Cité de Refuge


  • Caption
    View of Exterior
Related people
Le Corbusier (was created by)
Pierre Jeanneret (architect)
Date
1929-1933 (creation)
Location
Europe->France->Île-de-France, Région->Paris
Description
[Le Corbusier's third project for the French Salvation Army in Paris]. Even as built, the hostel (1929-1933), called the Cité de Refuge, constitutes a complete urban fragment, incorporating overnight accommodation for 680 people and a long-stay hostel for unmarried mothers, with a crche, refectory, clubs and reading rooms. Le Corbusier's innovative but flawed system of environmental control by means of murs neutralisants (hermetically sealed, double-glazed walls with a shallow cavity into which hot or cold air could be pumped) was ultimately abandoned, but despite technical inadequacies the Cité de Refuge is a fascinating and rich building, full of fantasy and vision and yet surprisingly practical. The difficult site is exploited to the full with a circulation route through a monumental reception porch into a circular drum, which acts as a 'social condenser'. With its philosophy of strict discipline within an enclosed and protected working environment, the building expresses the bracing morality of William Booth and his French disciple Albin Peyron. - Grove Art Online "Located at 12 Rue Cantagrel - 75013 Paris. The building has a reinforced concrete skeleton and steel window frames. In front of the long main building there are some separate geometric constructions: a bridge connects the cubic entrance building with a cylindrical admission building, and a residence space. Behind the fully glazed main facade are bedrooms and other facilities for 1500 people." - Submitted by Aimee Moore for ARCH/LARCH 200. Keywords: France, Ville-de Paris, International Style, Modern, European, drawings.
Style/Period
Modernist (AAT)
Material
concrete
glass
glass block
Source
Ching, F. (1996). Architecture: Form, Space and Order. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. p. 354.