‘Cité Radieuse’ of Le Corbusier

A ‘must-see’ of Marseille

A new housing unit system

This building is the work of the Swiss architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier. It is the first of five ‘Unité d’Habitation’ and was built between 1947 and 1952.

This vertical garden city is a set of individual apartments mounted on stilts and built as a collective structure. It was designed as a proof of concept for a new housing system. The ‘Cité radieuse’ accommodates 337 apartments of 23 different types, all of which provided comfortable and modern accommodation for the time.

A unique concept

These individual spaces benefit from ‘housing extensions’ found inside the ‘cité radieuse’, designed to stimulate a new experience of collective housing with:

An indoor high street with a bookshop and a publishing house Imbernon, a bar and restaurant: Le Ventre de l’Architecte, a hotel: Le Corbusier, a Design Concept Store: the 318 and a Tea Room “l’Archi Gourmand“.

Residents can also benefit from a communal roof-top area comprising a primary school, a gym converted into MaMo (Contemporary Art Centre) since June 2013 and led by the designer Ora-Ïto, and a running track.
Around the complex, a huge 2.8 hectares park is open all year round.

UNESCO World Heritage sites in Provence

Provence is one of the richest regions in France in terms of culture and history. 36,000 years separate the Chauvet Cave and the Cité Radieuse of Le Corbusier, but only 150 km!

UNESCO World Heritage sites such as the ‘Cité radieuse’, the Roman theatre and the ‘Arc de Triomphe’ in Orange, the Historic Centre of Avignon (with the ‘Palais des Papes’, the ‘Pont Saint Bezenet’, the ramparts, Notre Dame Basilica and the Doms garden, the ‘Petit Palais’ Museum), the ‘Pont du Gard’, the Roman and Romanesque Monuments in Arles and the Abbatial Church of Saint Gilles all decided to promote their cultural heritage together to French and foreign customers.

Watch the movie from the UNESCO sites in Provence