The Monmousseau bar in the Minguettes district in Vénissieux will be blown up on Friday. – Lyon Drone Service
- The Monmousseau bar, which includes 197 former rental housing units, will be blown up on Friday morning in Vénissieux.
- This operation will symbolize the launch of the second phase of urban renewal in the Minguettes neighborhoods.
- This large-scale project was launched in 2005 and should be completed in 2035.
It will take barely five seconds for it to disappear permanently from the landscape. Friday morning, the Monmousseau bar, erected in the Minguettes district of Vénissieux, will be dynamited. Fifteen floors and 197 old rental units will collapse with a crash to evaporate in a huge mushroom of smoke. There will therefore be nothing left of this imposing 110-meter-long building. If not the memories of those who lived there.
Built in 1967 and inhabited two years later, the bar symbolizes the remains of a district that has lost its splendor over the decades. The time for meals shared between neighbors, for fraternity, for peace and for carelessness is now far behind. Very far. The change occurred in the early 1980s during the first urban riots. The face of the neighborhood has changed and its image, deeply damaged, has continued to deteriorate.
“The ultimate at the time”
“You should know that at the time, the Minguettes was the ultimate. The accommodations were spacious, comfortable, ”says Mourad Aba, director of construction and acquisition of IFC Habitat Sem, the lessor. The aim was to provide workers with quality apartments at moderate prices. They thus allowed tenants to have a private bathroom and toilet. A luxury in the 1960s.
“These buildings were the result of post-war thinking. Large groups have sprung up everywhere in France. Les Minguettes is one example. But at that time, town planning was based on the quantitative. We had to do it quickly at a lower cost, ”nevertheless points out Sophie Matrat, president of the IFC Sud-Est Méditerranée management board. The Monmousseau bar, like its neighboring buildings, has ended up showing the weight of the years. Thermal and sound insulation were strongly criticized. Not to mention repeated elevator breakdowns, but not only.
“The rehabilitation of the place was not possible because it was too expensive, in particular because the construction materials are very asbestos”, raises Mourad Abad. The operation turned out to be delicate. Asbestos removal works cost 4 million euros and alone represent two-thirds of the cost of demolition of the bar.
The urban renewal operation planned until 2035
The occupants of the building left the premises in 2018. 55% of the tenants were relocated in Vénissieux and 38% in the Lyon metropolis. The others have changed departments. And two households have acquired the property. “Among all these people, there were still early inhabitants. But they were few, specifies Sophie Matrat. There have been a lot of renewals over the years ”.
The demolition of the Monmousseau bar will symbolically break down the border that may exist between the center of Vénissieux and Les Minguettes, nestled on the heights of the city. It will also mark the launch of the second phase of urban renewal of the district, which began in 2005. In the space of 15 years, 1,600 homes have already been destroyed and 2,600 rehabilitated. The district, which was landlocked for a very long time, is now served by the T4 tram line. But there is still a lot more to do.
Tours 71, 38 and 40 will follow the path of the Barre Monmousseau in the coming years. The new urban renewal plan, costed at 555 million euros, should be completed by 2035. It provides for the demolition of 886 housing units, the rehabilitation of nearly 2,000 apartments and the construction of 1,200 new housing units as well as the construction of of several public facilities.
Demolition of the last section of the “Barre des Mille” in Lyon la Duchère