Sulaiman Bin Ahmed
Unite d’Habitation
Unite d’Habitation is a great architectural innovations that is referenced all over the world, it is located in France. Unite d’Habitation was designed by the famous French architect Le Corbusier in the year 1947 with the assistance of painter-architect Nadir Afonso. The complex has more floors than Habitat 67, boasting of 18 floors with 160 residences. After the famous World War II, the need for housing was high as many French more importantly the resident of Marseille were without shelter due to bombings. There were needs for new housing project. Le Corbusier deigned series of new housing project in which Unite d’Habitation was a pioneer in the year 1947. The project lasted for five years and was completed in the year 1952. The building was developed with the assistance of Nadir Afonso, Shadrach Woods, and George Candilis. The building was called “city within a city” because it incorporate a running track, a club, a kindergarten, a gym, and a shallow pool, shops, medical facilities, a small hotel and a gastronomic restaurant all distributed throughout the interior of the building. The building was damaged by fire on February 9, 2012 and later renovated. Since 2013 it hosts an exhibition center called the MaMo
Unite d’Habitation is built is the second largest city in France. It is also a densely populated city only third to Paris and Lyon in population size. Marseille is located at France’s south coast and historically, it is the most important trade center which served as the major trade port of the French Empire. Economically, Marseille is France's largest city on the Mediterranean coast with the largest commercial port. This ancient city was named the European Capital of Culture together with Košice, Slovakia, will host the 2016 edition of the European Football Championship and will become the European Capital of Sport in 2017 showing its relevance to Europe and the world at large. In the year 1940, during the Second World War, Marseille was bombed by German and Italian forces, the Germans occupied the city for two years between 1942 and 1944. After the war, renovations of the city began in which the then government of eastern Germany, western Germany and Italy contributed to the funds as compensations. As a result the Unite d’Habitation project became a reality.
Unite d’Habitation project by Le Corbusier was an innovative integration of a system of distributing goods and services that provide independent support to the dwelling unit, responding to the needs of its residents and ensuring operational autonomy in relation to the outside. Unite d’Habitation Architectural Style was different. It was an implementation of Corbusier theories. It involves the concept of module, a new system of proportions based on the Renaissance, which replaces the traditional metric. This measurement system is based on the actions of human beings, contrary to what decimal system. According to Le Corbusier, a machine, a cabinet or a newspaper are extensions of man. The architecture and other object designed by man, should impacts both mental and emotional level and also at more physical or body. “Other Projects with this principle and style based on the system Modulo are the Unity Room Marseille (1947-1952, France), the Chapel of Ronchamp (1950-1954, France) and the city of Chandigarh in India.
Unite d’Habitation was designed architecturally to house 1600 people, where the apartments are suited to individuals or towns. The building is an enormous construction 140 meters long, 24 meters wide and 56 meters high, and provided an internal operation of more than 26 separate services. Each floor contains 58 duplex apartments accessible from a wide corridor every three domestic plants, "streets in the air." Some apartments occupy the floor of the corridor and the lower the other corridor and higher. Unite d’Habitation was constructed such that the roof has great importance. The roof functions varies and include: an athletics track, 300 meters, covered gym, a club, nursing space, kindergarten, social space. These services were arranged so that they assimilate the visibility provided by the height of the building, between the hills and the sea, thus enriching the life experiences of residents.
Unite d’Habitation was constructed in such a way that the set is based on a single block built on stilts, allowing the soil to bring forth garden for leisure, with its reinforced concrete structure, similar to a shelf. On these piles, the building was designed in a way that allows large permeability at ground level, the level of the earth as a function of communication between the exterior and interior, with access to the communications vertical. The cross section shown as two apartments with galleries are intertwined creating a central access corridor at three levels, optimizing the space of movement. Inside the building, the 337 apartments crossed each other in the vast network of reinforced concrete. A half height, a two-storey shopping area extends along the 135m of the building, which also had rooms, a restaurant, a hotel, laundry and other services embedded. The materials used in Unite d’Habitation construction are apparently finished with reinforced concrete and glass, no decorations, no elegance, both indoors and outdoors. The facade is protected by canopies and are prefabricated elements of the material
Unite d’Habitation was also applauded and criticized by many. This design inspired the construction of some buildings including: Nantes-Rezé called Unité d'Habitation of Nantes-Rezé in 1955, Berlin-Westend in 1957, Briey in 1963, and Firminy in 1965, the Alton West estate in Roehampton, London, and Park Hill in Sheffield Chamberlin, Powell and Bon's Barbican Estate in 1982, Gordon Tait's Samuda Estate, Isle of Dogs in 1965, Ernő Goldfinger's Balfron Towerin 1967, Trellick Tower in 1972, all in London and Za Żelazną Bramą Housing Estate in Warsaw, Poland. Critics says many of the inspired Unite d’Habitation dwellings were demolished between 1970 and 1985, due to basic defects, far short of their intended economic life. For the exsiting ones residents had to live with a constant barrage of vandalism, burglaries and neglect, as the combination of bad management and the social mix of residents a problem. Repairs and renovations to the existing require an estimated £20bn to make them habitable.
Unite d’Habitation design inspired many architect and civil enginners, his use of primary colours or his passion for flooding a building with natural light was exquisite, he advocated towers completely encased in glass and his use of concrete and flow of space has been a point of reference.
References
Muriel Emanuel, ed. Contemporary Architects. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980. ISBN 0-312-16635-4. p701
Wachtel, Eleanor (2008). "Moshe Safdie, Architect (interview)". Queen's Quarterly 115 (2): 199–219. ISSN 0033-6041.
Comments
Post a Comment