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Cité Frugès at Pessac is built as workers’ housing; residents later alter the Purist boxes against the architect’s control

In 1924–26 Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret built the Cité Frugès at Pessac for an industrial patron: standardised Purist houses in colour. In the causal graph this event weakens Social Cohesion, a driver that strengthens Having a say in government — a worsening welfare path.

Read the full account

In 1924–26 Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret built the Cité Frugès at Pessac for an industrial patron: standardised Purist houses in colour. Occupants soon added pitched roofs, shutters, and decorations the doctrine forbade. He did not live in the boxes. Archival locator: Fondation Le Corbusier — English portal at https://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/en/ (opens in a new tab) (Fondation Le Corbusier). Independent locator: Britannica — Le Corbusier at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Le-Corbusier (opens in a new tab) (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Context

Modulor and Unité later try again at industrial housing. Pessac is the early laboratory. Cohesion here is the broken fit between machine-for-living and household custom. Later heritage restorations that strip resident changes are not 1926.

Why it matters

A famous inhabited refusal of Purism is a cohesion path: design versus dwelling. Medium-high confidence on the alterations as received. Later Corbusian restorations are other decades.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Le Corbusier

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.32 · verified

    He designed the quarter for Henri Frugès. Residents remade roofs and colours. Complex: the failure of control is part of the instrument.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactCité Frugès at Pessac is built as workers’ housing; residents later alter the Purist boxes against the architect’s control
    2. weakensDriverSocial Cohesion
    3. strengthensIndicators (2)Having a say in government
    Worsening path

    impact weight 0.35 · Effect from 1 January 1926 · verified

    A model workers’ quarter that inhabitants had to ‘disobey’ to live in is a cohesion path of medium-high confidence: the mismatch is documented; unique happiness scores are not.

    • Having a say in government

      via Social Cohesion

      Worse

      Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.16 (weight 0.35 × strength 0.45)

      Observed

      29.8% of population aged 16-65 years · 8.13 below the normal line (2023)

      Worse than normal

      Two readings: 30.2% of population aged 16-65 years (2021) and 29.8% of population aged 16-65 years (2023).

      20212023

      Above normal = better

    • Rule of Law Gap from the Highest Governance Score

      via Social Cohesion

      Worse

      Weakens · Relationship strength 0.16 (weight 0.35 × strength 0.45)

      Observed

      43.9 Score · 43.9 above the normal line (2024)

      Worse than normal

      26 readings, 1996–2024: rose from 43 Score to 43.9 Score.

      Normal is zero · any amount = worse

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Britannica — Le CorbusierEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Fondation Le Corbusier — English portalFondation Le Corbusier · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Fondation Le Corbusier independently lists Pessac/Frugès. Britannica independently treats his housing experiments. Architectural histories of Pessac independently narrate resident alterations. No unique ‘satisfaction survey’ of 1927 is invented.

Established: Pessac built c. 1926; residents altered. Not established: a unique defect census. Conventional 1926. Not a 1980s restoration as the act.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Mixed effects of Cité Frugès at Pessac is built as workers’ housing; residents later alter the Purist boxes against the architect’s control are separate paths.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

Shared responsibility is part of Cité Frugès at Pessac is built as workers’ housing; residents later alter the Purist boxes against the architect’s control. Naming Le Corbusier does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1926-01-01 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorLe Corbusier
  2. contributed toFactCité Frugès at Pessac is built as workers’ housing; residents later alter the Purist boxes against the architect’s control
  3. weakensDriverSocial Cohesion
  4. strengthensIndicatorHaving a say in government

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Cité Frugès at Pessac is built as workers’ housing; residents later alter the Purist boxes against the architect’s control. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/lc-pessac-cite-fruges

https://factrail.ai/facts/lc-pessac-cite-fruges

Accessed 15 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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