Explores Le Corbusier's Unite d'habitation - or Housing Unit - in Berlin, covering the history and construction of the building, as well as the creative impact that the house had on the city of Berlin itself.
Le Corbusier's Unite d'habitation in Berlin (built 1957-58) stands as an exceptional monument within Berlin's post-war architecture. The gigantic building with 530 apartments follows the basic ideas of a 'vertical village' as envisioned by the architect. However, modifications according to German by-laws led to an outsider position within his oeuvre.
This volume explores the exceptional house through multiple perspectives, hereby gathering authors from the fields of architecture, urbanism, art history and cultural studies. For the first time a precise research into the history and construction is given at length, complemented by various design and urbanist contexts and discourses. These include the origin and development of the split-level apartment block itself, a comparison with the four related buildings of the typology Unite d'habitation in France, and Le Corbusier's colour concept 'Polychromy'. Looking at the meaning, imagination and creative impact of his unique realisation in Berlin, Le Corbusier: Unite d'habitation 'Typ Berlin' fills a void within the literature on post-war modernism and Le Corbusier's complete works.
