The first time I heard about this famous building was in architecture class in Berlin where we discussed the works of Le Corbusier and its impact on the designs of the International Building Exhibition of 1957 and 1987, both of which were hosted in Berlin.
Although the Unité was intended to be a model unit to be mass-produced in a post-modernist city with spacious parks and towering skyscrapers, only five of these were ever built. Apart from the one in Marseille, they were also built in Berlin, Nantes, Briey, and Firminy-Vert. Le Corbu’s design and layout of the architecture attempts to address the important balance between efficient living spaces, quality of the living space, and interactions in the community.
Starting from 9am most days of the week, visitors are welcome to register at the security office and visit the interior of the building. Although you are only permitted to visit the two commercial floors in the middle of the building, I found a way to sneak in to the other floors via the staircase. The building mainly consists of bland corridors with colourful interiors in shops and restaurants.
On the two commercial floors, there is quite a bit of play on geometry at the window panes to create a more interesting space, but it seems to have no effect on lighting.
