4 unités LC - Architecture Insights

II.2 Ownership
The ‘Unité’ in Rezé is still of HBM status – a classification that
permits not only low rent government housing, but also the
progressive purchase of an apartment by its inhabitant. The
progressive purchasing scheme is aimed at providing an incentive
for residents to remain with in the housing block, ensuring a greater
stability in the building population. 7 The resulting increase in
long-term residents enables the inhabitants to develop stronger
bonds and relationships between each other, encouraging a greater
sense of community. Many of the residents today have been living
in the ‘Unité’ of Rezé for around 15 to 20 years, and some have
even been there since its construction. 8
81-82. Inside the apartment of
a family living in the ‘Unité’ in
Rezé today (July, 2000).
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The ‘Unité’ of Rezé is a rather more humble building than the
‘Unité’ of Marseille, obviously not in its physical stature (which
could actually be considered more impressive in terms of its much
less developed surroundings), but rather in its social stature. It has
not been glorified and monumentalised as with the ‘Unité’ of
Marseille, and, in greater compliance with Le Corbusier’s social
principles, it is still inhabited by a population of lower range of
socio-economic standing.
But although the ‘Unité’ of Rezé has not benefited from the
exceptional fame and broader socio-economic range of residents of
the one in Marseille, it has in fact been more consistently
maintained. Because of the original resident participation in the
finance of the project and the continuing owner incentive scheme
resulting in its partial private ownership, there has always been a
strong sense of support and respect held by the inhabitants for
their building, ensuring its upkeep.
Rehabilitation and renovation work was performed on the building
in 1985, in which fractures in the concrete were repaired, and the
polychromatic surfaces of the loggias repainted. The mechanical
ventilation and floor heating systems were also updated, and the
water supply and drainage systems replaced. 9