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WOHNEN • LIVING INNERE WERTE • INNER VALUES

Die zweigeschossige Loggia bringt besonders viel Tageslicht ... • The loggia allows particularly ample daylight ... ... in die Räume und bietet weite Blicke über Berlin. • ... into the rooms and offers a wide view.
I n the family of the Unités d’Habitation, the Corbusierhaus Berlin is more of a duplex. Through dialogue, the idea was born to design a duplex which is not neces-
distant relative. While, starting in 1947 and in Marseille, Firminy and Nantes, Le
sarily developed by Le Corbusier but not against him either. The spatial arrangement
Corbusier had been able to implement in the Unités the programme of his Five Points of the existing structure is characterized by the slender cells accessed from the “inter-
regarding a new kind of architecture – please note the original title “Vers une nal streets” with a length of 130 metres and a width of three metres. From the
Architecture”, hence “Towards an Architecture” –, the Berlin project was in parts a entrance level – either oriented towards the east or the west – above or below it, one
great success, in parts a thwarted theory. The Internationale Bauausstellung 1957 arrives at the inserted room with a dimension of four by 19.6 metres. An interesting
brought together the protagonists of modernism from Aalto to Gropius to Niemeyer and extreme feature which, from our point of view, could only be made manifest in
with their buildings in the Hansa District of Berlin-Mitte. Le Corbusier was not to be terms of Le Corbusier by being treated as a room. To save space, we arranged the
left out yet his vision of living in the modern age was associated with the Unité necessary sanitary- and storage rooms along the central shafts. The layout could be
d’Habitation. The concept was grand and thus the building deemed to be too large called a loft yet also connects with Le Corbusier’s Five Points. An open floor plan pro-
was assigned a vacant lot near the Olympic stadium. Housing development at the vides flowing transitions for the functions living, working and sleeping. The issue of
time of the reconstruction was not only an expression of a kind of modernism which privacy for us as the parents is solved with room-dividing sliding doors. Our son’s
wanted to stand out from national architectures. Housing development was also the alcove is perhaps the smallest but certainly also the most intimate child’s room.
economical generating of living space. The variant of the Unité became part of this
balancing act of necessities. While the large shape as well as the façade resemble the Selecting colours and materials in dialogue with Le Corbusier
French originals, they differed in the public uses on offer – in Berlin, there was no
school, no community area, no restaurant; the implementation of the Plan Libre, of The materials and the colourfulness of the upgrade are inspired by natural and haptic
room-spanning levels all the way to the Modulor (scale of proportions) were omitted. surfaces. Uni Walton linoleum for the flooring, Le Corbusier colours for the walls,
Just to mention in passing: shortly after its completion, Le Corbusier distanced himself MDF for the kitchen and shelves and oak wood from one trunk for the table and the
from the project. stairs. Béton brut was never there and is deliberately not producible. But the haptics
of the materials might possibly still remind of the directness and the unexpectedness
Adaption of the given of the buildings by Le Corbusier. After being banished in the 1950s, the Modulor was
allowed to move in with us, at least in the proportions of the shelves which are
So then a civil engineer and an architect were confronted with this exciting conflict defence walls at the same time – a subtle reminiscence to what might have been pos-
when they intended to design their a pied à terre in Berlin. For me and my wife, Le sible. The joint design process took place in the area of tension between the (at times
Corbusier is dominant in the training and in the actual profession. The task thus was overbearing) monument-protection authorities or the Freudian Übervater Le
to handle the historic context and the banality of the interiors in an existing ordinary Corbusier and the implementation of our own and original approach to contemporary
3-room duplex in a “Le Corbusier”. Recourse to the history turned out not to be con- living. Together with our eight-year-old son, we joyfully adapted the Berlin home as
ducive since there was nothing still to be felt of the spirit of Le Corbusier inside the “ours” in the larger context.

Grundrisse • Floor Plans Längsschnitte • Longitudinal sections

180 • AIT 7/8.2017