Urban Design: Le Corbusier's radiant city.

  

Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier, or Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, was an architect, painter, designer, urban planner and writer. He was the born in Switzerland and is one of the pioneers of today's modern architecture. 

 Le Corbusier's Radiant city

   The radiant city is an unrealised masterplan of Le Corbusier's. It was first presented in 1924 and published in a book in 1933. It was designed with an abundance of green space and sunlight, with effective means of transportation. This city of the future would provide for a better lifestyle as well as better society. Although radical, strict and nearly totalitarian in its order, symmetry and standardisation, these principles have influenced greatly on modern urban planning, leading to high density housing typologies.

   Similar to modernist ideals of progression, which encouraged the annihilation of traditions, the Radiant city was thus to emerge from tabula rasa, meaning a blank slate. The intended city would contain identical, prefabricated skyscrapers, spread out across a vast area in a Cartesian grid. This would allow the city to function as a living machine. 

Layout plan of The Radiant City

   Le Corbusier's plan was segregated into commercial, business, entertainment and residential areas. The center of the plan contained the business district, and contained massive skyscrapers, each attaining the height of 200 meters. They could accommodate 500 000 to 800 000 people. The main transport system in the center of the civic district transport citizens via vast underground systems of trains.

   Corbusier planned the housing districts to have accommodations called "Unités". A single Unité towers tp 50m and could house up to 2700 people. Facilities were easily accessible in the Unité, whereby there were catering and laundry services on the ground floor and pools on the roofs, making it convenient for residents. Public parks were placed between each Unité, allowing residents to have a wide range of recreational activities.