4 unités LC - Architecture Insights

4. A sketch of the centre of
Paris, transformed in the ‘Plan
Voisin’.
Needless to say, the idea was abhorrent to the Parisians who had
remained perfectly content (as they still do to this day) with their
ancient six storey Haussmannian blocks of integrated commerce,
offices and residences. The plans were looked upon as either “an
amusing utopia” or “an extended study in bad taste.” 18 But this
lack of approval and even ridicule did not, however, quell Le
Corbusier’s passion for change.
31 32
In 1935, Le Corbusier published La Ville Radieuse in the French
architectural magazine L’Architure d’Aujourd’hui. ‘La Ville
Radieuse’ (The Radiant City) simply elaborated on the theories of
‘Une Ville Contemporaine’, although here the city took on a linear
form of growth. The skyscrapers of the business district were
situated at the top edge of the city, with the residential quarters of
housing ‘superblocks’ surrounding a central civic axis. An
industrial zone would be situated on the lower edge, separated from
the residential quarter by a band of parkland. 19
‘The Radiant City’ was Le Corbusier’s interpretation of the
“Liberté, Egality, Fraternity” that France claimed to stand for 20 ,
acclaimed by some as a work of “dazzling clarity, simplicity, and
harmony” 21 , or highly criticised by others for being totally
unrealistic or even just plain foolish 22 . But regardless of any of
these widely ranging opinions, or even perhaps because of them,
‘The Radiant City’ became Le Corbusier’s most famous, influential
and controversial vision. And the ‘Unités d’habitation’, as the
constructed housing blocks that were drawn directly from this
vision, have achieved the greatest part of their fame and notoriety
because of this.