Le Corbusier’s Unité d'habitation Illustrated Art Print

After illustrating several Brutalist buildings, I thought it was about time I did one of the 'grand master' of the Brutalist- modernist movement, Le Corbusier.

Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation is arguably the most influential Brutalist building of all time. With its human proportions, chunky pilotis and interior "streets", it redefined high-density housing by reimagining a city inside an 18-storey slab block. Completed in 1952, Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseille has been blamed for launching a thousand brutalist concrete apartment blocks around the world. (including the mammoth Kanchenjunga tower in Bombay)

The Unite d’ Habitation 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 city.” Le Corbusier believed the tower block was the solution for rehousing the masses that had been displaced during the second world war, and that high rise building could be used to create spacious city homes with the same amenities as a typical street.
 
What is Brutalism?

Brutalism, or New Brutalism as it was sometimes referred to, has its roots in modernism but emerged as a movement against the architectural mainstream. It placed an emphasis on materials, textures and construction as well as functionality and equality. 

There has been a shift in attitude towards the architectural style of Brutalism – buildings once dismissed as ugly have now found themselves the objects of new found affection. People are coming out in support for some of the world’s most iconic buildings – voices louder and prouder than ever.