Visiting Le Corbusier's mass housing utopia in Marseille - A house is a (beautiful) machine for living
Corbusier remains controversial, but his visionary project La Cité Radieuse is a marvellous example of collective housing done in a way that actually makes you want to live in it
Le Corbusier remains a highly controversial figure up to this day. The Swiss-French architect and urban planner was a pioneer for the Modernist movement, promoting the return to simple structures, functionality and large scale housing. His approach to urbanism and architecture can be called totalitarian. His aim was to create spaces adapted to a new society, which seems especially problematic considering his ties to facism and eugenics. Reading upon his entanglements with Mussolini and Nazi Germany, and the fact that Corbusier was an actual member of a militant fascist group, marks another instance, where it feels extremely tough to separate the art from the artist. Is it possible to still admire his work in good conscience?
Corbusier was a strict advocate of the separation of functions à la the Athens Charter and the Functional City - which represents a lof of what I personally despise about sprawling, automotive cities. The exact opposite of the mixed-use concept of the 15-minute city, that most urban planners strive for nowadays (= most daily necessities can be easily reached within 15 minutes). On a related note, Corbu had a radical redevelopment plan for Paris in 1925, le Plan Voisin. It intended to demolish large parts of Paris’ city centre and instead build 18 identical skyscraper, accomodating 78,000 residents. Have a look at this astonishing video simulation and see how Paris would have looked like to grasp the absurdity of his vision:
After this introduction one may assume that Corbusier was just some fascist, totalitarian urban planner with foolish ideas to destroy Paris, buuuuut he was also a highly admired architect, designer, writer and painter, creating a number of visionary projects. One of his most memorable projects is the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille (1939-1952), la Cité Radieuse. Some coin it the most influential Brutalist building to date. Designed as a vertical garden city, it was supposed to offer all services needed for living under one roof - a city within a city. Again an ambitious and visionary endeavour, with a much better outcome than his Paris plans. Corbusier had an iconic quote: “A house is a machine for living in.” Initially, I associated this machinery housing with a near-dystopian quality of life stripped away of everything that marks us as human. Orwellian images posted on r/UrbanHell subreddit came flashing in front of my eyes. Au contraire, visiting the radiant city machine in Marseille feels very much utopian. I was amazed by not just the functional qualities and the capacity to house up to 1,600 residents, but likewise the aesthetically pleasing design and elaborated planning. Confronted with the omnipresent housing shortage nowadays, it may seem logical to resort to mass housing projects to resolve the issue. But large scale housing oftentimes comes with a low quality of life and ghettoization, as seen in the French banlieues. Marseille itself is characterized by a high socio-spatial segregation dividing the poor north and the rich south, creating some infamous banlieues in the north, les quartiers nord, symbolising social exclusion and decay (see La Haine). In contrast, La Cité Radieuse provides not just 337 apartments of 23 different layouts across 12 storeys, but pairs them with a remarkable quality of life and even sensual beauty. While strolling through the building, I catched myself contemplating “ohh, collective housing can actually be done in a way, that really makes you want to live here”. Accordingly, Corbu’s masterpiece is highly popular with its residents and is mainly occupied by upper middle-class professionals.
The building features a picturesque rooftop with breathtaking views of the Mediterranean and Marseille, including a stunning pool mainly used by the in-house kindergarden. It boasts a café with a balcony on the third floor, an inner-building shopping street with a bookshop, a gallery, some boutiques and an in-house hotel. There is also a restaurant with the delightful name "Le Ventre de l'Architecte" ("The Belly of the Architect"). I did actually feel like I am in a vertical city. La Cité Radieuse is indeed visionary work by Corbusier and could be an important inspiration for comtemporary architects, who oftentimes seem to lack these imaginatives qualities while designing the much needed large scale housing projects. At least, if they don’t forget to separate the work from the artists and don’t follow his political beliefs.
Pictures by Karoline Noerbaek & myself, 2023 ©
Continue reading on French urbanism and the feeling of insignificance in the banlieues and in the movie La Haine:
