ECAL Takes Over Apartment 50 in Le Corbusier’s Radiant City

PHOTOS BY MICHEL BONVIN

Since it was renovated in the early 2000s and restored to its original 1952 condition, Apartment 50 in Le Corbusier’s famous Cité Radieuse housing complex in Marseilles, France, has played host to a rotating cast of designers — Jasper Morrison in 2008 followed by the Bouroullecs, Konstantin Grcic, and, perhaps most successfully, Pierre Charpin. But a group of Swiss design students may have just completed our favorite intervention yet: From July 4 through 19, the privately owned home will be open to the public, showcasing a collection of pieces created by the Masters in product design students at ECAL, who were asked to design objects responding to everyday life in the housing complex. The project began last fall with a three-day workshop that allowed the students to experience life in the Cité Radieuse. Based on their research, they created objects that specifically responded to variables such as the apartment’s climate, its communal areas, and its status as a sometime tour venue for visiting groups — rugs, fans, rotating lamps, and picnic boxes among them. A 52-page publication, featuring objects produced by designers and documenting everyday life in the building, accompanies the exhibition, but we’re sneak peeking the images from the exhibition here today.
01_Promenade_ECAL_LolaBuadesBalle 07_Agrafes_ECAL_DongInSeol 02_Utopie_ECAL_HanselSchloupt 29_Overview 28_Overview 27_Overview 24_Phare_ECAL_StanislawCzarnocki 03_Overview 26_Terrasse_ECAL_ThomasSchmitz 05_Overview 25_Polychromie_ECAL_LeilaChouikh 23_Unite_ECAL_ThomasSchmitz 22_Cheminee_ECAL_AnthonyGuex 21_Overview 20_Terrasse_ECAL_ThomasSchmitz 08_Agrafes_ECAL_DongInSeol 09_Pilotis_ECAL_ThomasElliottBurns 19_Radieux_ECAL_AhmedBedair 18_PiqueNique_ECAL_CarolineThurner 17_Exterieur_ECAL_HyungmoonChoi 16_Coffrage_ECAL_Roosa_Ryhaenen 15_Cheminee_ECAL_AnthonyGuex 14_Atlas_ECAL_JulieBernard 13_Mistral_ECAL_ThomasElliottBurns 12_Pivot_ECAL_PatrickTarkhounian 11_Overview 10_Pilotis_ECAL_ThomasElliottBurns 04_Volets_ECAL_LolaBuadesBalle