Introduction

This study is an attempt to engage with the story and transformation of the Unité d’Habitation, Briey-en-Forêt, a historically overlooked yet symbolically important project by Le Corbusier; a Swiss-French architect and key proponent of architectural modernism.

Completed in 1961, Briey was one of five Le Corbusier multi-storey housing projects alongside: · Marseilles (completed 1952) · Nantes-Rezé (completed 1955) · Berlin (completed 1957) · Firminy-Vert (completed 1965)

The ideal Unité format was inspired by the compact self-sustaining idea of the cruise ship and was designed in accordance with Le Corbusier’s views on the ‘house’, described in Vers une Architecture as ‘a machine for living in’ (Le Corbusier 1927). Within this collection of essays, Le Corbusier describes how modern dwellings, and to an extent the city, should operate. Based on a largely selfcontained mixed programme, the Unité aimed to incorporate many of the diverse services one might associate with a functioning town, including nurseries, shops, restaurants, community spaces, hotels and laundrettes.

Briey was designed with 339 duplex apartments over 17 floors and six internal ‘streets’ (8). It was the only one of the Unités classified under the Habitation à loyer modéré (HLM) rent-controlled housing scheme. The building was not, however, realised to the same standards of construction or mixed programmes of occupation as its siblings, with André Wogenscky – a long-standing collaborator of Le Corbusier’s – commenting that it ‘was not good, neither geographically nor economically, or sociologically’ (Abram and Vattier 2006). Over the years, social and economic decline have led to periods of abandonment and partially squatted re-occupation for Briey. It has been overlooked as an architecturalartistic work as many of its fitted interior furnishings have been stripped out, sold or consumed as firewood. Due to its social housing status, last-minute cost cuts and political manoeuvres, the variety of internal programmes envisioned by Le Corbusier were never actualised, which resulted in a remote residential building with few support services. In addition to this, there was a decline in the local economy due to the closure of iron ore mines in the region not long after construction. This created financial difficulties for the project and its community, and by 1982 the Unité was mostly abandoned.

Since then, parts of the building have been renovated as affordable housing and it has also been partially listed as a heritage site to save it from demolition; in 1993, the façade, roof, gantry, hall, Première Rue and apartments 101, 116, 128, 131–4 were registered as historical monuments. The façade and roof of the former boiler room and its portico are inscribed with ‘Heritage of the XXth century’. Today, it is largely occupied by a diverse community with varying attitudes towards its status as an original ‘Le Corbusier’.

9 Original drawing by Le Corbusier of the roof, 1960. The proposed design features a nursery and a running track. These did not come to fruition, however, and the roof remains unused to this day.

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10 Drawing by Le Corbusier of the 11 apartment typologies at Briey.

The notion of a designed project – an ‘artistic’ work – with its inherent intentions and distinctive language is something that shaped both early expectations and a personal critique of the project. Over the four years of research, a new viewpoint and critique emerged that questioned the idea of ‘success’ in architecture, specifically in housing, and how it might be assessed.

The Unité was conceived as ‘a machine for living’ and the buildings were designed using the latest technologies and most advanced understanding of social housing available at the time. The rigid format of inhabitation embedded in its apartment typologies and the built-in furniture has, however, been unable to reflect societal and technological change. This research proposes that housing design is a two-stage process: the architect’s design and resident adaptations. It introduces several granular levels of assessment that consider architectural intent, execution, versatility and the outcome as a post-occupation sum of its adaptations.

This photographic and drawing-based study culminated in an interactive exhibition that invited Briey’s residents to relay the extent of their interior and architectural adaptations (30). In so doing, the author aimed to explore the degrees of change applied to the original project to consider whether or not the architectural agenda, and to some extent Le Corbusier’s theories, have succeeded, and what this could mean for how we gauge success in housing schemes overall.

The project stems from Patrick Weber’s longstanding interest in the scope of Le Corbusier’s built legacy and its many interpretations over time. Given the varied histories, interests and adaptations involved in these interpretations, the work has today taken on new dimensions. Where many of Le Corbusier’s ideals were based on principles – proportions, societal ideals, construction strategies and urban design approaches, to name but a few – the Unités have withstood, accommodated and reflected the needs and intentions of others. Sometimes these intentions have focused on preservation and at others accommodation. The results have on occasion become multidimensional and it is felt that they warrant a varied approach in engaging with the project as it is today.

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11 Photographs from both Briey and Marseilles Unités, depicting the original interiors, c.1960.

12 A photographic diary of the construction progress, belonging to the original contractor.

13 Briey was partially abandoned in the 1980s and 90s. A group of artists, including architect Pascal Schoening, squatted the building in an effort to rescue it. The images are a document of vandalised apartments, stripped of their original elements, c.1987–89.

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14 Drawing of the ‘ideal’ apartment by Le Corbusier, entered on the lower level, comprising the kitchen/ dining area. A bespoke staircase connects this space to the upper floor, featuring the master and two children’s bedrooms, which can be connected through a sliding partition to create a play area.