Parisian phalanster of the early 20th century, created in 1902 by the patron and sculptor Alfred Boucher.

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Selected dates:

Late 1900

Alfred Boucher acquired on the southwestern outskirts of Paris, at the Danzig dead end, near the remains of the city's fortifications, a plot of half a hectare. There he installed a three-story rotunda resembling a round beehive - he bought a pavilion of Bordeaux wines designed by Eiffel from the sale of the property of the 1900 World Exhibition - and other light structures.

1902

He opened the La ruche ("Hive") complex of 140 ateliers-studios, which he began to rent out for a nominal fee to novice artists and writers (a month's rent for a studio cost as much as two inexpensive meals). Among its inhabitants were Leger, Modigliani, Chagall, Soutine, Zadkine, Ilya Sosnovsky, Archipenko, Nuremberg, Kremen, Shterenberg, Kostecki and others. Boucher himself built a small house on the territory of the complex, which he occupied until his death in 1934.

1939–1945

La Ruche fell into disrepair during World War II.

1968

By the time of the real estate boom, it was threatened by developers with demolition .

1971

With the support of such notables as Jean-Paul Sartre, Alexandre Calder, Jean Renoir and René Char, a new management with a mission of conservation came to power and turned it into a set of working studios.

Present tense

"Beehive" remains a residential and artistic complex .