Unlike the Oíza who ignored the complaints of occupants of his Ruedo housing development, Renée Gailhoustet, firm in her conviction that we should build not only adequate dwellings but true spaces for living life to the full, preached through example, making her home in one of her own social housing projects. She who passed away on 4 January was among France’s first women architects of her generation, and focused her career – initially in partnership with Jean Renaudie and later solo – on working out innovative residential solutions that would free the banlieues of the distressing monotony of blocks and towers: terraced apartment buildings with evocative geometries, large communal zones, and the reassuring presence of plants colluded to demonstrate that a different life, a more beautiful one, was possible.