Les Espaces d'Abraxas

Ricardo Bofill designed Les Espaces d'Abraxas between 1978 and 1983; a plan with an axonometric view dated June 1978 is among the project drawings held by the Centre Pompidou. The scheme stands in the Mont d'Est district of Noisy-le-Grand, a commune that, by taking part in the new-town experiment, notably that of Marne-la-Vallée, drew architects such as Bofill and Manolo Nunez-Yanowsky. To the mass architecture of social housing, Bofill replied with a neoclassical vocabulary: he did not set out to copy the beauties of Antiquity but to transpose them, fitting them to the place and to the techniques of his day.

In 2006 a plan by the commune to demolish the Palacio caused deep dismay among residents; once informed, Bofill undertook to be “very attentive to how the matter develops”. In 2018 the complex was listed in the Noisy-le-Grand local urban plan as a “remarkable built element”.

The complex brings together three buildings: the Palacio, the Théâtre and the Arc, also called the Arche. The Palacio, orthogonal in form and neoclassical in inspiration, has 18 storeys arranged in four blocks of two buildings joined by external walkways. The Théâtre, more modest in appearance, surrounds a square that recalls an ancient theatre; its ten or so stairwells are laid out as a half-cylinder. The Arc is formed by two stairwells joined at the level of the seventh floor, which thus make an arch.

The buildings are in precast concrete in pink tones close to those of sandstone. In bad weather this concrete looks very hard and the whole takes on a stern air, which earned it the nickname "Alcatraz".

These are homes. The Palacio, a condominium, has 441 dwellings, of which 329 are social housing managed by CDC Habitat. The site also serves as a film setting: scenes of Terry Gilliam's Brazil were shot here and, in 2015, several scenes of Hunger Games.

The complex is lived in and stands on Place des Fédérés, in the Mont d'Est district, served by Noisy-le-Grand - Mont d'Est station (RER A). Seine-Saint-Denis Tourisme offers a 1 h 30 guided visit led by a resident trained by the CAUE 93: on booking for groups, and on certain dates for individual visitors.