Unité d'habitation

Coordinates: 43°15′41″N 5°23′47″E / 43.261323°N 5.396261°E / 43.261323; 5.396261

Cité radieuse, Marseille.
Unité d'Habitation of Nantes-Rezé in the background
Le Corbusier's Berlin Unité

The Unité d'habitation (French pronunciation: ​[ynite dabitasjɔ̃], Housing Unit) is a modernist residential housing design principle developed by Le Corbusier, with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afonso. The concept formed the basis of several housing developments designed by him throughout Europe with this name. The most famous of these developments is located in south Marseille.

Cité radieuse, Marseille

The first and most famous of these buildings, also known as Cité radieuse (Radiant City) and, informally, as La Maison du Fada (French – Provençal, "The Nutter's House"), is located in Marseille, France, and was built between 1947 and 1952. One of Le Corbusiers's most famous works, it proved enormously influential and is often cited as the initial inspiration of the Brutalist architectural style and philosophy.[1]

The building is constructed in béton brut (rough-cast concrete), as the hoped-for steel frame proved too expensive in light of post-War shortages.[1] In July 2016, the Unité in Marseille and several other works by Le Corbusier were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[2] It is also designated a historic monument by the French Ministry of Culture. It was damaged by fire on February 9, 2012.[3][4]

The Marseille building, developed with Corbusier's designers Shadrach Woods, George Candilis, comprises 337 apartments arranged over twelve stories, all suspended on large piloti. The building also incorporates shops with architectural bookshop,[5] sporting, medical and educational facilities, a hotel which is open to the public,[6] and a gastronomic restaurant, Le Ventre de l'architecte ("The Architect's Belly").

Inside, corridors run through the centre of the long axis of every third floor of the building, with each apartment lying on two levels, and stretching from one side of the building to the other, with a balcony. Corbusier's design was criticised by US architect Peter Blake for having small children's rooms and some of those rooms lacked windows.[7] Unlike many of the inferior system-built blocks it inspired, which lack the original's generous proportions, communal facilities and parkland setting, the Unité is popular with its residents and is now mainly occupied by upper middle-class professionals.

The flat roof is designed as a communal terrace with sculptural ventilation stacks, a running track, and a shallow paddling pool for children. There is also a children's art school in the atelier. The roof, where a number of theatrical performances have taken place, underwent renovation in 2010 and since 2013 it hosts an exhibition center called the MaMo.[8] The roof has unobstructed views of the Mediterranean and Marseille.

According to Peter Blake, members of CIAM held a "great celebration" for the building's opening on the roof on a summer evening in 1953. "Architects from every part of the world attended," including Walter Gropius, who said at the event: "Any architect who does not find this building beautiful, had better lay down his pencil."[9]

Other buildings and influences

In the block's planning, the architect drew on his study of the Soviet communal housing project, the Narkomfin Building in Moscow, which had been designed by the architect Moisei Ginzburg and completed in 1932.

Le Corbusier's utopian city living design was repeated in four more buildings with this name and a very similar design. The other Unités were built in Nantes-Rezé called Unité d'Habitation of Nantes-Rezé in 1955, Berlin-Westend in 1957, Briey in 1963, and Firminy in 1965. All of them were oriented with the building's long axis running north-south, so the units face east-and-west.[10]

The replacement material (béton brut) influenced the Brutalist movement, and the building inspired several housing complexes including the Alton West estate in Roehampton, London, and Park Hill in Sheffield. These buildings have attracted a great deal of criticism. Other, more successful, manifestations of the Unité include Chamberlin, Powell and Bon's Barbican Estate (completed 1982), Gordon Tait's Samuda Estate, Isle of Dogs (1965), Ernő Goldfinger's Balfron Tower (1967), and Trellick Tower (1972), all in London. Another valuable complex strongly inspired with the idea was Za Żelazną Bramą Housing Estate in Warsaw, Poland.

The Reserve Square Complex in Cleveland, Ohio which was built 1969–1973 was also influenced by Le Corbusier's project.

The Riverside Plaza in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which opened in 1973, also used multi-colored panels and brutalist design, as influenced by the project.

A building in Vukovarska street in Zagreb by architect Drago Galić was inspired by Le Corbusier's principles.

Interiors

The apartments were equipped with built-in furniture, and specially designed storage walls with various cupboards with sliding doors, which were designed by Charlotte Perriand in collaboration with Atelier Le Corbusier. Additionally Perriand collaborated on the design of the apartment kitchens, 321 of the 337 units were equipped with the Cuisine Atelier Le Corbusier, type 1 kitchens, many of which are still in place due to their efficient use of space.[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Banham, Reyner (1966). The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?. New York: Reinhold Publishing Company. p. 16.
  2. ↑ "The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  3. ↑ http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2012/02/09/france-grave-incendie-a-la-cite-radieuse-du-corbusier-a-marseille_1641498_3224.html
  4. ↑ http://www.libemarseille.fr/henry/2012/02/la-cit%C3%A9-de-radieuse-de-marseille-meurtrie-par-lincendie.html
  5. ↑ Bookshop Imbernon
  6. ↑ Marseille's Cité radieuse: photos and hotel review
  7. ↑ "What's Wrong with Modern Architecture? Plenty, Says Critic Peter Blake". People (magazine). 12 Sep 1977. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
  8. ↑ http://www.laprovence.com/article/loisirs/2340144/marseille-le-mamo-un-centre-dart-entre-ciel-et-mer.html
  9. ↑ Blake, Peter (1964). Le Corbusier: Architecture and Form. Pelican book. Penguin Books. p. 124.
  10. ↑ "Le Corbusier and the Sun". solarhousehistory.com.
  11. ↑ Bechthold, Tim (2012). "Kitchen stories: Cuisine Atelier Le Corbusier, type 1". Studies in Conservation. 57 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
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