Unité d'Habitation of Briey-en-Forêt (Cité Radieuse)

In the early 1950s, the growth of the mining industry sharply increased the population, and the Briey-le-Vieux area had to meet substantial housing needs. From 1953, the architect Georges-Henri Pingusson drew up a programme for a new town, Briey-en-Forêt. Backed by his friend Philippe Serre, a former deputy, Le Corbusier obtained the commission for a full-size unité d'habitation ("grandeur conforme"), like those of Marseille and Rezé. In 1955 he was named chief architect of the project, with André Wogenscky as site architect; the client was the public housing office (HLM). The preliminary studies were carried out by the engineering firm Séchaud et Metz, which had already worked at Rezé, and the building site lasted 23 months.

The building was fully occupied from 1961, but only for a short time. The local steel industry declined abruptly; the workers, who made up a large part of the residents, were laid off and gradually left the building, which the local HLM office managed poorly. The Meurthe-et-Moselle public housing office decided in 1981 to decommission it; by July 1984 it was emptied of its residents, quickly walled up, and its demolition was planned.

The mobilisation of the municipality, supported by people close to Le Corbusier, saved it from destruction, and it became a condominium. Between 1987 and 1988, part of the building was rehabilitated to house a nursing school. The association La Première Rue, born in 1989 from the international sponsorship of some thirty architects and artists, has contributed to its profile since the rehabilitation of its spaces in 1990 and 1991. From the early 2000s, major restoration work was undertaken on the building envelope. The building has been listed as a historic monument (inscription) since 1993.

Le Corbusier adapted the plans of the Rezé unit: the dimensions are almost the same, with an additional bay at Briey that lengthens the building. He had planned a steel frame but gave it up for economic reasons; the reinforced concrete is cast in place. Raised on pilotis, the building is 110 m long and 56 m high and has seventeen floors.

Each dwelling has a loggia protected by concrete brise-soleil. The 339 dwellings, in eleven variants, are served by six interior streets. The small one-room apartments are more numerous than at Rezé and Marseille; too small to run through the building, they lack the dual exposure Le Corbusier wanted, and the sound insulation is less thorough than at Marseille, for economic reasons. The nursery school planned for the roof terrace was not built.

The elements listed as historic monuments include the façades, the roof, the entrance hall, the first street and the show apartment. The latter, with its brightly coloured armchairs, wooden partitions and open kitchen separated by a serving hatch, recreates the atmosphere of the 1960s. The restored façades received a grey paint that masks the raw concrete in order to protect the material. The redesign of the surroundings was conceived by the Swiss architect Bruno Reichlin and the agency VW Architectes at the request of the town of Briey; the façade renovation is the work of the firm Medrea, Ferauge & Iung Architectes.

The building is entirely inhabited, as a condominium. On the first floor, the association La Première Rue has several duplex apartments interlocked around a long corridor that Le Corbusier likened to a "street", hence the association's name. Since 1991 it has hosted exhibitions, lectures and seminars there; every year its Galerie Blanche presents several temporary exhibitions devoted to trends in contemporary architecture and to the visual arts.

The building is inhabited; it can be discovered on the guided tours run by the association La Première Rue, by reservation, offered to all audiences (individuals, groups, school groups, students). They last 1 h 30 to 2 h, cover the history of the place, its façade, the polychrome corridor known as the "street" and the show apartment, and are given in French, English and Italian.

The association is open Monday to Thursday from 9 am to 12.30 pm and from 2 pm to 5.30 pm, and on Friday morning until 12.30 pm; for the weekend, ask the association. It is closed on public holidays. Briey is about thirty kilometres from Metz.