Frommer's Review
The radical designs of Swiss-born architect, Le Corbusier (aka Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, 1887-1965), have long been associated with Marseille. In 1952, in a location 2km (1 1/4 miles) south of Marseilles' Vieux Port, he designed the Unité d'Habitation (it's also known as La Cité Radieuse), a multifunctional, nine-story building that combines shops and apartments for 1,500 residents. Within his original plan was a provision for a hotel which, beginning in 1959, opened its doors for business to the general public from the building's third and fourth floors. At the time, horrified neighbors referred to the place as la maison du fada (house of the crazy) because it was so ugly. Today, it's viewed as an architectural treasure that vaguely evokes the form of a ship headed out to sea.
The husband-and-wife team of Alban and Dominique Gérardin have worked hard to strip the hotel back to the original combination of expressionism and functionalism for which Le Corbusier is known. They've zealously retained a handful of their studios' original kitchens, each designed by Le Corbusier's now-celebrated collaborator Charlotte Perriand (none of them actually works, but they're highly prized as minimalist statements nonetheless), and outfitted the hotel with the kind of Apartan, functional, and often metallic furniture, lighting fixtures, and accessories of which the great designer would have approved. The smallest units evoke cruise ship cabins; larger units are more airy and congenial, some with their (nonworking) original kitchens. None of the units has a bathroom door, since Le Corbusier considered such niceties as frills and "aesthetic diversions." Guests of the hotel have access to a rooftop jogging track and wading pool, both of them surrounded by the boxy, blocky designs for which Le Corbusier was (and still is) famous. The reception area for this place, clad in blond paneling and floored with slabs of gray and white marble, is on the building's third floor. Take the elevator from the building's lobby to reach it. On the premises is a restaurant, Le Ventre de l'Architect (The Architect's Stomach).
Facilities:
Restaurant; bar; jogging track; wading pool; fitness club (all on rooftop); mini-library; laundry service; dry cleaning; cribs available for 10€ ($13) each
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
