If there is one building by Le Corbusier that represents a synthesis

of his basic concepts it is certainly the Unité d'habitation built

in Marseille in 1946-52. This built manifesto does not simply put

forward a social model as a utopia, but also the unity of architecture

and town planning. It is one of the most significant buildings

there has even been, but it also triggered a great deal of controversy.

The story of the response to it has been recorded in order

to investigate why this extremely ambitious project in particular

should have caused such a conflict between intention and effect.

The Unité d'habitation in Marseille is now very popular with the

people who live in it as a building. Despite all the criticism, it obviously

still offers functional advantages that make it easier for individuals

and the community to live together. The enormous sculptural

force and the characteristic interplay of light and colour

shown in the photographs make the building into a 'personality'

that can be identified with.

As well as this, the building also offers something special in

terms of concrete spatial experience. In the age of a superficial

'adventure society' it claims the intensity of an everyday experience

that is both casual and at the same time complex, embracing

all the senses. This extends from the reception in the imposing foyer

to the 'theatre' of figures on the roof terrace in the light of the

landscape, from the inverted urban scenery of the promenade

publique to twilight seclusion in the silent residential streets. And it

includes the flats themselves, which open up expansively to draw

in the sea and mountain mood. Le Corbusier used his architectural

resources atmospherically and scenically to give the Unité d'habitation

a succinct coherence that also forms the basis for individual

lives within its rooms and spaces. Precise observation and description

reveal the mechanisms of these effects.

All three authors are qualified architects. Alban Janson is professor

of the fundamentals of architecture at Karlsruhe University, Carsten

Krohn lives and works as an author in Berlin, and Anja Grunwald

teaches architectural photography at Karlsruhe University.