Building Abstracted
The final project of this class was to create a model confined to a plexiglass box with dimensions of 11” x 11” x 20” that abstractly represented an assigned building. The Unité d’habitation was Le Corbusier’s vision for communal living. Complete with commercial, residential and recreational spaces. Corbusier integrated the suburban neighborhood into a concise and functional building capable of housing 337 units, or families. As the urban phenomena began to impact modern society, suburbs were the living situations of the future. Analyzing the key concepts that make the building successful and unique, the interlocking nature of the housing units and means of circulation create the notion of a condensed urban suburb.
As opposed to gluing the plexiglass surfaces edge to edge, by creating an interlocking joinery, the enclosure itself stays true to the notion of the many apartment units fitting together to create one united piece. One piece of wood was used and cut down into individual strips to illustrate the idea that from one comes many, and the concept of the suburban neighborhood being reconfigured and organized into a condensed, yet efficient means of unitized living. Suburban homes are represent as wooden “L’s,” and as they implode from the urban block (etched on to one face of the enclosure) they begin to interlock with eachother to form one collective housing entity (as seen in the section of the Unité d’habitation on the opposing face).
