4 unités LC - Architecture Insights

9 Ragot, Gilles + Dion, Mathilde, Le Corbusier en France: Réalisations et
Projets, Elecla Moniteur, Paris, 1st Ed., 1987, p. 155.
10 Boesiger, W., text by Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier: 1938 – 1946, Volume 4
of l’Œuvre Complète, Girsberger, Zurich, 1946, pp. 166-69.
11 Ragot, Gilles + Dion, Mathilde, Le Corbusier en France: Réalisations et
Projets, Elecla Moniteur, Paris, 1st Ed., 1987, p. 155.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Ragot, Gilles + Dion, Mathilde, Le Corbusier en France: Réalisations et
Projets, Elecla Moniteur, Paris, 1st Ed., 1987, pp. 154 + 156.
18 The budget for the Unité d’habitation in Marseilles was over one and a
half times that of the normal government housing project. (Ragot, Gilles +
Dion, Mathilde, Le Corbusier en France: Réalisations et Projets, Elecla
Moniteur, Paris, 1st Ed., 1987, p. 156.)
19 Le Corbusier was fortunate enough to gain the support of the seven
consecutive Ministers for Reconsconstruction and Urbanism – from Raoul
Dautry to Eugène Claudius-Petit – who each oversaw parts of the building’s
extended construction period.
20 In Le Parisien libéré, August 25, 1952, it is reported that M. Henri Texier,
a spokesperson for the Society for the Aesthetics of France, referred to the
‘Unité’ in Marseilles as “le monstre” (the monster). He considered the
building to be ill proportioned and visually offensive (Jenger, Jean, Le
Corbusier: L’Architecture pour Emouvior, Gallimard, Evreux, September
1993, pp. 143-144.); also, R. Rouzeau in La Journée du bâtiment (January
25-26, 1948), refers to the fact that some believed Le Corbusier “had given
birth to a monster”. (Jenger, Jean, Le Corbusier: L’Architecture pour
Emouvior, Gallimard, Evreux, September 1993, p. 142.)
129 130
21 Gille-Delafon, S., Arts, December 9, 1949, (trans. I. Toland.), see Jenger,
Jean, Le Corbusier: L’Architecture pour Emouvior, Gallimard, Evreux,
September 1993, p. 147.
22 The Highest Institute of Hygiene in France held two sittings devoted to the
discussion of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’habitation building in Marseille. This
quote is taken from the report made by Maurice Puteaux that was published,
along with the minutes of the proceedings, in a special suppliment of
L’Architecture Française. A copy of this article appears in Le Corbusier, The
Marseilles Block, The Harvill Press, London, 1953, p. 9 (trans. I. Toland).
23 In an extract from Louis Hautecœur’s book De l’architecture,1938,
Hautecœur criticises Le Corbusier’s social and aesthetic principles, accusing
him of having ‘socialo-communist’ theories in his use of standard elements
and in the elimination of local or national architectural ‘styles’. (Jenger,
Jean, Le Corbusier: L’Architecture pour Emouvior, Gallimard, Evreux,
September 1993, p. 147.)
24 Jenger, Jean, Le Corbusier: L’Architecture pour Emouvior, Gallimard,
Evreux, September 1993, p. 142.
25 The most important admirer of the building was evidently M. Claudius-
Petit, with out whom the completion of the project would have undoubtedly
been impossible. A glowing and highly complimentary account of the
building’s features, along with a letter written to Le Corbusier’s mother and
praising her son’s work (both of which were written just after the building’s
construction) appear in JENGER, Jean, Le Corbusier: L’Architecture pour
Emouvior, Gallimard, Evreux, September 1993, pp. 144-45.
26 Jenger, Jean, Le Corbusier: Architect of a New Age, (trans. Caroline
Beamish), Thames and Hudson, London, 1996, p. 147.
27 Jenger, Jean, Le Corbusier: L’Architecture pour Emouvior, Gallimard,
Evreux, September 1993, pp. 81.
28 Amongst those interviewed at the ‘Unité’ in Marseilles was M. Charles
Durand, a now retired architect and resident of the building. M. Durand has
lived in the very same apartment with his wife since he purchased it in 1955.
He is just one of the architect-residents that formed the committee in charge