50 years after the first Unité, this model seems already belonging to another era. The strong separation between the building and its surroundings, the sensation of living in an all-artificial environment, and an almost complete identification of the Unité d’Habitation with social housing have made this model quite undesirable. The destiny of the millions of [...]
Archive for the ‘1 – spaces’ Category
The rise and fall of the “Unité d’Habitation” – 1/7
Posted in 1 - spaces, 1.1 - housing, 1.2 - workplaces, 1.4 - public spaces, D - reflections, E - Reportages, tagged housing, le corbusier, ships, streets on February 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
SS Empress of britain, pre-1924 (image: wikimedia commons). In the beginning of the XX century, steamships were crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Each one of them could carry 2000 passengers for a 15-days trip between Europe and America, and in these days it became for them a sort of new house. MS Kungsholm, entrance to 1st [...]
Architecture and complexity
Posted in 1 - spaces, 1.1 - housing, C - Tips, D - reflections, tagged housing, procedure, reflections, tips, urbanism on January 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One of the things that create a great built environment is complexity. When facing big projects, most of the architects have tried to recreate a complexity in their buildings, with a big effort and not very satisfying results. Moshe Safdie, Habitat 67 (image: wikipedia) Frank Gehry, MIT Stata Center (image: wikipedia) Another option allows a [...]
The future of automobile infrastructure: Antonio Segni Bridge, Rome
Posted in 1 - spaces, 1.4 - public spaces, 2 - transports, 2.2 - cycling, 2.4 - cars, B - Trends, D - reflections, tagged highways, pedestrians, reflections, rome, streets, trends on December 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Usually, a highway is a mono-functional road, designed to carry cars from one place to another at a maximum speed. But, sometimes highways don’t carry so many cars as expected, and other uses start to appear. An example of the re-use of highways was the Antonio Segni Bridge in Northern Rome, the east-west road in [...]



