1. ‘I must be free of all building
regulations in force.’ The architect –
Le Corbusier accepted the project with this condition for the Minister of
Reconstruction after WWII.
2. It was known by the locals in the
1950’s as The Loony Bin – La Maison du
Fada. The title was further endorsed by the then president of the medical
academy, himself a psychiatrist.
3. The Charter of Housing after the war
in France required the residents of the Unité be taught on the ‘know-how of
dwelling’ – savoir habiter. We don’t practice this anymore with social
housing, do we?
4. The architect compared the Marseille
Block as ‘the wine-bin’ and the 337 apartment units as wine bottles. These bottles in Corb’s terms ‘may contain
Champagne, Beaune or just vin ordinaire, but the one we are talking about
contains invariably a family.’ Very
French – architecture and wine tasting.
5. Unité was designed to be the first
block of housing experiment covering a plot of 3.5 hectares. Multiple towers, separated among one another
300m apart in a park setting is what the other name ‘La Villa Radieuse’ – Green
Town was originated.
6. The raw concrete look – béton
brut was achieved with the use of sand and rock from Etole massif, the
mountain range north of the city. The
architect wanted the surfaces to resemble the rugged terrains there. Sure, they do. One can also say that this might be a
pioneering green architecture of modern era.
7. Most critics complain on the width and
height (3.66x2.26m) of most residential units without mentioning a double
height of 4.8m at the living rooms. To
be fair, one can hardly find social housing of this generous dimension even
now!
8. A resident used to run a cinema of 40
seats exclusively for other residents.
There is no information on where this ‘cinema’ was located. At present, live performances and other arts
activities are carried out from time to time on the roof terrace and art
gallery (once the gymnasium).
9. According to the residents, the
sculptural ventilation shafts on the roof terrace occasionally produce humming
sounds that visually echo with ferries travelling from Corsica and Algeria to
the Marseilles harbour.
10. The name of the restaurant at the Unité
is Le Ventre de l’Architecte which pays homage to the film The Belly of the
Architect by Peter Greenaway. The
location of this restaurant, on the internal street, is close to the centre of
the housing block just as the belly button to the centre of a person.
11. When residents are asked what they
like most of the building, the communal roof terrace sunset apéritif comes first,
then the sunrise. We should democratize
all flat roofs now!
12. Private Delivery System: All
apartments feature specially designed boxes on walls for residents to receive
groceries from shops without opening their doors. Residents with communal spirit use them to
share magazines and foods among themselves.
This write-up follows my recent
pilgrimage to the Unité and found that it really is a living monument slash
apartment building. The morning I went
there was literally kicking with residents doing Pilates and riotous music on
the roof terrace.
For more reading, there is an in-depth review of Le Corbusier on this blog: https://artswise.blogspot.com/2015/11/
For my artworks: https://edwardtsui.ca
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