La Rubanerie - CWSE Rue Gambetta - Saint Genest Lerpt

At Coworking Saint-Étienne, we're committed to promoting our heritage and its riches! So, the opportunity to breathe new life into a 76-year-old former metalworkers' workshop seemed an obvious one...

Let us tell you the story... It was after the Second World War that three brothers, Jean, Maurice and Pierre, decided to set up a weaving workshop in Saint-Genest-Lerpt, one of the region's flagship activities. At the time, the town had 1,000 weavers for a population of 3,000!

A prosperous period followed. The know-how of its occupants led to exceptional silk cuts for haute couture and royal weddings... But with the arrival of synthetics and the first relocations to China, business became scarce and time passed...

In the early 1980s, the factory was used as a storage facility, a furniture warehouse and a DIY workshop... But its heritage remained and was transformed. La Rubanerie was reborn, in a bright, calm setting open to the outside world.