In 1937 Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret made a proposal for the development of a dilapidated part of east central Paris, under the Ilot Insalubre program in which 16 ‘insalubrious islands’ were identified by local authorities for improvement and development. Their project for Ilot Insalubre no. 6 was a pretext for implementing their theses about the city as well as an approach to slum clearance. It exemplified Le Corbusier’s ‘five points of a new architecture’: the 20-storey zigzag apartment buildings on pillars freed the ground for the pedestrian. The plan included a solution for traffic by eliminating the old street system (except for two main roads) and proposing a number of multi-storey car parks connected to the apartment buildings. The project consisted of free standing building groups with large wings at angles to meet the demands for light and views. Open spaces would be used for landscaping, cinemas, nurseries and sports. With only twelve per cent of the plot covered, he transformed the flat roofs into playgrounds. The individual dwellings would be of various sizes, as most would be based on the duplex house typology with an internal stairway. Le Corbusier’s ideas stemmed from the principle that all people are equal, in the process of realising a ‘horizontal’ society.
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