A Day in the Life of La Grande Borne

50056) At half an hour distance by suburb train from Paris, the buildings of La Grande Borne are wedged between the prison of Fleury-Mérogis, the southbound highway and the route 445. Inaugurated in August 1971, this triangle of 90 hectares was an answer to the problems of that period: how to lodge the children of the baby boom, the people who left the Capital and new generation of immigrants. Emile Aillaud, a well-known architect, assigned to draw a plan of the solution, chose utopia: buildings, less than five storeys tall, in the form of cubes and painted in pastel colours. Large animal statues in the middle, a giant portrait of Arthur Rimbaud, fixed on the corner of one of the buildings. Inside, more than 3000 apartments designed identically. Small boxes dividing space into one two or three bedroom flats. In order to face such an atmosphere of imprisonment, photographer Stephanie Lacombe placed her camera, mounted on a tripod in the middle of the flats, and transcribed the way people of different origins, with different fantasies and passion transformed their living environment. Their victory against geometrical uniformity allowed the inhabitants of La Grande Borne to change the mediocre reputation of the building complex and to give the place a more human aspect.