He wrote "Formulary for a New Urbanism" in 1953, at age nineteen under the name Gilles Ivain, which was an inspiration to the Lettrist International and Situationist International. It develops some of the ideas of Charles Fourier.
He tried to deconstruct the Eiffel Tower and was arrested in Paris and committed to an asylum or mental hospital by his wife, where he was subdued with insulin and shock therapy, and remained for 5 years.