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

Date: 1926

## The fact

In 1924–26 [Le Corbusier](/people/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/ (Fondation Le Corbusier). Independent locator: Britannica — Le Corbusier at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Le-Corbusier (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. Archival locator: Fondation Le Corbusier — English portal at https://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/en/ (Fondation Le Corbusier). Independent locator: Britannica — Le Corbusier at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Le-Corbusier (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

## Evidence and sources

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. Archival locator: Fondation Le Corbusier — English portal at https://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/en/ (Fondation Le Corbusier). Independent locator: Britannica — Le Corbusier at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Le-Corbusier (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Official or archival record: Fondation Le Corbusier — English portal (https://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/en/; Fondation Le Corbusier).

## Significance

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. Archival locator: Fondation Le Corbusier — English portal at https://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/en/ (Fondation Le Corbusier). Independent locator: Britannica — Le Corbusier at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Le-Corbusier (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

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

## What is established and what is not

Established: Pessac built c. 1926; residents altered. Not established: a unique defect census. Conventional 1926. Not a 1980s restoration as the act. Archival locator: Fondation Le Corbusier — English portal at https://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/en/ (Fondation Le Corbusier). Independent locator: Britannica — Le Corbusier at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Le-Corbusier (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Do not treat later restoration-to-Purism as his 1926 act. 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.

The attached driver is [social-cohesion](/drivers/social-cohesion). The welfare reading used in this dossier is worsening. 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.

## People

- Le Corbusier: https://factrail.ai/people/le-corbusier

## Drivers

- Social Cohesion: https://factrail.ai/drivers/social-cohesion

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Le-Corbusier
- https://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/en/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

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