The policies pursued in occupied France are part of an overall analysis of the effects of the Second World War on architecture, from the United States to Japan, via Europe. The conflict led to an unprecedented mobilization of professionals, well beyond their recruitment by the armed forces or, for some, resistance movements.
In particular, they were called upon to work on the design of armaments and aviation factories, and on the construction of workers' housing. Involved in a war that for the first time relied heavily on aerial bombardment, they developed shelters and bunkers, and played a decisive role in the design of camouflage systems that sometimes extended to the urban scale.
In response to the expectations of a war that was both bureaucratized and mobile, some drew up plans for gigantic infrastructures, from the Pentagon in Washington to the rocket base at Peenemünde, while others developed prefabricated construction systems.
Active in the design of publications and exhibitions, architects participated in the creation of real-time information systems on the battlefield, before turning their attention to the challenges of reconstruction and the recycling of war techniques, at the end of a decisive period for the emergence of energy-saving and sustainability issues.
