A Study on the Design Characteristics and the Origin of Three-story Section in the Unite d'Habitation at Marseilles

마르세이유 거대 주거동의 건축설계 특성(特性)과 단면 3층 단위체 기원(起源)에 관한 연구(硏究)

The Unite d'Habitation at Marseilles was an experimental project that Le Corbusier had been waiting for since 1920s in order to explore his ideals and visions in mass housing and city planning. As a leader of the first generation members in CIAM, Le Corbusier tried to give a new form and an order to the Unite d'Habitation at Marseilles in both building design and city planning level. The purpose of this research is to investigate the design characteristics of the Unite d'Habitation at Marseilles in three different levels of built environment with a particular emphasis on the process through which an original form is derived from its contextual settings. In the level of city planning, Le Corbusier aimed to reshape traditional low-rise urban housing by deploying several Unites spaciously. Le Corbusier believed that the spacious deployment of Unites would bring us both the functional economy in the city and the natural amenity in the suburbs. As Unite d'Habitation would be called frequently as vertical garden city, the influence of suburban garden city on Unite d'Habitation is apparent. In the building level, the binomial harmony of individual-collectivity was pursued by providing three different public floors and by combining 23 different family unit types in the Unite d'Habitation at Marseilles. In order to visualize the concept of object-type, family units were prefabricated and inserted into the structural frame of the Unite d'Habitation at Marseilles. Two family units are combined to make a three-story section with street corridor in the middle. This three-story section unit is very original as it has access corridor every third floor and each unit could have considerable depth with the help of the living space of two story height. In consideration of formal and plan similarity as well as contextual edivdence, it is concluded that the three-story section of the Unite d'Habitation is derived more from Narkomfin Apartments than from the monastery at Ema or Immuble Villas.