Byera Hadley research reports
Isabell Toland / 2010
4 unités LC: fragments of a radiant dream
Housing, Architectural History, Sustainability
Australia, Japan
A study of three of Le Corbusier’s ‘Unité d’habitation’ projects. The ‘Unité d’habitation’ of Le Corbusier in Marseille was central to a new wave of modern social housing blocks that swept the country following the war. A significant number of these blocks, or grandes barres, as the French call them, have since been destroyed as breeding grounds of poverty and corruption.
And yet today, the ‘Unité’ is a revered historical monument, adored by its residents, and preserved with utmost care. It would be easy to say that it is simply a case of fashion, fame, and a transition from government to private ownership that have saved it. But there are three other ‘Unités’ in France that would contradict such a claim.
The stories of these three other ‘Unités’ are recorded and examined here; their histories, contexts, demographics and conditions. What is revealed, almost half a century since their construction, is that the dream of a ‘Radiant City’ – of which these buildings are the only true constructed fragments –lives on through the people that have chosen them as their homes.
