Louise-Catherine

The Louise-Catherine is a seventy-meter-long barge moored near the Gare d'Austerlitz, notable for being the only watercraft in Paris registered as a historic monument. Originally built in 1915 as a transport vessel for coal during the First World War, it was later repurposed into one of the most unusual architectural projects by the famous modernist architect Le Corbusier. In 1929, the Salvation Army commissioned him to transform the concrete hull into a floating shelter for the homeless, leading to a design that featured 160 beds, communal kitchens, and a hanging garden on its deck.