Reconstruction and the Self-help Housing Movement: The French Experience

Abstract

The destruction during the Second World War made the city a crisis of looming proportions throughout Europe. In the case of France, over three-quartersof the country was struck by the war. Cities and towns were in ruins. Over 2 million buildings, a quarter of the housing stock, was destroyed or damaged (Croize, 1991, pp. 253-257). A million families were left homeless. Millions of others lived in temporary shelters and run-down apartments without access to basic services. This tragic situation made the housing crisis-that is finding a place of live-one of the most serious and explosive post-war domestic issues in France, as it was all over Europe. One way the crisis was addressed was for men and women to build their own homes, or to simply occupy vacant buildings. This paper looks at the role of the organised self-help housing movement within the massive effort of reconstruction and building after the Second World War, from 1945-1954. The movement comprised three phases: the squatter movement; the mouvement Castors or Beavers movement, which became a limited effort at auto-construction; and lastly, the housing campaign launched by the Abbe Pierre.

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