Le Corbusier built an amazing set of buildings called the Cité Radieuse which is a must visit in Marseille.

Creative and avant-garde

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Cité radieuse – Le Corbusier is a must to visit exclusively with the Metropolitan Office of Tourism and Conventions. Indeed, this Housing Unit has everything to surprise you. It’s a real concept, playing with lights, perspectives, colors… Much more than a set of apartments, it’s an architectural work in its own right, creative and avant-garde. This new and modern building for the 20th century is above all in line with the desire of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) to offer daily well-being and comfort to all the inhabitants of the unit. Come and discover this essential place in Marseille: for young and old, the visit will delight everyone! A new housing system It is the work of the Swiss-born architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier. First Housing Unit (of a series of 5), it was built between 1947 and 1952.

A unique concept

This vertical garden city, a construction on stilts of a set of individual dwellings inserted into a collective structure, is designed as a laboratory for a new “housing system”. The Cité radieuse has 337 apartments, of 23 different types, which constitute as many comfortable and modern accommodations for the time. In addition to these individual spaces, there are numerous “extensions of the dwelling”, designed to stimulate a new practice of collective housing with, inside the Cité radieuse: An indoor shopping street, A bookstore and publishing house, Imbernon, a bar-restaurant: Le Ventre de l’Architecte, a hotel: Le Corbusier, a Design Concept Store: Le 318, a contemporary art gallery Le Kolektiv 313 and an “archi Gourmand” tea room. But the inhabitants also have on the roof terrace: a kindergarten and a gymnasium, which since June 2013 has become the MaMo (Contemporary Art Center) directed by the designer Ora-Ïto, a running track around the roof. And there is also a 2.8 hectare park around the housing unit open all year round. Le Corbusier Housing Unit (Radiant City) 280 Boulevard Michelet 13008 Marseille 8th