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Friday 19 March 2010

more corbu









ok, i can't help myself and am posting the other photos from the berlin unité now. hope you don't mind...

le corbusier designed his berlin version of the unité d'habitation for interbau 1957, an international, star-studded building competition in berlin. the building was erected between 1956 and 1958. sadly, due to building restrictions (and i bet a fair bit of ignorance on part of the german city clerks) the original design was quite substantially changed, so that le corbusier finally distanced himself from the project. one of the changes apparently was the ceiling height, which corbu had meant to be 2.26 m (based on his modulor), and which in the end was 2.50 m, due to fire safety regulations. do you think that sounds about right or might be an urban myth?

anyway, these are some shots i took when we walked around the building. it was a dismal afternoon, very grey and windy and cold. i think i may come back in spring or summer to see how different the play of light and shadow will make the building seem. and how different the colours will look.

happy weekend!

14 comments:

isabelle said...

beautiful shots!
i love the grain.

Mary said...

interesting to see the little differences between the different untié d'habitations.
love the second shot!

happy weeekend to you too!

et lille oejeblik - a little moment said...

your photos are fascinating.

i find it interesting how the architects of that time had these grand visions for democratic, modern housing projects, and yet so many of them fell through and lost popularity - wonder if it was because of the bureaucratic compromises, or because humans are hard to fit into theories of mass produced perfection...

Unknown said...

I love the 5th (interior) picture. And I always love the grain of your pictures, there's so much feeling in them.
Have a great Saturday!

P.K said...

Thank you for the Corbu photos. I did not know there was this complex in Berlin, where is it in the city?

Marion said...

I do love these also.
What a great idea for Cabrizette & Elisabelle.
I'm impatient to see the rooftop renovated.
Have a lovely week end dear !

Isabelle said...

great shots ... it reminds me a Corbusier building I visited in Marseille ...

kristina said...

I love these kristina - excellent!

Anonymous said...

Your blog ..... it's amazing and soooo inspiring as usual!

Agneta
Ps. I have an ongoing jewelry contest on my blog. Welcome! Ds

alexandria said...

The architecture and colours are so awesome!

PROVINS said...

Just had about his buildings in design history - such a lovely filossofy they are made from.. lovely colours!

Anne said...

I didn't know Le Corbusier had done housing projects in Germany. I recently saw a film about life nowadays inside one of his similar housing projects (in Rezé, France), it was most interesting.

Palmer and Co said...

LOVE, love, LOVE this building!

* said...

Love the colors, the lighting and stairs, too.

Yes, I would think the play of light in the summer would bring out the colors differently.

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