Lège Workers' Estate (Houses and Canteen)

On 3 November 1923, after reading Vers une architecture, Henry Frugès, a sugar industrialist in Bordeaux, wrote to Le Corbusier: he was about to have a small workers' estate built around a sawmill he had just bought in the Landes near Arcachon. Shortly afterwards he commissioned him to build houses for the workers of that sawmill, at Lège; Le Corbusier built them with his cousin and partner Pierre Jeanneret.

Begun in August 1924, the work ended in 1925; the use of the "cement gun" and structural weaknesses caused many problems. During the crisis of the 1930s Frugès parted with his factory and went to North Africa; the Darbo family, foresters, bought the estate and the sawmill. The estate was then completely neglected and the houses were heavily altered: flat roofs gave way to gabled roofs, openings were blocked, interior layouts were altered and lean-tos were added.

The six houses, as well as the bachelors' house, known as the canteen, with its pelota wall, were listed as historic monuments in 1990. Gironde Habitat, a public development and construction office, has owned the houses since 1993 and launched a renovation campaign limited to the houses: from 1996 to 1997 the architect Jean-Luc Veyret restored their volumes and openings, notably the flat roof. In 2012 a further campaign, led by Pierre-Antoine Gatier, chief architect of historic monuments, dealt with thermal improvement and included replacing all the metal frames. The canteen belongs to the municipality of Lège-Cap-Ferret; in 2016 a preliminary study for its restoration was carried out with a view to opening it to the public.

The programme includes six houses, three of type A and three of type B, plus a bachelors' house, also called the "canteen" and intended for seasonal workers, with its refectory, and a playing field equipped with a Basque pelota wall.

The estate can be seen from the outside; the canteen is inaccessible.