Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor, 1931

The residential building straddles the communes of Boulogne-Billancourt (23 rue de la Tourelle) and the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris (24 rue Nungesser et Coli).
Set in the midst of the metropolis, in the immediate neighbourhood of parks and numerous sports facilities (stadiums, swimming pool, tennis courts), the building prefigures the principles of the Radiant City.  Together with the apartments, these facilities help to attain the modern ideal of bringing together the collective and the individual.
The building plot has an ideal dual aspect to east and west and an exceptional environment. The unobstructed outlook made it possible to build entirely glazed facades. At each level, the apartments are arranged back to back, with openings on one facade only.

Le Corbusier reserved for his personal use the seventh and the eighth floor, where he created the apartment-studio that was to be his Paris residence until his death in 1965. The design of the apartment plans is a response to the free plan principle, enriched here by additional flexibility.

Nevada brick is particularly in evidence on the Nungesser-et-Coli facade. The sun enters the apartments from floor to ceiling, flooding them with light. The row of reinforced concrete columns which relieves the adjoining walls of their loads between the ground floor and the sixth floor allows an entirely free facade marked out with cantilever bow-windows.

On the 120 square metres of the rooftop terrace, Le Corbusier placed his own dual-aspect two-level apartment. The architect adopted a vaulted “cradle” cover, fitting tangentially into the template curve. The studio, in which Le Corbusier painted facing the apparent rubble wall every morning, occupies the eastern half of the apartment. To the west, facing Boulogne and without any special effects, he installed a living room, a kitchen and a bedroom equipped with a toilet and a bathroom inspired by cruise ship amenities.

Take a virtual tour of the apartment-studio