Le Corbusier: Unite d'Habitation space distribution

In 1947, Europe was still feeling the effects of the Second World War, when Le Corbusier was commissioned to design a multi-family residential housing project for the people of Marseille that were dislocated after the bombings on France. 

The Unite d’ Habitation was actually the first of a new housing project series for Le Corbusier,  a challenge regarding the ways in which he had to approach such a large complex to accommodate roughly 1,600 residents. Probably, related to this project the first idea would be to design something horizontally spreading out over the landscape, but Le Corbusier designed the COMMUNITY that one would encounter in a neighborhood within a mixed use, modernist, residential high rise. He wanted the people to come together in a “ vertical garden city “.

This idea was based on bringing the villa within a larger volume that allowed for the inhabitants to have their own private spaces, but outside of that private sector they would shop, eat, exercise, and gather together.

With 337 apartments arranged over 12 stories, suspended on large pillars, divided among eighteen floors, the design requires an innovative approach toward spatial organization to accommodate the living spaces, as well as the public, communal spaces. 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 that allows for cross ventilation throughout the unit flowing through the narrow bedrooms into the double height space; emphasizing an open volume rather than an open plan.

Unlike most housing projects that have a “double-stacked” corridor (a single hallway with units on either side), Le Corbusier designed the units to span from each side of the building, as well as having a double height living space reducing the number of required corridors to one every three floors.  By narrowing the units and allowing for a double height space, Corbusier is capable of efficiently placing more units in the building and creating an interlocking system of residential volumes. Interestingly enough, the majority of the communal aspects are placed on the roof, which becomes a garden terrace that has a running track, a club, a kindergarten, a gym, and a shallow pool.  Beside the roof, there are shops, medical facilities, and even a small hotel distributed throughout the interior of the building.

For me personally, Corbusier’s design resembles the idea of the Tetrix game, where the volumes are interconnecting, occupying the smallest space possible and this makes Unite d’Habitation one of the most innovative architectural responses to a residential building.  It is definitely a significant, inspiring and successful design due to the Modular proportions that Corbusier established during the project.  In conclusion Unite d’ Habitation is essentially a “city within a city” that is spatially, as well as, functionally optimized for the residents.