Radiant City

Architecture is for people.
That’s a pretty obvious statement, but it’s also worth being reminded of every now and then as we come across buildings that really aren’t done with much thought for the people that will use them.

This recent piece by the always fantastic Wallpaper magazine looks at the idea of architecture for the people through the eyes of the residents of one Le Corbusier’s buildings - the Cite Radieuse in Marseille, France.
The apartment block, with 337 apartments of 23 different typologies was completed in 1952 and exhibits many of the architecutral philosophies Le Ocrbusier was known for.

Rather than seeing the whole building as a statement from the outside, we’re seeing individual apartments as a reflection of their owners and the lives they live inside the building. It’s a different view and one that shows how an architect designed for the people and then the people design for themselves.
It’s architecture as a foundation for building on, evolving and growing with people and time.

As usual, we fell down a rabbit hole exploring this project and landed at the Le Corbusier Foundations Unrealized Projects page. Radiant City is one building of a much larger concept that was never built, but that is worth reading up on.
Have fun.

The Wallpaper piece.

Unrealized Projects.