Inside France's Most Unusual Housing Project | NBC Left Field

Built on the outskirts of Paris between 1978 and 1983, Les Espaces d’Abraxas and Les Arcades du Lac were an attempt by France to make architecturally adventurous social housing that inspired the creativity of their residents. Thirty-five years later, what’s life been like for the inhabitants of this uniquely Parisian social experiment?
SUBSCRIBE: nbcnews.to/2rAQzwx
FOLLOW NBC LEFT FIELD:
Facebook: nbcnews.to/2rACLSM
Instagram: nbcnews.to/2rAsQwp
Twitter: nbcnews.to/2rAsWUN
CALL THE FIELD PHONE: ☎️ (315) LF-FIELD
VISIT OUR SITE: nbcleftfield.com
Video:
Justine Bo
__
ABOUT NBC LEFT FIELD:
NBC Left Field is a new internationally-minded video troupe that makes short, creative documentaries and features specially designed for social media and set-top boxes. Our small team of cinematographers, journalists, animators and social media gurus aims to unearth stories and breathe creative life into current headlines. While pushing boundaries at home and abroad, NBC Left Field will also be serving as an experimental hub for NBC News style, treatment and audience engagement.
Inside France's Most Unusual Housing Project | NBC Left Field

[@ethaneveraldo]

Not a single view of the inside of the building or what it's actually like living there. Could have done without the misleading title, NBC News.

[@TahseinTheGooner]

Absolutely beautiful. Everything about this video.

[@alainportant6412]

I lived in Saint Quentin for a year. There is a university, a mall, and a lot of business offices so it's busy during the day and you can't really notice it, but after 9PM everybody leave the city, shops are closed and you're pretty much left alone. It's a very eerie feeling, almost like living inside an empty Disney world.

[@MrPototos]

It's the scene of the movie hunger games

[@gravijiga]

Wow, Fantastic. I've been to a few of these projects but some are too far away and I had limited time. I would have loved to see this one. Not all architecture has to be a bubbly happy luxurious gesture. These places have a strong impact. We can feel overpowered by a place but also co-exist with it spiritually

[@francefradet2116]

Swap with someone who lives there then.

[@antoineleclerc9758]

Thank you for making our suburb look so amazing ! Especially when you know that few months ago they wanted to destroy our architectural heritage !

[@daniellereid7576]

Antoine Leclerc wow! Really it should stay ! U.S would love these they would make them into condos like they doing everything else in lower income housing projects

[@getthekool1758]

Not our heritage at all. This ugly place is inspired on communism and the depressive brutalism of soviet buildings. Decay and lack of good aesthetical perception is not part of french culture, at all. That is just a sad ode to collectivism and the poverty that it drags.

[@sideleyOriginal]

Those buildings were designed by Ricardo Bofill, a Spanish architect who also designed similar buildings in Montpellier, France. The neo classical style, while being suitable to office or administrative compounds, don't fit the needs of social housing. As a result, the Abraxas neighbourhood turned out to be a urban slump plagued with crimes. The safety had been improved recently but, as rightly pointed at by some in this footage, it remains a dystopia. A very angst prone environment not recommended to claustrophobic.

[@ALEX-bc2kc]

paradoxically, in Montpellier, it's just the opposite. there are often people, shops, but it's peaceful because it's much bigger, and on top of that a few minutes walk from the city center.

[@FRSkyLaw]

The place, as beautiful as it can be for people, is subject to the worst things created by the rise of insecurity and mass immigration in France and Europe

[@getthekool1758]

The brutalism of depressing soviet buildings is expressed in this place. There´s no harmony with the beauty of french architecture, only monstrosity expressed in so many ways. People are loosing their aesthetical perception, wich can easily be replaced by the exaltation of the ugliness, without even noticing.

[@valve6642]

It's hideous. No sense of life. Worse than Montane Mansions in H.K.

[@alldebaran]

Ricardo Bofill masterpieces

[@romanpetrusyak5827]

Amazing place and video !

[@harlockrecker]

Hermoso. Sencillamente hermoso. Notable. Me inspira mucha paz. Me gustaría ver el interior de los apartamentos...Pero la atmósfera que evoca es increíble.

[@getthekool1758]

People are loosing their good aesthetical perception, wich can easily be replaced by the exaltation of the ugliness, without even noticing. This complex reminds me the brutalism of depressing soviet buildings. There´s no harmony with the beauty of french architecture, only monstrosity expressed in so many ways.

[@francefradet2116]

It's hideous and nightmarish.

[@mrhumpty]

This video is why main stream media is dying. Found this video trying to find out about this building etc. Got a video with a few people talking about living there. nothing about its history, statistics. I know if I go to a non MSM video I'll get tons more info in half the time. Useless.

[@TayWoode]

When I worked at Disneyland Paris I lived there for a couple of months, on the top floors, they’re not actually flats they are two floors it was a very bizarre place like a film set but always seemed quiet coz it was so big

[@bluezndance]

how does it look inside the apartement? are they all the same?

[@VUZOOKA]

Whats interesting to me is when these people say they like to live there and do not want to move. Here in Malmö, where I live, everybody I know always wants to move to a bigger, nicer, more expensive place in a more attractive neighbourhood and sell their previous place at a profit. Thats a sort of survival tactic, where you secure money to save up for the future, but to me it feels better to stay at a place you like or at the very least make it better and find some comfort there. After all, that’s what home is, right? Where you’re ”at home” and feel the most comfortable?

[@oldnewstock]

This was where they filmed the movie Brazil (1985)

[@jonathanmegevand3266]

I was thinking about it, is it really where they went ?

[@hanabi235]

@@jonathanmegevand3266 Yes it is. This place was used as a film set for both movies Brazil and Hunger Games.

[@oliverpiers6603]

Rest easy

[@ANFeuerstahl]

Fascinating place. Is it possible to visit it ? Is its access restricted to those who live there ?

[@khodahh]

No we don't have much gated communities in France. This city is part of Marne la Vallée Ville Nouvelle (New Town) project. It is a 20km urban strip that spreads along the Marne River and the RER A line. From Paris close suburbs to the farthest Disneyland area. The architectural evolution from west to east is quite interesting.

[@khardi3777]

No, it's not!

[@alainportant6412]

The other one is in the Yvelines ( Saint Quentin ) near Versailles west of Paris so you could visit both. I've lived there for a year and it's pretty civilized ( universities, mall, offices etc. ) and never had a problem. Generally speaking, the west of Paris is civilized and wealthier than the east. The other one in Noisy-le-Grand, you don't want a go ( especially as a tourist ) because it's west of Paris in the middle of nowhere and it's mostly savages, drugs and criminality, everybody here knows that. Here is what it looks like from the standpoint of criminality ( mind you this is not a movie ) kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpvQfpSriquJeKc On the other hand, maybe they are proud of the attention they get with the movies and stuff and they don't give tourists a hard time, but generally speaking it's a bad idea😂

[@trydowave]

it looks pretty nice to me. came here because of brazil. ive see alot worse buildings in and around London.

[@robertlucdf]

C'est très gris tout cela. Beaucoup de béton!

[@alainportant6412]

Bonjour, Robert.

[@justinliss1898]

Il aurait pu renover car je vois un batiment majestueu mais c qu'un geto comme les autres dommage.

[@FRSkyLaw]

@@justinliss1898 L’occupant rend son aspect final à l’œuvre.

[@moderndog2]

It's seems like a beautiful beautiful building but without sunlight, I feel depressed

[@beatamurdzia1177]

Good document :) but you didn't mentioned about the name of the author of these projects .It' s really important :/ I would be grateful ,if you could change that :) I am an architecture student and I really appreciate his creativeness.

[@clock5080]

Feenando bofill

[@steinnbjorn7627]

@@clock5080 he's Ricardo

[@jonathanmegevand3266]

This is Brazil the movie !

[@marielouisechateaubriant5995]

Abraxas a toujours été mon énigme personnelle. Son mauvais goût est mûr et pourtant c'est un endroit fascinant pour moi.

[@getthekool1758]

The brutalism of depressing soviet buildings is expressed in this place and has become a stinky ghetto with talent for crime spread. These are not the values of french people. This is just collectivism/communism and their fruits.

[@bobdinwiddy]

BOFIL

[@icie4u]

What filmed in the Hunger Games Mockingjay part 2 @47 mins into the movie until about the 1 hour mark.

[@moimeme6749]

Good building to make a Stephen king haunted movie

[@joypopoola6115]

I came to hear the accents lol!

[@MelancoliaI]

The French have to be all artsy-fartsy about everything, don't they?

[@whatyasdid62]

i live super close to noisy le grand and nope nope nope it's just an ugly rotting mess sitting in the suburbs that needs to be torn down

[@getthekool1758]

People are loosing their aesthetical perception, wich can easily be replaced by the exaltation of the ugliness, without even noticing. This is the expression of the depressive brutalism of soviet buildings and the spanish architect who made it was a communist and do not represent the ideal of french people of beauty, liberty and harmony, just empoverishment trought chaos for domination. This place should be just demolished.

[@hulkstrongestfastest2174]

When third world war will begin

[@JeremiahFernandez]

later

[@FRSkyLaw]

Not so late from now

[@haze6277]

black

[@michaelgomez3777]

0/10,

[@teridawn50]

Uninformed.

[@ricardoalves5488]

What's the point of this video? 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

[@rameses1979]

ART!!!

[@FRSkyLaw]

Nothing, pure modern madnesses without any connection to reality

[@getthekool1758]

@@FRSkyLaw Just a depressive soviet style building based on brutalism, made for a communist by the glory of ugliness and chaos.

[@getthekool1758]

@@rameses1979 This is not art, just the destruction of beauty and freedom ideals of french people through a poor, ugly and useless aesthetic, since it is inspired by a depressive soviet brutalism.

[@getthekool1758]

This is an exaltation of the brutalism of soviet buildings. There´s no harmony with the beauty of french architecture, just the dystopian communist "ideal" of a man with bad taste and someone else's money to spend and a break with reality. Such an ugly and bizarre place should just be demolished.😑

[@francefradet2116]

The architect had zero empathy. Ghastly place. Zero view of the outside. Perversion.

[@mikedcaffey]

That was a bad video with hardly any information...