Cité philanthropique, Apartment building in Wazemmes district, Lille, France

Cité philanthropique is a six-building housing complex at 32–38 rue Gantois, designed by architect Émile Vandenbergh. Its 276 rooms of 20 m² are linked by bridges over 16-metre-wide courtyards. The white facade with dark ornamental patterns, green-framed windows and a grey mansard roof faces the street.

The Bureau de bienfaisance de Lille launched the project in autumn 1859 on a 4,745 m² plot between rue Gantois, rue de Wazemmes, rue des Meuniers and rue Barthélémy-Delespaul, and building was decided in 1861. Architect Émile Vandenbergh's complex opened in 1863 as the Cité Napoléon, renamed Cité philanthropique in 1884. It was renovated in 1974 and rehabilitated in 2007.

The name changed from Cité Napoléon to Cité philanthropique in 1884, when the Bureau de bienfaisance still ran it. Rooms of 20 m² were let for 3.50 to 5.00 francs to people on the poor register, with preference for widows, the disabled and workers. Residents compared the blocks to a barracks or a prison.

The complex sits along Rue Gantois in an accessible residential area where you can view the exterior from public pathways. Note that courtyards are primarily for residents, so public access is limited to the surrounding streets and entrances.

This was one of the earliest large-scale social housing experiments in France, created when the city faced severe overcrowding from industrial growth. The wide courtyards were intentionally designed to bring light and air into neighborhoods that had become densely packed.