ABSTRACT
In France the welfare state is best understood as a particular contract between civil society, politics and industry. The building industry acted as a major stakeholder and had an important role in the elaboration and articulation of the Etat-providence -introducing en passant a new-fangled role for the architect and an innovative definition of architectural design. The story of ATBAT starts before 1945 in close affinity with the North African territory. It was within the context of the Algerian resistance against the Vichy regime that Le Corbusier, joined by the future French minister of reconstruction Eugene Claudius-Petit, developed the ASCORAL (Assemblee de constructeurs pour la renovation architecturale or Constructors' Assembly for Architectural Renovation) in 1943. The aim of this research association was to develop an architectural and urban basis for the reconstruction of France after the Second World War. Echoing everyday planning practice in the North African French colonial territories.
