Le Corbusier's 'Unité d'Habitation', Marseille, France
Legacy in Sheffield
Le Corbusier and his ideas on urban housing have been applied to working class housing in Sheffield (Hall, 2002). Most widely known is the Park Hill estate, built between 1957 and 1961, which was inspired by the aforementioned Unité d'Habitation. However, Le Corbusier’s influence in Sheffield extends further than Park Hill, with tower blocks a common feature in areas of working class housing, and green space abundant throughout the city. Despite this, it is important to note that Sheffield is far from Le Corbusier’s vision of the Contemporary or Radiant City and to examine his legacy, his ideas must be adapted and changed in order to make sense in a former industrial city in Northern England. Additionally, Frampton (2002), in discussion of the prodigious nature of his work, has asserted that not one scholar has been able to master all the ramifications of his erratic creativity. Le Corbusier’s ideas could never truly by encapsulated in a coherent manner, as they were never fully completed. As Frampton (2002) notes, he developed a ‘series of spatial types that possessed a capacity for future development that he himself would never fully exhaust’ (Frampton, 2002:6). This factor makes it difficult to characterise Le Corbusier’s work as a whole, especially when relating it to the city of Sheffield. Nevertheless, this website attempts to demonstrate that there are certain aspects of Sheffield which relate to Le Corbusier’s ideology, particularly in terms of social housing.
Le Corbusier and his ideas on urban housing have been applied to working class housing in Sheffield (Hall, 2002). Most widely known is the Park Hill estate, built between 1957 and 1961, which was inspired by the aforementioned Unité d'Habitation. However, Le Corbusier’s influence in Sheffield extends further than Park Hill, with tower blocks a common feature in areas of working class housing, and green space abundant throughout the city. Despite this, it is important to note that Sheffield is far from Le Corbusier’s vision of the Contemporary or Radiant City and to examine his legacy, his ideas must be adapted and changed in order to make sense in a former industrial city in Northern England. Additionally, Frampton (2002), in discussion of the prodigious nature of his work, has asserted that not one scholar has been able to master all the ramifications of his erratic creativity. Le Corbusier’s ideas could never truly by encapsulated in a coherent manner, as they were never fully completed. As Frampton (2002) notes, he developed a ‘series of spatial types that possessed a capacity for future development that he himself would never fully exhaust’ (Frampton, 2002:6). This factor makes it difficult to characterise Le Corbusier’s work as a whole, especially when relating it to the city of Sheffield. Nevertheless, this website attempts to demonstrate that there are certain aspects of Sheffield which relate to Le Corbusier’s ideology, particularly in terms of social housing.
Park Hill Estate, Sheffield Gleadless Valley Estate, Sheffield The Ponderosa, Sheffield