Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille is, as I have mentioned before, one of the most important and influential multi-family buildings of the 20th century. As an architecture student, this is one of those buildings that you get indoctrinated with, so I was excited to visit it for the first time with Neat B in 2022 on what was our second visit to Marseille. We're big fans of the city. Here is the post I wrote following that visit.
Today, let's look at one of the actual suites, which is currently listed for sale through Architecture de Collection. But first, a reminder: The complex was originally constructed between 1948-1952 and was meant to serve as a new housing model for post-war France. In 2016, the building was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, today, you'll sometimes find things like a Chanel fashion show taking place on its rooftop.
The suite that is for sale is Type E, which is about 100 m2. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. A balcony. And a view of the Mediterranean. It is listed for 650 000 €, which works out 6,500 € per square meter. For Toronto readers, this is right now the equivalent of C$965,485 or about C$897 per square foot. The monthly copropriété charge is about 300 € and the annual property taxes are about 2000 €.
Does this seem reasonable or expensive to you?
For more info, click here.
Photo by Louis Charron on Unsplash
One of the most extraordinary things about Salt Lake City is that you can land at its airport and then, in 20-30 minutes, you're in the mountains looking at landscapes like this:
By my estimation, this makes it the most accessible big city and mountain town combination in North America.
Historically though, Salt Lake City hasn't really been known for modern architecture. There is, of course, one glaring exception and that is the work of architect John Sugden.
Sugden was originally from Chicago, had trained under Mies van der Rohe, and is credited with bringing a similar kind of International Style to Utah.
The house pictured above is one of Sugden's projects.
I'm not sure when it was originally built, but it was meticulously renovated by Brent Jespersen, and featured in Dwell magazine back in 2009. If you'd like to take a closer look, click here. (It is again being renovated right now.)
When I was researching who in Salt Lake City and Park City was building cool stuff, Brent's name immediately came up. So I appreciate him taking the time to tour me through some of his projects this evening. Thank you, Brent.
What is now clear to me is that this whole not being known for modern architecture thing is quickly going away.
Witold Rybczynski and I clearly do not have the same taste in architecture. But he raises an interesting point about the relationship between architecture and art in this recent post. Here's an excerpt:
In the name of renouncing the past—and denouncing anything that smacks of decoration—modernism has largely done away with art, the lonely Henry Moore stranded on a plaza, notwithstanding. The problem is that when you strip away figural and allegorical ornament, what is left are mute building materials, mechanical-looking details, and abstract space.
There is a long-standing tradition of integrating art, and other ornament, into architecture. But modernism viewed this sort of decoration as being superfluous. It wasn't functionally necessary and so why include it?
This has led us to today where there is a joke that investing in public art means investing in some sort of add-on that sits outside of your building and that can be classified as art. Perhaps something by Henry Moore.
The result, Witold argues, is that we have lost something critically important in our buildings: meaning.
But is allegorical ornament really all that different from a freestanding art piece? Don't both tell a story? And don't they both get applied, in a way, to a building that could surely continue on without it?
At the same time, what is meaningful art? Does it need to include bas-relief and/or figural representations? Or could it be a signed urinal on a pedestal in the lobby with an accompanying digital NFT?
There's no question that buildings need meaning. We all crave stories. But sometimes they communicate in different ways.
Photo by David Vives on Unsplash