Le Corbusier

On page 159 of this book there is a charming photograph that looks like a holiday snap, showing a group of young children splashing around in a paddling pool, with mountains in the background, The children are actually high in the air, on the roof of the Unité d’Habitation, Marseilles (1946‐52), which contains 337 apartments and five “internal streets”. The roof deck is the size of a stadium, and evidently features a gymnasium, an outdoor theatre, a nursery school, and a 300‐metre running track. Kenneth Frampton calls it “a full incarnation of the communal”, and compares it to an ancient...