• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.113-124
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• 2014

The grands ensembles, or large-scale high-rise housing projects, are widely regarded as notorious products of postwar French government policy in the area of housing and urban planning. There was a general consensus that the grands ensembles had been a 'failure'. They were perceived as the source of all the ills of the contemporary city, as responsible for a social breakdown stemming from lack of infrastructure, geographical isolation, and monotonous environments. French government embarked on a broad renovation effort in light of the deteriorated condition of grands ensembles in the 1980s, which has been approved as generally 'successful'. This study focusing on French cases allowed me to demonstrate that following qualifications are critically important for successful housing projects: urban contextual continuity, socially mixed community, authentic planning for achieving sense of place, relationship between collective and individual expression, et cetera.