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Concept
Unité d'habitation
Summary
The Unité d'habitation (ynite dabitasjɔ̃, Housing Unit) is a modernist residential housing typology developed by Le Corbusier, with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afonso. It formed the basis of several housing developments throughout Europe designed by Le Corbusier and sharing the same name.
The most famous of these buildings is located in the southern part of Marseille, France. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016 because of its importance to the development of modernist architecture, along with 16 other works by Le Corbusier. It is also designated a historic monument by the French Ministry of Culture. It was damaged by fire on 9 February 2012.
In 1920, Le Corbusier started to develop the Unité d'Habitation type, which became influential in 20th century modernism and contemporary residential design in Europe.
The first realizations were built in Paris and Marseille in the 1940s as high-rise concrete structures. During the construction of the Marseille building, a few model apartments were built and furnished for visitors as an exhibition.
In the 1980s, a team from ETH Zurich surveyed several apartments in Marseille and built several full-scale models for exhibitions in Paris, Karlsruhe, Tokyo and New York. In 1986, a full-scale model was constructed at the Badischer Kunstverein by Gernot Bayne based on the survey of Ruggero Tropeano. The same model was then on display at Centre Pompidou. A full scale original kitchen, stairs, and other parts of the apartments are stored and displayed in several museum collections around the world. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York acquired a complete kitchen in 2013.
In 2007, students built a structurally correct full-scale model inside the museum "Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine" in Paris. Unité d'habitation model apartments have been rebuilt in exhibitions or renovated in their historic style.
The first and most famous of the Unité d'Habitation buildings is in Marseille, France, and was built between 1947 and 1952.
Official source
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