Few buildings changed architecture as profoundly as the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille. Bold, monumental, and unapologetically concrete, it didn't just house people — it rewrote what a home, and a city, could be.
Built: 1947–1952 · Architect: Le Corbusier · Style: Modernist / Brutalist
A vertical village
Le Corbusier didn't design an apartment block; he designed a self-contained community. The Unité stacks 337 apartments into a single monumental slab, lifted off the ground on massive pilotis (columns). Inside are an internal "shopping street," and on the roof, a communal terrace with a running track, paddling pool, and sculptural ventilation stacks — a public plaza in the sky. It was social housing reimagined as a way of life.
The building that named a movement
Its raw, board-marked concrete — béton brut — gave an entire movement its name: Brutalism. Where others hid concrete, Le Corbusier celebrated it, leaving the imprint of the wooden formwork visible on the surface. Today the Unité is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most influential residential buildings of the 20th century.
Why it belongs in miniature
The Unité is all about mass, rhythm, and material — the deep grid of balconies (the brise-soleil), the sculptural rooftop, the powerful pilotis. Those are exactly the qualities that translate beautifully into a hand-cast model.
Recreated in its true material
There's a poetry to rendering the building that defined béton brut in real concrete. Our tribute captures its proportions and rhythm, hand-cast and finished by hand, with subtle natural variations — much like the raw surfaces Le Corbusier loved. Made to order in 2–5 business days.
The perfect gift for…
Architecture lovers, Brutalism enthusiasts, design students, and anyone who's made the pilgrimage to Marseille. Add an engraving to mark a graduation, a trip, or a name.
Shop the Marseille Housing Unit model → · Part of the Classic collection.