utopia come true

This summer has been more about reading, relaxing, playing the piano and seeing friends than about seeing places, but I have managed to do a couple of touristy things. When I lived in Poix, I read an article about a place unique au monde, and since I never made it there last year, it was high on my list of priorities this summer. I packed a picnic lunch (sandwich au pâté, dried fruit, yogurt...) and hit the highway through little towns and the countryside for a 2-hour drive.

The Godin Familistère was built from 1859-1884. Jean-Baptiste André Godin was the founder of the Godin stove factory, and inspired by experiences he had growing up and learning his trade, he became one of the most influential social experimenters of this hime. The Familistère - an invented word that is best translated as People's Palace - was created to put into practice the utopian theories of an egalitarian society theorized by Charles Fourier.


Next to the foundry (which is still in operation today), Godin built the workers' housing and designed the apartments to give the workers and their families the "equivalent of wealth." Godin considered everything, providing shops, a laundry (with hot water piped in from the cooling process at the factory), a swimming pool with an adjustable depth, a garden with walkways, where the workers were required to take breaks in the morning and afternoon, a nursery, schools for both boys and girls (where they learned the same curriculum - unheard of at the time), and a theatre. Godin insisted on a clean and healthy environment and made sure everyone had equal access to open spaces, fresh air, light and plentiful water. And he meant equal. Because ground-floor apartments receive less light than upstairs ones, the windows were bigger on the first floor, and got progressively smaller floor by floor.

Workers' housing wasn't unheard of in France - my friends Kathy & Damien live in one just outside of Paris - but what made the Familistère different was the Association coopérative du Captial et du Travail, an institution to which all workers belonged, entitling them to benefits and providing them a voice. The workers owned something like 75% of the capital, and inherited the rest from Godin upon his death. Remarkably, the Association continued to function until 1968, 80 years after he died.

Godin also tried his hand at an American Utopia. Although I'm unable to determine whether he traveled there, I did learn that he invested a large amount in a project near Dallas, Texas! Unfortunately for him, the idea was a huge failure, and he lost a significant amount of his fortune.

The Familistère is currently under renovation and renaissance. According to my guide, the people who still live in the apartments are going to be relocated to one of the three main residence buildings. The center pavilion will be converted into a meeting center, and the left wing will become a hotel. It will be interesting to see that in a couple of years.




source: The Godin Famlistère, A People's Palace brochure / www.familistere.com