of the CDC on town planning. In the following years, the economic policy led by the minister of Public Facilities and Housing (ministre de l'Equipement et du Logement), Albin Chalandon, finished to take the CDC and the EPA off the record. Although the SCET contributed to innovations in architecture and town planning, the CDC itself felt quite unconcerned about the building schedules in the New Towns, until the last seventies and early eighties, when a different management in the country's finances brought it back into play.

The SCET corporation role in Ivory Coast, 1959-1976 The independence of French colonies settled new fields of action and new markets for both SCIC and SCET, branches of the Caisse des dépôts, under the name of SCET-COOPERATION. Ivory Cost is a good exemple to treat the implementation of new juridical and financial tools for the construction of massive public housing and urban development. Due to the magnitude of works engaged in Ivory Cost under the presidence of Houphouët-Boigny, we can mesure the role of this french entreprise and cooperation in general. Anciens colonies are not just new markets, but a field of transmission of technique and juridical know-how, as well as urban concepts and architectural forms.

Implementation, transport, finance, or the experience of a trader watchmaker in Paris through his correspondence (1780) The trader watchmaker Noel Heroy settles in Paris during the commonly called golden age of French horology, having received the training and managed the integration in the Parisian network required for this luxury trade. A register holding the copy of more than 400 of his letters takes us into the daily life of a businessman between 1778 and 1781. With suppliers in Geneva and Neufchatel County and customers spread over 33 cities covering more than a third of the French territory, the correspondence displays the various professional activities of a trader. This puts an emphasis on the role played by transportation, the importance of a financial network connecting cities to cities and difficulties with the control of imported goods (gold and silver watches).