Habitation Unite, by Le Corbusier, in Marseille. (mimoa.eu)
Regarding the minimal-security affordable housing project in Harlem by David Adjaye, this morning I have received a trenchant email from Malcolm Millais, author of Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture:
How strange, by coincidence I saw this Horror in Harlem yesterday and was wondering how on earth something so crass could get through all the hoops, when you blog [Marc Szarkowski’s comment to TradArch on] it. I was interested that Make it Right was lumped in, I don’t have much info about this but always thought, wrongly probably, that it was somehow linked in some way to Sam Mockabee’s Rural Studio.
Though again, I’ve never really been able to label the Rural Studio stuff “good” or “bad.” I can’t say I care that much for how Rural Studio stuff looks, but if it really works for the poor people, then who am I to judge – but does it?
What we always need to remember is that the most important building, for a variety of reasons, of the 20th century was the Unité at Marseilles, finished in 1952. A prototype for mass social housing on a global scale. Still revered in the idiotic architectural ghetto, it was five times over budget, didn’t comply with building regulations, offered no opportunity for mass production and was sold off as a private condo before it was finished. And copied mercilessly and disastrously throughout the world.
It is difficult to enumerate the crimes of Le Corbusier.
Architecture Here and There 
It’s amazing how anyone thought this type of building was attractive or had any utility. So many architects took a bite of the Corbu apple. As a result, public housing in the U.S. has many of these types of buildings. They have contributed to the poor image of public housing. Even more serious is how the environment they created in their “cities in the sky” led to crime and social disorder. The high-rise at Hartford Park is a example of this type of design.
Sent from my iPad
>
LikeLike
Steve, you literally exploded one of the myths!
LikeLike