Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Industrielle (1917)
• Tony Garnier (1869 - 1948) was a French
architect who pioneered the use of reinforced
concrete and was a forerunner of modernist
urban planning.
• Garnier's grand concept of an imaginary
planned industrial city, worked out in the
earliest years of the 20th century, was first
published in 1918. This work, Une cité
industrielle, is a portfolio of over 160 plates,
and is both visionary and detailed in its
socialist organization.
TONY GARNIER French architect designed a hypothetical
industrial town called “ UNE CITE INDUSTRIELLE”. He
created an imaginary site consisting of high plateau and
level valley, all along side a river.
The end of the nineteenth century was a time of great change throughout
Europe. The advent of industrialisation altered the landscape of the city
forever. Many of the changes were not for the better and living conditions in
industrial cities steadily deteriorated. The Industrial Revolution had the effect
of bringing more and more people from the countryside into the heart of the
city looking for work.
Tony Garnier was a French architect born in Lyons in 1869 and it is clear that
the city and surroundings had a great influence on him. Whilst growing up
Lyons was an industrial centre for textiles and metallurgy, the two industries
catered for by Garnier s proposal for his industrial city. Garnier studied at the
École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and in 1901 won the prix de Rome competition
and was sent to the French Academy at the Villa Medici. It was here where
Garnier started to formulate his proposal for the Cité and in 1901 Garnier sent
back the proposal to the École.
SOCIAL UTOPIAN CONCEPTS
At the end of the 19th century it was believed that many social reforms could be
achieved gradually through moral and intellectual education leading to a future ideal
state. Garnier believed in the basic goodness of man :when asked why his city contained
no law courts, police force stations, jail or church he is said to have replied that the new
society governed by socialist law would have no need of churches as capitalism would be
suppressed.
In the Utopias of this period, fundamental, natural and primitive conditions were
stressed; the emphasis on exercise, health, and physical well-being was a corollary to the
awakening interest in natural life. Garnier‘s inclusion of a large public area for sports and
spectacles in his city related to early utopian philosophy, pagan antiquity and love for
games.
THE CONCEPT