4 unités LC - Architecture Insights

Industrial Production
The use of ‘big industry’ in the construction of buildings was an
idea that Le Corbusier had pontificated about for years. He
proposed that standard elements be fixed, and fabricated on mass,
to be created and recreated with machine precision – repeated
elements that could be pieced together to form a singular whole. 12
The design of the ‘Unité d’habitation’ follows this theory, with the
building broken down into prefabricated elements produced in
factories then transported to the site. 13 Each of the apartments of
the ‘Unité’ in fact consists of a combination of mass produced
‘cells’. The three basic ‘cells’ described by Le Corbusier are: 1. the
kitchen cell (which includes the bathroom, toilet and storage units),
2. the parents’ bedroom cell, 3. the children’s bedroom cell. 14
Each ‘cell’ is of a fixed design and dimensions, precisely for the
purposes of industrial production. They contain with in each of
them the built-in ‘equipment’ that Le Corbusier had demonstrated
at the Pavillon de Temps Nouveau in 1937, with cupboards, draws,
benches and wardrobes all designed in accordance with function
and spatial economy. 15
The ‘cells’ of each apartment may be organised in a variety of
arrangements, multiplied or suppressed to create different
apartment ‘types’. A room, for example, may be ‘borrowed’ from
one apartment to be used in the one next to it, adding a ‘cell’ to
one, whilst suppressing it from the other. In this way, the varied
apartment ‘types’ accommodate a range of occupants from multiple
child families to single people. 16
Variety with in each apartment is also created by their duplex
nature. As the apartments are split over two levels in an ‘L’ type
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24. Plans and section showing
interlocking apartments of the
‘Unité d’habitation’ design.
section, some may be entered at the top level, whilst others are
entered at the bottom. 17 This ‘L’ section also allows for the
interlocking of one apartment over the other – an effective
arrangement in terms of spatial efficiency.
Once the arrangement of the ‘cells’ is determined to create each
individual apartment, the apartments are then slotted into a
reinforced concrete frame supporting the entire structure of the
building. Le Corbusier referred to this arrangement as the Caisier à
bouteilles (bottle rack) prinicple 18 – an expression that describes
the way in which each apartment is a singular entity in itself (like a
bottle), inserted into the supporting ‘rack’ that provides the
framework for the unified whole.