Fernand Pouillon, “France’s most wanted architect,” seems to have been out of the spotlight since his imprisonment and mysterious escape in the 1960s. Yet during 50 years, he built on more than 5 million square meters of land, mainly between France and Algeria, and at a frenetic pace—he flew tens of thousands of kilometres a week to construction sites. No matter if night or dawn or if his destination was Marseille, Paris, Algiers or the middle of the desert. Fernand Pouillon, among others, built homes for the poorest people; today, the beauty and quality of his housing estates prove that this much-maligned architect may have found the cure for the problems of the classic large housing estates.
