I fulfilled an ambition to visit Le Corbusier’s « Radiant City » yesterday. It has 327 apartments along with a school, shops, pool and exercise track, visitor accommodation. It was meant to be a community. Construction started just after the war in 1947 and the first tenants, for it was social housing, moved in in 1952.
To say it was innovative doesn’t really do it justice. Techniques introduced by Le Corbusier included modular design and construction, open plan kitchens and duplex apartments. The facilities included central heating, double glazing, gas cooking and indoor sanitation. For example, the 3 bedroom apartment we saw, designed for a family with 4 children, had a parental bathroom with bath, a separate shower, separate toilet and sinks for each of the two children’s bedrooms. I remember, by contrast, my grand-mother’s home of that era was a brick-built Victorian row house heated by a single coal fire, with tiny single glazed windows and an outside toilet.
It is still occupied and you can buy an apartment there quite cheaply, about 3500€/m² (compared to upto 6000 €/m² in the fancy area near the port. Service charges are high though,about 400 €/month, though you get the communal pool and other facilities, as well as a considerable amount of cool to boast about.
Loved the colors too, though I was told they weren’t part of the architects original plan. The walls were painted to disguise the poor quality of the concrete finish !
Fascinating piece of history - although the outside of the building is not particularly attractive (for me). An interesting visit, I'll bet, though. I love the people in the image - gives it a sense of scale.
