Unité d'Habitation

This architectural object is inspired by the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, Le Corbusier's visionary vertical city — a massive concrete vessel containing 337 apartments, internal "streets," shops, and a rooftop terrace that reimagined high-density housing as a self-contained community.

Completed in 1952 to address France's post-war housing crisis, the Unité d'Habitation (also called La Cité Radieuse — The Radiant City) demonstrated that collective living could provide spacious, comfortable homes whilst fostering social life. These qualities make it especially compelling when interpreted as a physical architectural object.

Read the full Unité d'Habitation architecture guide

Read the Le Corbusier architect guide

 

A vertical community, distilled into form

 

Built between 1947 and 1952, the Unité d'Habitation is defined by its monumental proportions (135 metres long, 56 metres high), its elevation on massive pilotis, and its rhythmic façade grid of colourful loggias set within raw concrete. Le Corbusier conceived it as a prototype for urban housing — a "vertical garden city" containing everything residents needed for daily life.

This architectural model focuses on the southern façade:

• the building raised dramatically above the ground on pilotis
• the rhythmic grid of recessed loggias and windows
• the powerful sculptural massing and béton brut surfaces

By capturing the building's relationship between massive structure and modular grid, the object allows Le Corbusier's vision of collective housing to be experienced at architectural scale.

Why the Unité d'Habitation works as an architectural model

 

The Unité d'Habitation translates particularly well into object form because its design is driven by:

• clear geometric form
• the dramatic contrast between floating horizontal bar and chunky supporting pilotis
• rhythmic façade grid based on the Modulor system

At reduced scale, these principles remain powerfully legible. The model becomes a study in how Le Corbusier used reinforced concrete to create urban infrastructure — housing as vertical city, architecture as social programme.

Rather than functioning as a miniature replica, this object captures the architectural essence of the Unité d'Habitation.

  

Craft, materials, and finish

 

Each Unité d'Habitation object is crafted with an emphasis on proportion and rhythm. The finish is intentionally understated, allowing the relationship between elevated mass and supporting structure to define the piece — echoing the way Le Corbusier used béton brut to create powerful architectural presence.

The result is an object that sits naturally within:

• architectural and design studios
• curated interiors
• spaces celebrating modernist architecture

It appeals to architects, designers, and those drawn to Brutalist architecture, social housing innovation, and Le Corbusier's vision of collective living.

 

An object shaped by social vision

 

The Unité d'Habitation represents Le Corbusier's most ambitious attempt to solve urban housing through architecture — demonstrating that high-density collective living could provide quality, dignity, and community. As an object, the building's radical social programme becomes tangible: housing as infrastructure, vertical city as prototype.

This piece offers a way to engage with Le Corbusier's revolutionary housing vision in a tactile, enduring form.

 

Product details

 

• Subject: Unité d'Habitation (La Cité Radieuse), Marseille, France
• Architect: Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret)
• Design team: Shadrach Woods, George Candilis, André Wogenscky
• Architectural style: Brutalism / Modernism
• Original completion: 1952 (construction 1947–52)
• Designed and made by: Chisel & Mouse

 

Learn more about the Unité d'Habitation

 

For a detailed exploration of the building's design, innovative duplex apartments, interior "streets," rooftop facilities, and profound influence on twentieth-century housing, see our in-depth guide:

Unité d'Habitation Architecture: Le Corbusier's Vertical City

To explore Le Corbusier's life, architectural philosophy, and other major works including the Villa Savoye and Notre-Dame du Haut, visit:

Le Corbusier: Architect of the Machine Age

Unite d’Habitation (Marseille) : Le Corbusier
Copyright : © F.L.C. / DACS 2021