The story of the rise and likely fall of the French ‘pavillon’
Over the past 60 years they have spread across France, mushrooming around towns and cities to now number close to 20 million. Their generic name in French is le pavillon, the individual houses in suburban estates which share a same aesthetic model, and which began life as the key to house ownership for the lower middle classes. Lucie Delaporte reviews a book published last month by French sociologists Hervé Marchal and Jean-Marc Stébé, Le Pavillon, une passion française, in which they detail the chequered history of the popular pavillon, whose continued expansion appears doomed for environmental reasons.
OverOver the past 60 years they have spread across France, mushrooming around towns and cities in parallel with the steady rise in home ownership. Their generic name in French is le pavillon, suburban houses which resemble a same aesthetic model, most often standing on purpose-built estates, and which, with small gardens and hedgerows, offer a haven of relative intimacy for those escaping the post-war concentrations of urban apartment buildings.
