UNITÉ

D‘HABITATION
An Analysis of Architectural Systems
CONTENTS

01. The Arcitectural Systems 05. Enclosure System

Definitions An analysis of Enclosure System

02. The Unité d‘habitation 06. Circulation System

Background information An analysis of Unité d‘habitation
of the structure Circulation System

03. Spatial System 07. Context

An analysis of Unité d‘habitation An analysis of Unité d‘habitation Context
Spatial System

04. Structural System

An analysis of Unité d‘habitation
Structural System
The Architectural
Systems
The Architecture of Space, Structure,
Enclosure

Experienced through Movement in Space-

Time

Achieved by means of Technology

Accommodating a Program

Compatible with its Context

-F.D.K. Ching
 UNITÉ D‘HABITATION
• Located in Marseille, France
• Designed by Le Corbusier
• Multi-family residential housing project
 First to
approach such
a large
complex to
accommodate
roughly 1,600
residents

Designed the community that one would

encounter in a neighborhood within a
mixed use, modernist, residential high
rise.
• Completed in
1952
• Was the first of
a new housing
project series
for Le Corbusier
that focused on
communal
living for all the
inhabitants to
shop, play, live,
and come
together in a
“vertical garden
 SPATIAL
SYSTEM
The integration of program
elements and spaces that
brings multiple functions
and integrations of a
structure.

“Space within a space.”

 Some apartments
Comprised of an
occupy the same
architectural unit
floor as the
suitable for
corridor and one
individual persons
below, others the
or urban centres.
corridor and one
above.

It allowed for an
internal
functioning of
more than 26
independent
services. Each
floor contains 58
duplex
• The living room =
height of both floors

• 4.8 metres with a

large floor to ceiling
window of 3.66 x 4.8
metres
 The height of the modules are restricted to 2.3 each
floor, which is the length of the Modulor Man standing
with his one hand raised.
• Interlockin
g

• Central
access
corridor

• Maximum
space
• Shopping Streets

• Rooftop

• This created spaces for the residents to use

and socialise together.
STRUCTURAL
SYSTEM
The system that holds
together the components
of a structure to provide
stability and durability.
Unite d’ Habitation is an
18-storey slab block
structure which houses
1600 people.

It is 140m long, 24m

wide and 56m tall.

Required a strong
structural system.
 • Based on one
block, raised on
free-standing

• Reinforced
concrete structure
acting like a shelf
over the top.

The 337 apartments

cross one another in
the huge reinforced
concrete
framework.
• Allows for a great
permeability at
ground level
• Usage of béton-
brut concrete

• This prevented
the need for a
steel frame
• Employed with
strict grid system
which made the
partition walls
load-bearing,
releasing the
facades, and thick
sound-proofing
from lead sheets
are provided.
 • Disclosed structural core

• Independent concrete structures

ENCLOSURE
SYSTEM
Determines a space by the
form around a building.
Includes planes that
bounds a space to create
volume.
 • Used glass, steel
and concrete

• These materials
were used for the
facade of the
buildings, external
support and also
the floors and
interior support
 
 • The walls of the
apartments and
balconies of Unite
were precast
concrete which
were slotted in.

• Usage of large
panel system
 
CIRCULATION
SYSTEM
Determines the approach
and entry, path
configuration and access
of a structure.

“Circulation: movement
through space.”
 One of the
benefits afforded
by Le Corbusier
high-density,
industrial, urban
society is that it
freed up ground
space for trees
and bushes which
would create a
peaceful
landscape as
opposed to the
 • Corridors run
through the
center of the
long axis of
every third floor
of the building

• The corridors on
every third floor
allows access to
each flat, like a
jigsaw
 On the east side is
another L- winding
step from the ground
floor to the near half
floor of the building.

The apartments in
the building all
have two floors
with their own
internal staircase.
 CONTEXT
Concerns the site and
environment where the
structure is built. Overall,
it talks about the sensory
and cultural
characteristics of the
place.
 Most
influential  The rooms
Brutalist in the
building of all building are
time. given a
Mediterranea
Mediterranean
n weather.
climate.

Winter, spring
and summer is
experienced in
the area.
 Self-contained
concrete vessel

"The Radiant City"

Unité aims to "provide
with silence and
solitude before the sun,
space and greenery, a
dwelling which will be
the perfect receptacle
for the family", and to
"set up, in God's good
nature, under the sky
and in the sun, a
magisterial work of
architecture, the
product of rigour,
grandeur, nobility,
Located at the heart of
a large park.

Rises over the

surrounding treetops
with its base raised up
on pilotis and its two
main elevations facing
east and west.
 
"The Unité d'Habitation
is an incredibly powerful
sculpture, and the
feeling of living inside a
work of art is a daily
reality," said Jean-Marc
 “Architectural order is created when the
organization of parts makes visible their
relationships to each other and the
structure as a whole.”
-F.D.K. Ching

REFERENCES:
Architecture: Form, Space and Order by FDKChing
https://edoc.site/unite-d-habitation-2-pdf-free.html?
fbclid=IwAR3XTVt3_Lgl2n5G8871FghA0d1BQKNIThtntMD__dMbWc2a3OL
GOWBtRq8
http://architectuul.com/architecture/l-unite-d-habitation-marseille?
fbclid=IwAR0ihUEXY_90YR27CfXfSWw8E1lFHbI311zfW4UGpLpQSkjY7Rjs4
sS4iXc
https://www.archdaily.com/85971/ad-classics-unite-d-habitation-
lecorbusier?
fbclid=IwAR124XvsPGx9c9gWn8iuaJWLGZ0xQPJCTO30sIuLdTIgonP_jEkUp