UNITE D’HABITATION
By the late 1940s Le Corbusier was well established in the CIAM and promoted Modernist architecture for public housing. Unite d’habitation (1947-52) in Marseilles is a large single 12 storey block consisting of 337 apartments, shops, a hotel, a restaurant, a kindergarten, and a rooftop area for leisure and exercise. The Unite illustrates the neo-Platonic Modular system which he developed post 1945, creating careful proportions and bright, spacious apartments. It is comparable to the Villa Savoye, utilising the ‘five points of architecture’ such as the strong pilotis which creates circulation space beneath the building, the free façade’s, and the roof terrace. The beton-brut structure was highly influenced by brutalist work, and Le Corbusier’s direct use of materials and regard for the individuals and communities was to be highly influential on New Brutalism.
NOTRE DAME DU HAUT, RONCHAMP
At the outset, the church Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp (1950-55) appears to be a clear deviation from his other works, and to an extent this is true. It is an expressionistic, organic, and sculptural architectural work which is highly spiritual; it seems to reject the machine aesthetic. Unlike Corbusier’s typically functional, sterile volumes, this building suggests an irregularity in form with a sloping roof, floor, and walls. It is important to acknowledge that the building is a spiritual one; therefore it inevitably will focus on the importance emotional qualities more so than his other buildings. The thick gentle curving walls act as acoustic amplifiers, and the curvilinear roof that peels up appears to float above the walls looks as though it’s indicating at the heavens, or perhaps even mirrors the draped fabric tent of Hebrew Ritual. It further exudes a sense of ritual as it is being approached, as setting on the top of the hill almost puts it on a