Village du Merlier

The village Merlier, built between 1959 and 1965, in collaboration with Louis Arretche (1905-1991), is one of the achievements that have brought fame to the Montrouge workshop. The architecture studio of Montrouge, founded in 1958 by Jean Renaudie (1925-1981), Pierre Riboulet (1928-2003), Gérard Thurnauer (born in 1926) and Jean-Louis Véret (born 1927), produced constructions characterized by their aesthetic called "brutalism" and looking for simple visual effects.

Built on a field a hundred hectares village is still subject to the curiosity of many tourists. It consists of thirty-five square white houses of two levels, overlooking the sea, roofed garden terraces. The houses are nested within other groups of five. Car traffic was abolished in favor of a pedestrian-oriented community life.

The concept of Pierre Riboulet is still an amazing modernism in the tradition which inspired Le Corbusier at the same time, ie on the principle established by them "integration to the site by modular composition ". The composition of this group of thirty-five houses located in the slope of the land facing the sea and serviced by a network of alleyways, squares and stairways, returns to the theme of the Provencal village. Massing, materials (raw concrete walls plastered or stripping) and construction details (rooftop terraces, varnished pine joinery, flooring, etc.), offering a reinterpretation of themes dear to the Modern Movement.