"Grands Ensembles"

Denise, 81, Cité du Parc et cité Maurice-Thorez, Ivry-sur-Seine, 2015
Photograph: Laurent Kronental

Les espaces d'Abraxas et al....

Not all from Noisy-le-Grand, Here is a taste of the grands ensembles of Paris and surrounds.

These modernist buildings, known as grands ensembles, were France’s response to a severe post-war housing shortage. Between 1954 and 1973, the country erected public housing in the suburbs surrounding the City of Light. These towering structures, which included some six million units, embodied the prevailing idea that modernist architecture could help foster a utopian state by improving people’s lives. “They were praised as places where men could blossom away from the agitation of big cities,” Kronental says. 

In the end, the grands ensembles didn’t succeed in bringing about a modernist utopia. It wasn’t long after the first of them went up that poverty and crime began to plague the projects. France stopped commissioning them in 1973, though some were constructed into the 1980s. Many have been demolished, with even more slated to be torn down as they age. Kronental, however, thinks they are worthy of celebrating. “They amaze me. They are unique,” he says. “Of course they should be preserved.” - via  

Les Tours Aillaud, Cité Pablo Picasso, Nanterre 2014, Laurent Kronental 

Joseph, 88, Les Espaces d’Abraxas, Noisy-le-Grand, 2014
Photograph: Laurent Kronental

José, 89, Les Damiers, Courbevoie, 2012
Photograph: Laurent Kronenta

Joseph, 88, Les Espaces d’Abraxas, Noisy-le-Grand, 2014
Photograph: Laurent Kronental

Le Pavé Neuf, Noisy-le-Grand, 2015
Photograph: Laurent Kronental

Les Orgues de Flandre, 19e arrondissement Paris, 2014
Photograph: Laurent Kronental 

Jean, 89, Puteaux-La Défense, 2011
Photograph: Laurent Kronental

Jacques, 82, Le Viaduc et les Arcades du Lac, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, 2015
Photograph: Laurent Kronental

Roland, 85, Les Arcades du Lac, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, 2015
Photograph: Laurent Kronental 

Les Espaces d’Abraxas, Noisy-le-Grand, 2014
Photograph: Laurent Kronental 

Lucien, 84, Les Espaces d’Abraxas, Noisy-le-Grand, 2014
Photograph: Laurent Kronental

Sources include, but not limited to:
Laurent Kronental's work documenting these estates and their elderly residents
Guardian Slideshow
Arch Daily 
Untapped Cities - good overview
Wired