Restoration of Le Corbusier's studio-apartment

THE MOLITOR BUILDING

The building on Nungesser-et-Coli Street was built for the promoters of the Société Immobilière de Paris Parc des Princes in an area under development between Paris and Boulogne, a city that was then a melting pot for avant-garde architects. In this new district, Le Corbusier dreams of building large apartment buildings according to his concept of "radiant city" developed in 1931: a green city where pedestrian space is free of cars, where the sun penetrates widely into homes.

STUDIO APARTMENT

Place of experimentation and novelties where the theory and the most intimate sources of inspiration are intertwined, the studio-apartment is the attic of Le Corbusier's research on villas with rooftop garden buildings. Its free floor, the garden of its roof, its vaulted ceilings, its polychrome, its large sliding glass and the size of its pivoting doors make it a main element of its architectural work.

After having moved, enthusiastic Le Corbusier wrote to his mother:
 

With fixed and mobile furniture that structures the space, Le Corbusier constitutes his universe piece by piece. "There is a ratio between everything," he says. "When I open the doors, I see everything in the apartment, but it's not solemn, it's intimate."

With an area of 240 m², the apartment consists of four parts, served by the same entrance: the seventh floor, the workshop with dependencies; the apartment consists of a living room, a dining room, a bedroom-bathroom and a kitchen. On the upper level, a guest room and a roof garden designed as a separate room. The apartment is characterized by its brightness and fluidity of space. This exceptional luminosity is due to the glazed walls on the two facades, with several openings that take daylight in the curtains, as well as in several skylights.

The flexibility of the space is due to the pivoting walls that allow a continuous space between the facades or, on the contrary, close the workshop or the room. The same principle between the dining room and the bedroom, separated by a large wardrobe door. The continuity of the space is emphasized by the uniform design of the mosaics that cover the floor.

For Le Corbusier, what constitutes "luxury" is the space, not the materials, which he chooses modest and accessible to all: porcelain stoneware tiles, oak plywood, Nevada glass block, produced by Saint-Gobain. Le Corbusier is delighted with his apartment, which he describes as "an incredible and magnificent home".

Yvonne, even if Le Corbusier says that she is "amazed and happy", regrets her retinue of Germanopratin, from whom she is very far away. Le Corbusier made many modifications during his life: adding false ceilings of wood, elimination of the glass tray of his room, modification of materials (aluminum bays), polychrome ...

Instead of leaving empty spaces after the death of Le Corbusier, the Le Corbusier Foundation authorized André Wogenscky, his former foreman, to install his equipment, which occupied the premises from 1973 to 1991.

To adapt them to the needs of the agency, the places were painted and the furniture moved. As of this date, the Foundation has carried out regular maintenance work and some original devices have been modified or even replaced, such as the kiosk.

A WORK TO PROTECT

Le Corbusier tried since 1962 to obtain the support of Minister André Malraux to protect the building from the danger represented by the "vandals of co-ownership", but in 1972, only the apartment was classified as a Historical Monument. The facades of the building on the street, the patio, the roofs and the room were listed in the complementary inventory of historical monuments in 1990. In 2017, the building, excluding the interior of the current apartments, was classified in its entirety.

In the momentum launched since 1994 by the World Heritage Committee, anxious to rebalance a list whose 20th century productions are almost absent, the Ministry of Culture and the Le Corbusier Foundation undertook in 2003 to prepare an application file for the work of Le Corbusier World Heritage. Seventeen of Le Corbusier's achievements, divided into seven countries, received in 2016 the title "Le Corbusier's architectural work, an exceptional contribution to the modern movement". The building at 24, Nungesser-et-Coli Street is one of them.

His contribution to the Outstanding Universal Value of the series is to be "the first apartment building in the world with fully glazed facades".

A WORK TO RESTORE

Despite having been regularly subjected to repair and maintenance work, faulty impermeability from the beginning, the fact that it was not inhabited and, therefore, insufficiently ventilated, caused disturbances in the apartment. The lack of protection causes infiltration: the resulting moisture has degraded the coatings and caused the paint to peel off. Cracks also affect glass brick panels.

As for the external locksmith, very exposed to rainwater, it is partially corroded, be it metallic carpentry or bodyguard. The large exhibition linked to the large windows has created a summer reheating effect: extreme thermal amplitude makes the materials play. An ambitious program of restoration of this place was needed, which allowed:

To deepen the knowledge of the place

Despite its status as an icon of twentieth-century architecture, together with an aura of memory of the main architect of modernity, Le Corbusier's studio-studio has been little studied.

Therefore, the Le Corbusier Foundation decided that this campaign should be an opportunity to increase the historical and material awareness of the apartment, through preliminary studies, but also by paying the greatest attention to the discoveries and observations made during the construction site.

These studies also shed light on the restoration project options that have not yet been defined. The restoration work was based on historical and scientific studies carried out by:
 

This study, entrusted to one of the most recognized institutions for the conservation and restoration of 20th century heritage, the TSAM laboratory (of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) has not only brought a new material, based on archival research and observation of the place, but also made several recommendations before the restoration project.
 

To find the latest study status

As for any restoration in France, the question of the reference state arose. What time to choose, knowing that the apartment has been inhabited by Le Corbusier for three decades, during which the architect has constantly transformed his living environment, even to address the problems caused by the lack of waterproofing and water resistance. 'thermal isolation ? One option was to return to the initial state, that of 1934, when the couple Le Corbusier moved there.

But it seemed more appropriate to integrate the brands of a use of thirty years ago, where the experience of the place has resulted in constant transformations, in which the architect has not stopped trying new devices. introduce new materials, change the polychromy. The choice was made not to erase the traces of a journey marked from beginning to end by the absolute determination of the genius in the creative gesture, nor the thickness of an occupation that allows a better understanding of man.