Unite d’habitation, Le Corbusier

Developing Type as a Community

After the WW2, demand for housing increased drastically, especially as the society also enters the age of mass consumption and mass culture. The Unite d’habitation was envisioned as a vertical garden city for the upper middle class, who before the war lived in suburbs of small villas. Le Corbusier wanted to bring the concept and volumes of individual villas to the context of apartment blocks, rather than letting it sprawl horizontally over the landscape, similar to what he proposed in the ideal city of Ville Radieuse. Yet, as opposed to early Hong Kong housing estates such as the Shek Kip Mei Estate, which had emphasis on type repetition and duplication, the Unite d’habitation used type as a starting point to provide a “shop, live, play” space, but both for an increasing population.

Fig 1. Exterior of Unite d’habitation. Note the use of rough cast concrete and Brutalism. This allows the building to be constructed quickly and inexpensively, crucial in standardization.

 

Fig 2. Site plan. Le Corbusier’s use of pilotis to free the ground. This creates an open space throughout the entire ground, which can perhaps allow type to work not only as a mean for people to reside, but also to play and live. This works with one of his five points of architecture, freeing the ground. 

Fig 3. Plan. Here we see the rationalization of the building as parts. Le Corbusier split the entire building into different volumes, repeated residential units, open space, ground and in the middle shops. This allows type to be done more easily and efficiently.

Fig 4. Section. Rationalisation of space. Here, Le Corbusier rationalised each apartment as individual and identical villas within an apartment space. Each apartment interlocks another. Symmetry shows how this is repeated, with the space being used to its fullest efficiency.

Fig 5. Sketch. Structure. All apartments are building blocks, which fill a simple cuboid volume. Apartment blocks as prefabricated plug in jigsaw pieces that are all identical. This is how he rationalised space and volume, as mass produced products. 

Bibliography

Fig 1. Flicker. 2013. Unité D’habitation Le Corbusier. Image. https://www.flickr.com/photos/domgarcia/9652975846.

Fig 2. Self Produced

Fig 3. Unite D’ Habitation De Marsella. 2013. Image. https://www.slideshare.net/DIEGUISIMUS/unite-dhabitation-de-marsella/6.

Fig 4. A Santos, Mauro. 2017. Unite-Dhabitation-2. Image. Accessed October 11. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/520939881882418386/.

Fig 5. Architakes. 2001. Plug In Concept. Image. http://www.architakes.com/?p=1441.

<Wu Chun Yiu, BAAS 2, Group B>