Immeuble Clarté 1931

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Immeuble Clarté, which is an apartment building with some professional offices. Public areas of this building are visitable. The Immeuble Clarté was Le Corbusier's first commission for a multiple dwelling and consequently, an experimental attempt to realize some of the housing principles from both his initial and emerging city schemes within the context of a preexisting urban fabric. The organization of the apartments along a horizontal slab conforms to the precepts and aesthetic of a Radiant City. The procession through the building moves from the shadowed lobby, with its classically placed columns, toward the essential joy of light to be found at the top of the skylit stairwell and in the apartments. Access to the apartments from a central interior corridor allows the units on both sides of the building to face uninterruptedly onto the balconies. The client for the Immeuble Clarté, the metals manufacturer Edmond Wanner, encouraged Le Corbusier to think in terms of standardization and prefabrication. Clarté is the first building in which Le Corbusier used a structural steel frame.