Unité d'Habitation

A 1952 vertical-village housing block in Marseille combining dwellings, shops, shared facilities, and a communal roof.

Pilotis open the ground, shared and commercial uses occupy intermediate levels, and childcare and recreation sit on the roof.

Modulor proportions and brise-soleil give the facade its rhythm.

Built amid the postwar housing crisis, it became an influential and controversial collective-housing prototype.

Early Brutalism

Architect Le Corbusier