The success story of unite d’ habitation in Marseille

Corbusier’s design had been a success in unite d’ habitation in Marseille where the inhabitants were happy after 50 years in their ‘vertical garden city’ (See Figure 4). The building was intended for low-income group but now inhabited by professionals. It has commercial complex is on one floor, swimming pool on the ground floor and a nursery school on the top floor. So Peter Fitting argues in Corbusier’s support that none of Corbusier’s critics have actually designed a large-scale apartment building which is still standing and loved by its inhabitants fifty years later.

Larger social transformation is necessary for the urban utopian planning to be successful. Chandigarh was built not only to stand as a symbol of the ‘new India’ but to contribute to the creation of an ideal society. And the structure of the ‘open hand’ is a symbol of what not been realized.