4 unités LC - Architecture Insights

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The City Although during his formative years, Le Corbusier’s urban theories began with an interest in the pituresque town-planning of Austrian Camillo Sitte 5 and the English garden city movement lead by Ebenezer Howard, 6 his move to Paris 7 and the creation of L’Esprit Nouveau 8 saw a major evolution in his ideas. By this stage, Le Corbusier had been exposed to a wider range of more radical and avant-garde theories, and in November 1922, at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, Une Ville Contemporaine de 3 millions d’habitants (A Contemporary City of 3 Million Inhabitants) was exhibited. In ‘Une Ville Contemporaine’, Le Corbusier had transformed the horizontal garden city into the vertical garden city. An idea, exhibited as an enormous diorama, that proposed a series of 24 cruciform skyscrapers, sixty storeys high, and regularly spaced in a rigid grid formation. 9 The visual effect was somewhat futuristic, although not unrealistic considering the construction feats of the time, 10 for the project was not intended to be for the distant future, it was, as the name states, a contemporary solution. For as Le Corbusier said, “It is this that confers boldness to our dreams: the fact that they can be realized.” 11 The fundamental principles on which ‘Une Ville Contemporaine’ was based were: 1. Decongestion of the city centre, 2. Increase [housing] desnsity, 3. Increase the means of transport, 4. Increase vegetated areas. 12 The scheme proposed a hierarchical and segregated arrangement of activities, the city centre being marked by the formation of skyscrapers in which offices and hotels would be situated, residential buildings would intermingle at a lower height, and commercial activity would take place around these buildings at ground level. 27 28 “It was greeted with astonishment; then surprise lead to anger or enthusiasm” 13 Le Corbusier said of the mixed reaction his exhibit received. And it was these antithetical opinions he aroused that provided him with such wide exposure and consequently renown. For the visions Le Corbusier displayed were not entirely new, nor were they entirely his own. He borrowed heavily from Tony Garnier’s Cité Industrielle 14 and Eugène Hénard’s Etudes sur les transformations de Paris. 15
3. A panoramic view, 27m long, displayed ‘Une Ville Contemporaine de 3 million d’habitants’ at the Salon d’Automne, Paris, 1922. But it was no so much the ideas that brought Le Corbusier fame, it was the conviction and boldness with which proposed them, the manner in which he expressed them, the striking visual images he used to support them, and the relentlessness with which he continued to propose them. 29 30 In 1925, Le Corbusier displayed the Plan Voisin de Paris 16 in the Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau at the Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratif. The ‘Plan Voisin’ was effectively ‘Une Ville Contemporaine’, but this time applied specifically to the city centre of Paris. Although ‘Une Ville Contemporaine’ had proposed a realistic model for city planning, it had not been considered as such. And so, to emphasise “the fact that they can be realized”, the plans were now given an exact and existing context. Here, to make way for the sixty storey skyscrapers, the high density housing blocks and the surrounding park space of the scheme, the whole of Paris would have to be completely reworked, and only the significant historical edifices considered for preservation. 17
Page 1: Isabelle Toland B Sc. (Arch) Hons.
Page 4 and 5: Acknowledgements In writing this th
Page 6 and 7: Preface Observations and Visitation
Page 8 and 9: Introduction Singular / Plural The
Page 10 and 11: 1. Dynamiting a grand barre on the
Page 12 and 13: and the CIAM (Congrès Internationa
Page 14 and 15: “in my career …I have devoted m
Page 18 and 19: 4. A sketch of the centre of Paris,
Page 20 and 21: Le Corbusier attributed certain fea
Page 22 and 23: From the design of ‘Immeubles-Vil
Page 24 and 25: 12. Immeuble Locatif à la Molitor,
Page 26 and 27: 1 Le Corbusier, The Marseilles Bloc
Page 28 and 29: 23 The translation given in Boesige
Page 30 and 31: 42 The findings of the CIAM at this
Page 32 and 33: Soleil, espace, verdure... The ‘U
Page 34 and 35: Building Blocks 20. The ‘Modulor
Page 36 and 37: Industrial Production The use of
Page 38 and 39: An Individual Home Independence 27.
Page 40 and 41: 31. The ‘Unité d’habitation’
Page 42 and 43: 35. A ‘brise-soleil’ on the fac
Page 44 and 45: 39. A classroom of the rooftop pre-
Page 46 and 47: 22 As the majority of apartments st
Page 48 and 49: 4 Unités in France / 4 Dreams + Re
Page 50 and 51: Atlantic Ocean 43. Location of the
Page 52 and 53: I. M.MI - Unité Marseille The ‘U
Page 54 and 55: Even before the completion of its c
Page 56 and 57: 50. Looking down a section of the c
Page 58 and 59: 55. View from the balcony of an apa
Page 60 and 61: I.4 Facilities The ‘Unité’ in
Page 62 and 63: The Offices Also situated on the mi
Page 64 and 65: The pool, which had been left crack
Page 66 and 67:
75. The roof terrace overrun by chi
Page 68 and 69:
of the building maintenance. It was
Page 70 and 71:
II. N RE - Unité Rezé-les-Nantes
Page 72 and 73:
78. The polychromatic painted ‘lo
Page 74 and 75:
II.3 Context 83-84. The ‘Unité d
Page 76 and 77:
The Parkland The Entry Foyer The pa
Page 78 and 79:
The Rooftop School 91-92. Windows l
Page 80 and 81:
The strength of the building co-ope
Page 82 and 83:
were located independently, on a ne
Page 84 and 85:
III.1 History The ‘Unité’ in B
Page 86 and 87:
But the region was in serious econo
Page 88 and 89:
101-102. Restored interiors of apar
Page 90 and 91:
The Parkland An Espace Le Corbusier
Page 92 and 93:
18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., See also article
Page 94 and 95:
IV. FIR. UN - Unité Firminy-Vert
Page 96 and 97:
And this was not the only problem h
Page 98 and 99:
The residents of the ‘Unité’ h
Page 100 and 101:
120. Looking up to the ‘Unité’
Page 102 and 103:
A more vegetated area of the parkla
Page 104 and 105:
The Roof Terrace 131-132. The resur
Page 106 and 107:
1 Ragot, Gilles + Dion, Mathilde Le
Page 108 and 109:
them over the past years. 32 One of
Page 110 and 111:
But the ‘Unité’ of Firminy-Ver
Page 112 and 113:
Appendix CHA - Unité Berlin-Charlo
Page 114 and 115:
Illustration Acknowledgements 1. T
Page 116 and 117:
Bibliography Affron, Matthew + Antl
Page 118:
Sbriglio, Jacques, (trans. Sarah Pa
show all

4 unités LC - Architecture Insights

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?