Brutalism in Créteil

Créteil, southeast of Paris, was designated a prefecture of the new Val-de-Marne department in the 1960s and built an entire civic identity in concrete within two decades. Its most famous residents are the Choux de Créteil by Gérard Grandval, cylindrical housing towers whose petal-shaped balconies earned them the nickname of cabbages. Pierre Dufau planned much of the new town center, including the city hall, while Daniel Badani and Pierre Roux-Dorlut designed the commanding Palais de Justice Créteil. The André Malraux House of Arts and Culture completed the ensemble of cultural infrastructure. Few places show the ambition of the French new town program as compactly as Créteil.