CASE STUDY
Unite d’habitation
Project name: Unite d’habitation
Architect:Le Corbusier
City / Location:Marseille, France
Year Designed / Built:1947 /1952
Area: 386,130sq ft
Floors: 12
Units: 366
DESCRIPTION
After World War II, the need for hous-
ing was at an unprecedented high. The
Unite d’ Habitation in Marseille, France
was the first large scale project for the
famed architect, Le Corbusier. In 1947,
Europe was still feeling the effects of the
Second World War, when Le Corbusier
was commissioned to design a multi-
family residential housing project for the
people of Marseille that were dislocated
after the bombings on France. Complet-
ed in 1952, the Unite d’ Habitation was
the first of a new housing project series
for Le Corbusier that focused on commu-
nal living for all the inhabitants to shop,
play, live, and come together in a “vertical
garden city.”
CASE STATEMENT
The Unite d’ Habitation was a first, both
for Le Corbusier and the ways in which
to approach such a large complex to
accommodate roughly 1,600 residents.
Especially since Le Corbusier did not
have many buildings of such a substan-
tial scale when compared to the villas.
When designing for such a significant
number of inhabitants natural instinct
is to design horizontally spreading out
over the landscape, rather Le Corbus-
ier designed the community that one
would encounter in a neighborhood
within a mixed use, modernist, resi-
dential high rise. Le Corbusier’s idea
of the “vertical garden city” was based
ington Park, the role of the block becomes
more evident. Further, zooming into dia-
grams of the details of s
on bringing the villa within a larger vol-
ume that allowed for the inhabitants to
have their own private spaces, but out-
side of that private sector they would
shop, eat, exercise, and gather together.
With nearly 1,600 residents divided
among eighteen floors, the design re-
quires an innovative approach toward
spatial organization to accommodate the
living spaces, as well as the public, com-
munal spaces.
Interestingly enough, the majority of the
communal aspects do not occur within
the building; rather they are placed on
the roof. The roof becomes a garden ter-
race that has a running track, a club, a
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, a kindergarten, a gym, and a shallow
pool. Beside the roof, there are shops,
medical facilities, and even a small hotel
distributed throughout the interior of the
building. The Unite d’ Habitation is es-
sentially a “city within a city” that is spa-
tially, as well as, functionally optimized
for the residents.
2
Unite d’ Habitation has since been the
example for public housing across the
world; however, no venture has been
as successful as the Unite d’ Habi-
tation simply because the Modular
proportions that Corbusier established
during the project. Nonetheless, Le
Corbusier’s first large scale project
has proved to be one of his most sig-
nificant and inspiring.
 CASE STUDY
Simmons Hall
MIT Campus
Project Name: Simmons Hall
Architects: Steven Holl Architects
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Local Architect: Perry Dean Rogers &
Partners
Project Year: 1999-2002
Structural Engineer: Simpson Gumpertz
& Heger
DESCRIPTION
Simmons Hall, designed by Steven
Holl and architects, is an undergradu-
ate dorm that holds 350 students. In
addition, it also contains a night cafe,
street level dining, and an 125-seat
theater. The building is 382 feet long
and ten stories tall. Each single room
or the dorm contains a grided pattern
of nine operable windows. The depth
of these windows 18” into the wall
provides shade from the hot summer’s
sun and allows ample heat gain in
the winter.5 One explanation for the
different colors coated on the head
and jamb of the windows is to denote
the different houses within the build-
ing.7 Another deals with stress which
will be discussed along with structure.
The colors are very visible from some
angles and not as visible from others.
CASE STATEMENT
Holl’s design solution was that the
building would metaphorically work as
a sponge. It would be a porous struc-
ture that would soak up light through a
series of large openings that would cut
into the building so that light would filter
through in section. These breaks in sec-
tion would then become main interac-
tive spaces for the students, providing
views onto different levels. In his original
drawings, Holl referred to these breaks
as the building’s “lungs” as they would
bring natural light down while circulating
air up.
The model at the bottom was an early
model depicting the sponge or porous
concept idea behind Simmons Hall’s
design. The porous parts of the building
serve as atria to allow ventilation to flow
up through the building and to serve as
a common area for students to gather.
Shown here are two atria within the
building.
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Much of Holl’s idea for Simmons Hall can be traced to
a single word - “porosity”. The idea was supposedly
inspired by the sponge he was bathing with one morn-
ing. The Sponge concept allows for the transformation
of the building into a series of programmatic and bio-
technical functions. Sculptural fluid spaces within the
building connect residential houses vertically and pro-
mote student interaction. These large porous sections
also serve as “lungs” for the building by allowing light
to enter and serving as a means of vertical ventilation.

You can see through the floor plans that similar holes
begin to link floors together vertically within the differ-
ent houses in the building. You can also begin to see
how systems work together as a whole.

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 CASE STUDY
WEST 57
Project Name: W 57
Architects: BIG
Size:80.000 m2
Location:Manhattan, New York, USA
Project Area: 870,000 sqf
Hight:467ft Peak
Landscape Architects: Starr Whitehouse
Structural: Thornton Tomasetti
Status:Ongoing
DESCRIPTION
BIG’s inaugural project in NY is a hybrid
between the European perimeter block
and a traditional Manhattan high-rise,
West 57th has a unique shape which
combines the advantages of both:
the compactness and effi ciency of a
courtyard building providing density, a
sense of intimacy and security, with the
airiness and the expansive views of a
skyscraper. By keeping three corners
of the block low and lifting the north-
east corner up towards its 467 ft peak,
the courtyard opens views towards the
Hudson River, bringing low western sun
deep into the block and graciously pre-
serving the adjacent Helena Tower’s
views of the river.
CASE STATEMENT
The form of the building shifts depend-
ing on the viewer’s vantage point.
While appearing like a pyramid from
the West-Side-Highway, it turns into a
dramatic glass spire from West 58th
Street. The courtyard which is inspired
by the classic Copenhagen urban
oasis can be seen from the street and
serves to extend the adjacent green-
ery of the Hudson River Park into the
West 57th development. The slope of
the building allows for a transition in
scale between the low-rise structures
to the south and the high-rise residential
towers to the north and west of the site.
The highly visible sloping roof consists
of a simple ruled surface
perforated by terraces—each one
unique and south-facing. The fi shbone
pattern of the walls are also refl ected
in its elevations. Every apartment gets
a bay window to amplify the benefi ts of
the generous view and balconies which
encourage interaction between residents
and passers-by.
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 CASE STUDY
Taipei City Wall

Project Name:Taipei City Wall

Client:Taiwan Land Development Corporation

Collaborators: CPP Wind ARUP

Size:82.000 M2

Location:Taipei, TW

DESCRIPTION

Simply by stacking small communities on top of each

other you maintain the proximity to green free space and
get the benefit from living in a tower such as view, light
and urban density. The result is a threedimensional check-
erboard where each 15x15x15meter box overlaps enough
for an elevator to reach the highest floors.

CASE STATEMENT

Throughout the thirty floors, five large gardens allow the

residents to play, swim and relax. The five gardens each
have a unique appearance to accommodate all the needs
of a modern community; a green forest where you can
enjoy the spectacular view of the city, a Japanese stone
garden for relaxation and immersion, a wooden pool
garden where you can go for a swim, a playground for the
kids and finally a rooftop terrace on the 25th floor.

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 CASE STUDY
Elephant & Castle
Eco-Towers
Project Name: Elephant & Castle Eco-Towers (Residen-
tial)

Architects: Ken Yeang

Areas of Tower #1:

Total gross area: 276,304 sq.ft.
Total nett area: 232,095 sq.ft.
Total area of plantation & circulation:44,209 sq.ft.

Areas of Towers #2&3:

Total gross area: 95,765 sq.ft.
Total nett area: 79,485 sq.ft.
Total area of plantation & circulation:16,280 sq.ft.

Location: Elephant & Castle, London

Nos. of Storeys:
Tower #1 - 35 storeys
Tower #2&3 - 12 storeys

Date Start: 2000 (Design)

DESCRIPTION
The project ecological features :
The Elephant and Castle regeneration project was jointly designed
Over 1 million sq.ft. shopping and lesure
by a number of consultants. A new railway interchange divides the
3,500 new homes for sale
site into two. The left hand side of the railway track was developed
Over 1,100 new social homes
by Foster & Partners and the right hand side by TR Hamzah &
New public transport intechange
Yeang, HTA Architects and Benoy Limited. The design takes the
500,000 sq.ft. of offices
model of a general geographical area of a city, with its inherent sys-
One hotel
tems, zoning and social infrastructure and inverts it into skyscraper
800,000 sq.ft. worker accommodation
buildings.
New community facilities
Three major parks (one of 15 acres)
The skyscraper and its retail and commercial base is seen as a
microcosm of the city, containing within itself the inherent elements
of a city block, i.e. parks, shops, entertainment centers, community
facilities and housing etc. The “City-in-the Sky” concept provides

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for:- CASE STATEMENT
•
opportunities for local em- The design seeks to re-create
ployment through mixture of use, conditions on the ground up-in-
both on ground and upper levels the-sky, with features such as
• an entrance lobby, light wells
A healthy mix of residents and balconies for every unit and
within the same building. Through shared secondary and tertiary
“vertical zoning”, resident types landscaped open spaces and sky
are grouped according to accom- pods within groups of housing in
modation preferences (single units, the form of sky courts and com-
family units, luxury apartments), munal pods.
yet common facilities (e.g. parks,
shopping streets etc.) are shared.
• close proximity to basic
amenities, such as the local gro-
cery store, postal boxes, chemist
etc. These are all located within
the ground development and/or
within the tower.
•
a healthy landscaped envi-
ronment, with spatial progressions
of public open spaces (parks in
the sky) to semi-private (entrance
courts) to private open spaces
(balconies).