Ducasse Paris and the developer Apsys laid the first stone for the restoration of the Maison du Peuple in Clichy on 25 January 2024. The listed monument of 1930s modernism is to house the Alain Ducasse manufactures, a bouillon, a chef’s table and the offices of the group.
The Maison du Peuple in Clichy-la-Garenne is one of those buildings that every architecture student knows from books. With the developer Apsys, Ducasse Paris, the group founded by Alain Ducasse, is giving it a second life. The first stone of the restoration was laid on 25 January 2024, and the plans describe what the monument is meant to become: a showcase for everything the group makes, open to the public.
A building that moves
The Maison du Peuple was built in the 1930s in Clichy-la-Garenne, in the Hauts-de-Seine, to designs by Marcel Lods, Eugène Beaudouin, Vladimir Bodiansky and Jean Prouvé, and has been a listed Monument Historique since 1983. It was ahead of its time: removable floors, curtain walls, sliding partitions and a roof that opens. The restoration is meant to bring those devices back into use. The movable roof will work again and add natural ventilation, existing structures and the original modular partitions are to be reused, and the project aims for both HQE and BREEAM certification during construction.
The work is led by the architects Alain-Charles Perrot and Florent Richard of Perrot & Richard with the designer Patrick Jouin and the architect Sanjit Manku of Studio Jouin Manku, under the scientific and technical supervision of the regional cultural affairs office (DRAC) and a scientific committee. The Ministry of Culture through the DRAC and the Région Île-de-France support the project, and Groupe Crédit Agricole finances it. “There is not an architecture book that does not mention the Maison du Peuple; it is an icon,” says Patrick Jouin.
Chocolate on the ground floor, a bouillon upstairs
On almost 1,200 m² of the ground floor the four entities of the Ducasse manufactures will work side by side: chocolate, ice cream, biscuits and coffee. A further 1,400 m² are planned for counters and boutiques. The food offer is twofold: the Table du Chef and a restaurant in the style of a Paris bouillon on the first floor with 80 covers. More than 1,300 m² of offices will bring the teams of the group under the same roof, and Ducasse Paris will run the whole house itself.
Alain Ducasse, himself a lover of architecture, chose the building as the home of his group’s offices, for its many functions and its location at the gates of Paris. He says he wants the Maison du Peuple to become again “a living place, open to all, a showcase of our French savoir-faire”. In January 2024 the group, then 25 years old, ran 60 restaurants and manufactures in nine countries on three continents, with eight activities and 2,000 employees of almost 80 nationalities.
Open to the neighbourhood
The Maison du Peuple is easy to reach: metro lines 13 and 14, the RER C, the Seine quays and the Boulevard Périphérique. After the opening there are to be publications, events and visits on the Journées du Patrimoine, a permanent exhibition with a guide on the history of the building, regular exhibitions with the association Quartier Maison du Peuple and rooms for local associations.
Until then, the cooking of Alain Ducasse can be found in this guide at Le Louis XV in Monaco.
Frequently asked questions
What will the Maison du Peuple in Clichy house?
The Alain Ducasse manufactures for chocolate, ice cream, biscuits and coffee, counters and boutiques, the Table du Chef, a bouillon with 80 covers and the offices of Ducasse Paris.
Who designed the original building?
Marcel Lods, Eugène Beaudouin, Vladimir Bodiansky and Jean Prouvé in the 1930s; it has been a Monument Historique since 1983.
