Cité Frugès in Pessac, France

When Henri Frugès, a sugar trader, wanted to provide his employees with affordable housing, he approached an up-and-coming Swiss-born architect named Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, who would later become known as Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier applied his ambitious vision of minimalist, functional, standardized, prefabricated housing to a small pilot scheme in nearby Lège, where six houses and a communal building were delivered in 1924. He then deployed the same approach on a larger scale to a plot acquired by Frugès in Pessac, where around 50 homes were completed in 1926, albeit somewhat short of the initially planned 135 units.  The distinctive, flat-roofed and colorful homes come in six modular variants. These include a row of 'Arcade' designs aptly connected by arcade-like features; twin 'Jumelle' designs; and the comparatively tall 'Gratte-ciel' (skyscraper) homes with outdoor staircases leading to desirable rooftop terraces. Even today, the various units look unusually modern. Back in the 1920s, they seemed revolutionary and otherworldly to the local population, who were more accustomed to the creamy limestone of Bordeaux's typical, low-rise "échoppe" housing than to reinforced concrete, red and blue painted walls, and suspended gardens.  Despite the estate's modern conveniences, such as central heating, running water and large windows that let in plenty of sunlight, Frugès’s employees, who worked in central Bordeaux, were reluctant to move to the leafy suburbs of Pessac. Meanwhile, Frugès’s sugar business was struggling with the onset