4 unités LC - Architecture Insights

75. The roof terrace overrun
by children in its previously
more lively state
(pictured 1959).
127 128
1 André Wogensky (b. 1916) co-designed with Le Corbsuier, all four existing
Unité d’habitaiton builidngs in France. He worked in collaboration with Le
Corbusier from 1934-1944, after which he became a manager of the Le
Corbusier Studio from 1945-1956. Wogensky eventually started his own
practice, which later took over Le Corbusier’s own private studio space on
the top floor of the Immeuble Locatif à la Molitor in Paris, following Le
Corbusier’s death in 1965. Some of Wogensky’s most notable works have
been the Maison de Culture in Grenoble (1966-67), and the Hôpital St-
Antione in Paris (1963). An exhibition of his work was shown in La Galarie
Blanche of La Première Rue at the ‘Unité’ in Briey last year (May 13 – June
20, 2000).
2 Ragot, Gilles + Dion, Mathilde, Le Corbusier en France: Réalisations et
Projets, Elecla Moniteur, Paris, 1st Ed., 1987, p. 154.
3 Ibid.
4 Boesiger, W., Girsberger, H., Le Corbusier 1910-65, Thames and Hudson,
London, 1967, p. 138.
5 Le Corbusier, The Marseilles Block, trans. Geoffrey Sainsbury, The Harvill
Press, London, 1953, p. 7.
6 Ibid.
7 Boesiger, W., (Ed.), text by Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier: 1938 – 1946,
Volume 4 of l’Œuvre Complète, Girsberger, Zurich, 1946, pp. 162-65; also
RAGOT, Gilles + DION, Mathilde, Le Corbusier en France: Réalisations et
Projets, Elecla Moniteur, Paris, 1st Ed., 1987, p. 155.
8 This design proposed a total of 358 apartments with in three buildings.
Another major difference was that the roof top featured a healthcare centre
rather than the sports facilities and crèche in the final design. And school and
sports fields were situated at the base of the building, in compliance with the
original ‘Ville Radieuse’ concept from which the ‘Unités’ were derived. (
Elements of this first design are described in Ragot, Gilles + Dion, Mathilde,
Le Corbusier en France: Réalisations et Projets, Elecla Moniteur, Paris, 1st
Ed., 1987, p. 155).