Back gardens in the sky: Renée Gailhoustet’s eco‑brutalist housing

When the French architect Renée Gailhoustet died in 2023, residents of Le Liégat put up a large handmade sign reading “Merci Renée.” She had lived in her Liégat duplex for more than 40 years, with a cherry tree and a profusion of greenery visible from her living room window.

Her free‑plan apartment blocks featured cascading terraces and loggias topped with a foot of soil so residents could cultivate un jardin derrière — a back garden — and over time planting has softened the concrete contours into a kind of post‑apocalyptic, nature‑takes‑over aesthetic.

The idea began from a social conviction that people should have access to green space and that planting offers natural shade and cooling as temperatures rise. She is sometimes called an “eco‑brutalist,” but her work resists easy pigeonholing.

France

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