Unité d'habitation in Firminy-Vert, Modern residential building in Firminy, France
The Unité d'Habitation in Firminy-Vert is a concrete residential building holding 414 apartments spread across 20 floors that stretches about 130 meters long. Inside, seven interior streets connect the apartments and let people move through the building like in a small neighborhood.
Construction started in 1965 with Le Corbusier overseeing the work, but after his death that same year, architect André Wogenscky completed the building in 1967. It became a final expression of Le Corbusier's ideas about living in cities.
The building shows Le Corbusier's idea of vertical city living, where apartments, school spaces, and community areas blend together. You can still see this mix of private and shared life in how people use the building today.
The building rests on thick concrete pillars that create a generous space underneath, used as a parking area where visitors can walk through. This arrangement lets you see the structure and construction details up close as you move below the building.
The outer walls feature red and blue color accents within the loggias, brightening the gray concrete and adding a playful character to the facade. These colors were part of Le Corbusier's belief that even homes for working people should be pleasant to look at.
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