Le Corbusier's ‘Cité Radieuse’ in Marseilles, France

 

One of Le Corbusier's most influential projects was ‘Cité Radieuse’ in Marseilles, France, designed in collaboration with Nadir Afonso (whose thesis was titled "Architecture is Not Art"). Built between 1947 and 1952, ‘Cité Radieuse’ hosts 337 apartments plus a mixed-use floor. This building, looming and futuristic, is often cited as the initial inspiration for Brutalism.

 

Le Corbusier was in turn influenced by the sleek, International-style Narkomfin Building in Moscow designed by Moisei Ginzburg and completed in 1932. Corbu's original vision for ‘Cité Radieuse’ was steel, but a derth of the metal after World War II caused him to use concrete instead, creating almost insect-like pilotis (a Corbu trademark) underneath the building. Corbu included a community terrace on the roof with views of Marseilles, the Mediterranean, and abstract (and now iconic) structures for the building's ventilation. The rooftop includes a wading pool, a running track, a meeting room, and a stage/concrete screen for movies. The living units featured built-in furniture designed by Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé (who also designed the steel staircases for two-story units).

 

The design was so well-received that Le Corbusier designed and built  four other versions of the building in Nantes-Rezé in 1955, Berlin in 1957, Briey in 1963, and Firminy-Vert in 1965 (and I swear we saw one [a tiny version?] in Paris).

Not everyone loved the design, criticizing unused space under the building. However, we saw that residents kept their bikes out of the weather underneath and could stay out of the sun underneath. Security-wise and (flood-wise), the design is brilliant (and ahead of its time climate-wise). Firstfloorers have the same privacy as upper units as well. But the structure is part of Le Corbu's vision of new-urbanism, which is distant from the city itself (I am reading Jane Jacobs at the moment).

 

There is a first floor reception area where you access the elevators. Our visit was free but restricted to the business floor (where there's a hotel (!!!), a restaurant, and offices. And then you can access the glorious roof! Well worth a visit. Unfortunately, a unit is not available to gawk at, but it's wonderful that the public can access the public spaces.

 

 photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/88017382@N00/8562877755

 

  

 

Le Corbusier's Maison de la Culture in Firminy, France

Of the several buildings designed for Firminy, Culture House was the only one completed (1961-1965) while Le Corbusier was alive. The building has a striking, asymmetrically arcing profile, the roof originally intended to be green and seeded by wind and fowl. The bay windows are similar to those at La Tourette and were the result of a collab with the architect, musician, and mathematician Iannis Xenakis. One side of the building overlooks a soccer pitch at elevation (the site used to be a rock quarry).

We strolled over to it from Saint Pierr. Corbu loved ramps (certainly ahead of his time on assessiblity!), so entry into the building is 'round back and up a ramp. Inside is a music room, an auditorium, a theater, and an art room. Downstairs is a bar and a dance room. 

The place looks like something out of Star Wars or, perhaps even better, the recent Brutalist-heavy Dune movies.  Trails are marked with Corbu-designed park benches.

Le Corbusier's Saint Pierre in Firminy, France

After bidding adieu to La Tourette, we high-tailed it to nearby Firminy, south of Lyon, to gawk at several Le Corbusiers.

 Saint Pierre is another one of those projects deemed "Corbu's last project." This one feels real since it started in 1970, some five years after his death, and wasn't finished until 2006 (!!!), 41 years after his death. Construction stopped in 1978 with a rough foundation of the church built:

by Peter Christian Riemann - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=147159598

Controversially, the foundations above were given historic monument status in 1983, a decree that saved the church. 

Finally, construction restarted in 2004 under the supervision of a Corbu student, José R. Oubrerie, who worked with Corbusier on the original design. The church was finished in 2006.

Corbusier mined his unrealized projects for this church, borrowing from a 1929 design for Le Tremblay:

source: https://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/oeuvre-architecture/projets-eglise-le-tremblay-le-tremblay-france-1929/

The church is simply stellar. Located on the approach to an array of Corbusier buildings (and soccer field!), it perches high, massive, and abstract. Entry is around the back where we noticed that the arches and lines along the exterior are for managing rainfall runoff: stylized concrete gutters. They appear abstract but are completely functional.

Entry in the back is to human-scaled rooms. The chamber, which explodes above you, is up a flight of stairs. Similar to La Tourette, Corbu used indirect light and painted concrete to carry color into the dark space. Direct light is carried into the space through small circular holes seemingly shotgunned into the building, an intent of the architect. Light cannons quietly fire above in red, yellow, and blue.

The space is truly magical. For a nominal ticket price, you are allowed to wander, sit, and enjoy as long as you want. It would be wonderful to have stayed long enough for a service (although not officially sanctified, the church is noted to be Roman Catholic). This is the Modernist, minimalist answer to cathedrals, and it filled us with the same awe. The starkness is perhaps more appropriate, discrete beacons of light emitting from cold, gray concrete.