Unité d'Habitation

This guide to the Unite d'Habitation in Marseille opens on the building's ribbon-cutting on 14 October 1952, when 337 front doors opened at once and a brass band played on the rooftop. It traces architect Le Corbusier's design, from the interior shopping street with its bakery and bookshop to Charlotte Perriand's kitchens and the rooftop kindergarten by its paddling pool. Marseillais nicknamed the whole building the Maison du Fada, the madman's house, a label that mocked the entire idea and not just the concrete.