• 
• Arles line
  • • A stroll through antiquity
• PAix en Provence line     
  • • Around the pavillon Noir
  • • Around the cités universitaires
  
  MARTIGUES line
  • • The modern provencal Venice
• Marseille line
  • • MUCEM / Vieux Port
  • • Villa Méditerranée / les Docks   
  • • FRAC / Silo
  • • round the Friche
  • • Chateau Borely / MAC

Rio, Nice, Barcelona? Nope! Marseille! This is where the city takes on a more playful, relaxing allure, where the seaside is less industrial, and nature, omnipresent! The Southern districts maintain that "Marseille way of life", that of beaches, seaside sheds, gorgeous bastides - and luxury residences! It is, after all, where Le Corbusier decided to build his utopia.

La Cité Radieuse, a Reference for the Ages

This new model of urban living, integrating residences and services under one roof, represents not only the XXth century's most important building in Marseille, but also in France, and is its architect's most moving manifesto of the last century. Its designer, who was nicknamed "le fada" (the nutcase) by the local population, wrote of his creation: "amid this veritable technical battle, one must not lose site of the objectives: firstly, to provide, amid silence, solitude, greenery and sunlight, a residence that serves as the perfect receptacle for a family; second, to erect, amidst God's nature, under the sky and the sun, a masterful architectural work, incorporating rigor, grandeur, greatness, elegance and playfulness." By its sculptural character, the textures of its exposed concrete facades, its polychromatic loggias, its scale and dimensions (137 meters in length, 24 meters in depth and 52 meters in height), its diagonal placement vis-à-vis the avenue, the construction makes its strong presence known on the site. The Unité d'Habitation expresses in its slightest details this sensation of effort and performance in the arena of collective urban habitat. Far from being a "machine to live in" this cult building is more like an emotion-generating apparatus, as expressed in the rooftop's "magnificent play of masses" (to quote Le Corbusier himself), erected against the Homeric backdrop of the Mediterranean. The entirety of the building is open to the public, notable the third floor (the commercial floor), the rooftop terrace and apartments 50 and 643.

The building was classified Patrimoine du XXème Siècle (the French “20th Century Heritage” designation), designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and has been designated a Historical Monument on June 20, 1986.

Architect :
Le Corbusier

Year : 1952

Type :housing

Address : 280, boulevard michelet
13008 Marseille

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