Cité Radieuse (Unité d'Habitation)

The Cité Radieuse, also called the Unité d'Habitation de Marseille, stands at 280 Boulevard Michelet in Marseille's 8th arrondissement, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. Designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and built between 1947 and 1952, it was the first of his Unités d'Habitation and a response to the housing crisis in France after the Second World War. The building is a 56-metre-long concrete block of 12 storeys, raised on massive pilotis, and holds 337 duplex apartments arranged along internal corridors, known as streets, that appear every third floor. The apartments are designed with double-height living rooms and narrow balconies, and the proportions follow Le Corbusier's Modulor system of measurement based on the human body. The building includes shared services intended to support collective living, including a shopping street at mid-height, a hotel, a nursery and a rooftop terrace with a paddling pool, running track and a gymnasium, along with a small open-air theatre. Raw concrete, béton brut, is left exposed, with colourful panels on the loggias. The scheme was controversial at its time, with the local press calling it La Maison du Fada, but it influenced social housing worldwide and the building forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the architectural work of Le Corbusier. It remains a residential building, so visitors see the public areas rather than a museum. A guided visit is the usual way to understand the design, and the rooftop offers views toward the sea and the hills. The building has been renovated in stages, with conservation work on the concrete and the restoration of a model apartment, and it remains in active use. Because residents live there, visits must be quiet and respectful, and the interior is only open at set times. The site suits architecture enthusiasts and anyone interested in 20th-century social ideas, and it is located south of the centre, reached by metro and bus.