Tonkin House

In the early twentieth century several laws regulated social housing. The one of 1908, known as the Ribot law, offered financial incentives to private building companies willing to follow strict architectural rules. At the 1923 Salon d'Automne, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret presented a design for houses complying with the Ribot law, following on from the Dom-Ino houses.

The model was put to use in 1924: the industrialist Henry Frugès wanted one on his Tonkin estate in Bordeaux. The house then became a testing ground for the Lège houses and for the Cité Frugès at Pessac. It stood in rue Jean-Descas, not far from the quai Sainte-Croix and Frugès's factory, and was pulled down in 1975.

The house is reinforced concrete: posts and beams are cast on site, and the infill walls are sprayed concrete applied with an Ingersoll-Rand cement gun that Henry Frugès had just acquired.

It has two levels and runs deep, over two bays of 4.76 m. The open ground floor holds a store and a shed; the upper floor is given over to living rooms: two bedrooms, a living and dining room, a kitchen area and a small bathroom incorporating the washroom.