Paris city center

France > Radiant City > Paris city center

Site Coverage  
Parking Ratio
income group Mixed
Range Heights 5-15
basic project statistics
gross building area 342320
units 4000
population 16000
site area 160000 sq. m
coverage 19.00
parking 0
seniors 0
families w/ children 0
singles/couples 0
other 0
In the 1930s, Le Corbusier expanded and reformulated his ideas on urbanism, eventually publishing them in La Ville radieuse (The Radiant City) of 1935. Within the radiant city, there are government buildings, business center, railroad station and air terminal, hotels, housing, factories, warehouses, and heavy industries. The city center is residential zone, with business center and insutrial section on either side. By doing so, the internal travel can be diminished by half. Each housing units is intended for 2700 residents. Each of these units can provided with its individual set of services, directly connected with family life: communal services (catering and household supplies), nursery, kindergarten, open-air playground in the park, primary school in the park. Between the ages of 1 and 14, children will have all necessary educational establishments outside their own front door, in the park.

Le Corbusier opposed the city authorities’ proposal of making suburban garden-cities (150-300 people to the hectare). He believed the city should pile the city in on top of itself and increase its population density to 1,000. By eliminating the suburbs, and banning those garden-cities with their mock nature, there would be no transportation crisis. The idea of building radiant city is to build a green city with nature brought inside the walls of Paris. The entire ground surface will give back to pedestrians. Since the apartment houses are all up in the air, raised on pilotis, it will be possible to walk across the city in any direction. In other words: no pedestrian will ever meet an automobile. Also, the idea sand beaches in the city imply provide consumption space for the beautiful bathing costumes displayed in the department stores.