Between Object and Texture In this landscape and building design project, a critique of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation serves as a point of departure for planning a large scale housing project. Perhaps one of the most interesting and important aspects of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation is the spatial organization of the individual residential units. Unlike most large-scale housing projects that feature a double-stacked corridor, Le Corbusier’s design features a series of identical units that efficiently interlock and span the full width of the building section.
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Unité d’Habitation Le Corbusier 1947 - 1952 Marseille, France
At the Unité d’Habitation, apartments are accessed via an “internal street” that connects alternating double height living spaces. Apartments are stacked in such a manner that the required number of corridors is reduced to occurring just once every three floors. By keeping the apartment units narrow and providing a generous double height interior living space, le Corbusier produces a module at the Unité d’Habitation that is not only remarkably efficient but also desirable—emphasizing “an open volume rather than an open plan.”
U N I T É D ’ H A B I TAT I O N M O D U L E T Y P E S / C I R C U L AT I O N
Unité d’Habitation Stacked Modules
“Bottom Up” Type B
“Top Down” Type A
“Flipped” Type C
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N O F U N I T É D ’ H A B I TAT I O N M O D U L E & FA C A D E 1
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Adaptation of Unité Maximizing Facade