The foundation Le Corbusier; The architecture by Le Corbusier

“A Holga Camera’s view of Le Corbusier”

Many people have asked me about the photographs I took when I visited “La Cité Radieuse” in Marseille in France. Why did you take photographs with a plastic camera?, the HOLGA camera? Well, it’s amusing and you never know what you will get before the negatives are developed. It’s difficult to master the photography

I mostly tell people that in contrast to the great art by Le Corbusier. I wanted to take a few pictures without any specialized equipment and any distinguished technique you use to take outstanding architectural pictures. Very quick snapshots and the angles of the building looses the straightness with this type of camera, because of the lens, which deforms the angles and make them a bit round.

Here’s a little background to the project of the Cité Radieuse and I quote:

J. Sbriglio, architect & member of Le Corbusier Foundation.

The idea to build the Cité Radieuse is the result of a research program that Le Corbusier oversaw for almost twenty-five years. The aim was to find a new architectural response to the problem of collective housing at a time when France was experiencing a severe housing shortage.
According to Le Corbusier, the Unité d’Habitation creates a social space in which the individual and the collective are equally balanced. The central idea of the model remains simple: it’s to build on artificial grounds individual flats that are placed within the logic of a collective structure. The building itself stands on stilts. The way in which the Unité is organized and the integrated services it offers are meant to enrich social life in the building. By doing so, Le Corbusier invents a town object that transcends the ordinary functions of housing.
While hovering between theoretical grandeur and experimental design, Le Corbusier makes use of industrial management practices introduced during the two World Wars.

Some of my pictures of this “monumental” creation by Le Corbusier.