Les années ZUP: Reassessing 1960s French Architecture

Edited by G. Monnier and R. Klein, 'Les années ZUP' challenges the cliché of 1960s French urban planning as mere tower blocks and quantitative targets. The book revisits the diversity and values of that era through an archaeological and critical inventory of about twenty significant operations and themes across five chapters: housing, facilities, economic life, industry, and the city. It highlights emblematic popular facilities like the 'thousand youth clubs' and 'thousand swimming pools', including the Tournesol pool designed to make users happy. The volume also explores religious architecture, exemplified by an inflatable church in Montigny-les-Cormeilles created for a lively parish festival. Contributions from young and established scholars include theoretical chapters, notably on British visionary couple A. and P. Smithson, who introduced consumption into urban theory in the 1950s. The 17×24 cm book is varied, accessible, and carefully illustrated, encouraging in situ rediscovery of the architectural dynamics of the 1960s, blending state policy, individual aspirations, private investment, technological innovation, and openness to young architecture.