Stains Garden City

In the late nineteenth century, against a background of uncontrolled industrial revolution and expansion in cities like London, the English autodidact Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) sought to design an urban model combining the benefits of the city with those of the countryside.
The concept became a reality in Île-de-France with around thirty garden cities near Paris developed at a low cost by housing associations during the interwar period.

A garden city is a town in the countryside that meets all the daily needs of its inhabitants: from high-quality housing to education, including health, leisure and shopping. And of course gardens, where the residents could cultivate their own little plot of land.

La Cité-Jardin de Stains was created in the 1920s by architects Eugène Gonnot and Georges Albenque, in the grounds of the old château.
It consists of a development of community housing and carefully designed detached houses, complemented by public and private green spaces in addition to community facilities and shops.
Today, the garden cities belong to an association, Mémoires de Cité-Jardin, the headquarters of which are located in Stains, in the city’s former ironmonger’s. The ideal venue for meetings and events to promote garden cities, this space serves as a permanent exhibition tracing the history of garden cities and that of Stains in particular. It is also a space designed to host temporary exhibitions. Finally, it is a resource centre containing numerous publications and references which are available to consult on site.