In the mid-nineteenth century, the industrial entrepreneur, Jean-Baptiste-André Godin, put into practice the first large-scale experiment in social utopia inspired by the ideas of Fourier and Saint-Simon. In this experiment, work facilities (the Godin factory, still functioning today) were linked to a communal settlement to form an harmonious society, equipped with all the necessary amenities: residential buildings, a pool, cooperative stores, a garden, a nursery, schools and a theatre (the temple of the Familistère community). This experiment lasted in cooperative form until 1968.

The aim of the Utopia project is to give the Familistère a cultural, economic and social dimension, to promote it as a tourist site, to protect the heritage of the past and in doing so to explore the values of society, past, present and future. In a word, to follow Godin's utopian project with a new utopian project today.

A joint federation, the syndicat mixte, representing the local and municipal governments - le Conseil Gnral du département de l'Aisne and the City of Guise - has been spearheading this project since 2000, with financial support from the State government, the Picardy Region and the European Union.

Listed heritage

- les bâtiments du Palais Social
- the Social Palace buildings
- annex buildings: theatre, cooperative stores, pool and washhouse, bandstand
- an industrial complex still in use: the Godin factory
- surrounding landscape: the park around the Social Palace, the 19th-century garden, the new peninsula garden on the banks of the Oise.

Fame

- Godin stoves
- Godin's utopian experiment in worker management, one of the rare European models of utopian thought in the 19th century.
- Architectural reference

Actors

- City of Guise: The municipality initiated the Familistère development project and sought institutional and financial support until the département de l'Aisne joined the initiative.

- département de l'Aisne. The département government began supporting the project for the economic, social, and cultural development of the Familistère and its promotion as a tourist site in 1998 and has since been the driving force behind the project.

- Association pour la Fondation Godin. This non-profit organization coordinates visits to the site (excluding the factory). Thanks to public-sector subsidies, the Association was able to purchase Godin's apartment in the Social Palace as well as a 19th-century "show apartment."

- The Godin factory has been promoting tourism to its factory site since February 2000. Its museum offes an historical presentation of Godin products, with visits upon reservation to the factory and an extensive collection of stoves.

- The Syndicat Mixte du Familistère Godin, a joint federation founded in November 2000 representing the City of Guise and the département de l'Aisne is now Utopia's sole contracting authority.

An overall concept and organization

In 1996 the City of Guise with support from the Ministre de la Culture et de la Rgion commissioned a study from BICFL (Jean-Loup Pivin and Claudine Chaspoul, at the Bureau d'Ingnierie culturelle) which defined the basic conceptual outlines of the Utopia project in terms of its aims, its content and its financial and economic dimension. Frdric Panni, heritage curator for the Syndicat Mixte du Familistère Godin defined the cultural and scientific project.

Utopia's present-day relevance
The project rests on a theme grounded in Godin's experiment and its bearing on the concerns and questions of societies today vis--vis the future. It wagers on the conviction that utopian thinking, reflections about society, and different systems of projecting society into the future - be it in the form of texts, architecture, painting, film, social experiments, etc. - are of interest to a wide spectrum of the public - all the more so against the backdrop of the confusion in values that is current today and that reinforces extremism, and the consequent need to find common values. Utopia will provide material for thought not answers. It will prompt visitors to doubt and to put assertions into perspective through a reading of the modern history of Godin but also of all the social utopias throughout history and throughout the world.

Godin's patrimony will be open to visits
The fundamental originality of the Familistère de Guise has to do with the nature of Godin's project based on a conception of the world and of society to which he gave material form in terms of social organisation and architecture. The Familistère de Guise shows how communal spaces work. This is particularly obvious in the very peculiar residential architecture with its covered courtyards, its galleries leading to the different apartments and its windows overlooking the public spaces. It is also noteworthy in the annex buildings: the cooperative stores, the theatre, the washhouse and pool, the schools, etc. A visit to the Familistère is intended to be a vivid experience not a disembodied instructional lecture. Utopia means to bring this heritage to life via contemporary forms of scenic design and exhibit layout in a project that engages both residents and the public.

Public curiosity
The site already receives nearly 20,000 visitors a year, and this without any particular publicity and especially with very few interior spaces open to the public. The Utopia project meets an existing demand on the part of European students and researchers in architecture, urbanism, history and the social sciences. The target in terms of the general lay public will be mainly in the greater Lille, Brussels and Paris areas.
The project is calculated to attain the following objectives:
- to accommodate more than 100,000 visitors (required for a balanced functioning) - to offer all day visits that will necessitate overnight stays for a percentage of visitors and thus prompt extended tours that would include visits to the Chteau des ducs de Guise and to Thirache. - to create a major, original pole of attraction that would provoke a new influx of tourists to Thirache, and throughout the Aisne département and the Picardy region.
- to impart an innovative, dynamic image to Guise, the Aisne and Picardy, by demonstrating the excellent quality of the region's traditional industrial past and its future capacities. Initial estimates as to the number of visitors in 1998 were confirmed in 2003 with 20,000 admission-paying visitors, roughly a third of whom also toured the factory.
Since 2001, there has been an annual 6 to 9 % increase in groups, which represent 55% of the public; 19% of these are school groups (a sharp rise in this category). The busiest month is May, which accounts for a quarter of the annual visits.
In addition to these 20,000 visitors, there is an annual public of 4,000 for shows or conferences in the theatre and 6,000 for the May 1 Labour Day holiday at the Familistère (excluding visits) The initial goal of 25,000 admission-paying visitors per year planned for the completion of the areas around the Social Palace and the annexes will therefore be attained. Work is expected to be completed on the surroundings, the annexes, the cooperative stores, the gardens and the peninsula, at the same time as the opening of the washhouse and pool in 2005.

Considering the catchment area for potential visitors (3.5 million people living less than 1.5 hr away and 1.2 million tourists less than an hour from Guise) and the exceptional international renown of the site and its factory, the goal of 100,000 visitor per year following the opening of the whole of the Familistère site museum is a feasible target

A strong cultural function
A balance between what there is to experience through the eyes, the mind, the senses and feelings is founded on the following structuring components:
· Site museum: industrial history and art, architecture, contemporary social history of housing, social utopias, the story of the Familistère experiment and similar experiments in the 19th and 20th centuries.
· Civic centre for meetings and exhibitions (artists, scientists, scholars, etc.)
· Centre for contemporary modes of expression.
· Recreational areas and cultural and educational activities for local residents
· Theatre for the performing arts

A social function: housing rehabilitation
Social housing as seen by Godin involved all levels of the population enjoying high standard living conditions in the communal residential complexes. Familistère residents today, many of whom are underprivileged, do not have the same reasons for living there, which explains the need for housing rehabilitation.

An urban project
The Utopia project has many concrete repercussions on urban policies and public facilities. An urban project, whose specifications are currently being finalized, will map out the main lines of:
- Government housing policies
- The rehabilitation of the Familistère raises the issue of social housing projects in the greater Guise area.
- Urban development
. Vehicular circulation: roads, public transport
. Rehabilitation of the Familistère district
. Transport between the Familistère and the city centre
. Site development on the banks of the Oise
. Transport links to the Chteau des ducs de Guise in the framework of a policy of tourism development.

By giving the industrial city of Guise an attractive forward-looking image, this new pole of activity will have a positive impact as much on employment as on commerce and services, which is an asset when it comes to attracting businesses and furthering economic development.

The main theme
The Familistère stood at the junction of a brand new social project and a model industrial enterprise. The fundamental objective of the Social Palace's construction - housing in the widest sense of the term - coincided in a noteworthy way with the object of production - namely, heating-stoves or to put it in other words, the hearth. The main theme of the Familistère museum is "housing as the social and economic workshop of life" to borrow J.B.A. Godin's own terms: housing as a material, cultural and social system, housing as living accommodations but also as a way of living together in society.

The itinerary
The itinerary covers a wide variety of subjects through different modes of presentation (exhibition, scenic layouts, shows, participation). In the different areas that are part of Familistère's cultural premises, mixed use is the rule: each area can be used at the same time for education, relaxation, entertainment, discoveries, and experiments. The museum maintains a balance between the permanent exhibition and temporary shows or activities that periodically renew what is being shown and said at the Familistère. The itinerary moves back and forth between indoor and outdoor areas. The Familistère museum naturally leads to visits to the Chteau des Ducs de Guise and the Godin factory, which already accommodate many visitors.

Collections
The main source is the municipal museum whose collections come mainly from the Godin museum founded in the 19th century by the société du Familistère. These comprise very beautiful photographs of the Familistère, some of Jean-Baptiste-André Godin's personal effects, domestic appliances and documents on life in the Familistère. The département de l'Aisne has enhanced these collections with new acquisitions over the past years. A major acquisition policy will enable the museum to enrich the collections on the history of Guise and the Familistère, life in the Social Palace from the 19th century to the present day and comparable social experiments elsewhere in the West. The acquisition of domestic appliances will complement the Godin's company's own imposing collection and will include products made by competitors so as to situate the enterprise in its industrial and economic context.

Investments (exclusive of tax)

département de l'Aisne 6.93 M HT or 31.6 %
Syndicat mixte 4.6 M HT or 21.1 %
State 6.81 M HT or 31.1 %
Europe 2.7 M HT or 12.3 %
Picardy Region 0.86 M HT or 3.9 %

Construction work in 2004

· Peninsula garden
· Recreational garden
· Interior decoration of the cooperative store complex in the North wing
· Restoration of facades and roofs of the cooperative store complex in the South wing
· Washhouse - Pool