Antigone, Montpellier

Antigone is a neighbourhood, east of the city centre. It is best known for its architectural design by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura.

The district is built on the grounds of the former Joffre Barracks, of which only Montpellier's citadel remains. In 1977, Mayor Georges Frêche started the process that led to the construction of the district.

The district's architect was the Spaniard Ricardo Bofill and his Taller de Arquitectura. He designed a series of grand neo-classical structures, enlarging classical motifs such as pediments, entablatures and pilasters to gigantic scale. The district is located between the old centre of Montpellier and the river Lez. On the opposite side of the river is the Hôtel de la Région Languedoc-Roussillon, another Bofill design. Together they make for a unified visual axis one kilometre in length, nicknamed the Champs-Élysées of Montpellier.

After Antigone, more sites on this side of Montpellier were developed.

The buildings consist mostly of low-income housing, public facilities and local shops.

The Antigone project, on a 36-hectare plot, has been one of the largest single developments completed in France and attracted worldwide interest. In 1979, the newly elected municipal council of Montpellier decided to undertake urban development and develop a new district on a site near the city centre. The purpose of this town-planning operation was to develop a new district along a central axis which would provide for the city's balanced eastward expansion and link the historical centre to the river Lez. The architect Ricardo Bofill created the master plan and most of the buildings in Antigone. From the design of the plazas to the details of the facades and exterior furniture and landscape elements, everything is proportionally and thematically related, creating a stylistic unity in a district full of boulevards and plazas, parks, major residential areas, shops, schools and sports, cultural and administrative facilities.