Description
A flat in the legendary Molitor building
This flat with balcony is located in the only tenement building designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in Paris, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2016. The top two floors are occupied by Le Corbusier’s studio flat, where the architect set up his living quarters and painting studio.
The flat offers 58 sqm living space. It comprises an entrance hall, an open-plan kitchen, a lounge opening onto a balcony, a sleeping area and a shower room.
The living room, visually enlarged by a wall of mirrors and enlivened by the structural columns of the building, is delimited by a slight variation in ceiling height that draws a large curve. It is flooded with natural light thanks to its large picture windows. The balcony is bordered by a black-painted perforated metal balustrade with the building’s characteristic graphic design.
A frosted glass window lets natural light into the kitchen while preserving the privacy of the space. The kitchen features bespoke wooden fittings and ends in a convivial curved bar. The sleeping area is accessed by two arched steps that echo the design of the kitchen bar. Japanese wooden partitions isolate the bedroom from the living area.
A cellar completes the property.
Some refurbishment work is required.
A deux pas du Parc des Princes et de Roland-Garros, l’immeuble est situé à cheval entre le 16ème arrondissement de Paris et Boulogne-Billancourt, dans le prestigieux parcours architectural des années 1930. Il profite de toutes les commodités de proximité et est desservi par le métro parisien (stations Porte d’Auteuil et Exelmans).
The first glass apartment building in the history of modern architecture
Built between 1931 and 1934, the Molitor building is 8 storeys high and comprises between 2 and 3 flats per level. It was commissioned by the Société Immobilière de Paris Parc des Princes for an apartment block. It is the only apartment block designed by Le Corbusier in Paris, and prefigures the Cités Radieuses concept, a modern ideal combining the advantages of collective and individual housing.
It implements 4 of the 5 points of modern architecture, namely the free plan, the free facade, the banded windows and the flat roof. This freedom of plan is made possible by the use of a load-bearing concrete column structure, and allows a wide range of housing layouts to suit the needs of residents.
The bold, all-glass façade is made up of a black steel skeleton, reinforced glass panels and Nevada glass blocks, in a style reminiscent of the Maison de Verre designed by Pierre Chareau, Bernard Bijvoet and Louis Dalbet in 1931 in the Saint-Germain district. The overall composition is enlivened by spindly balconies and a huge two-storey, slightly cantilevered oriel.
The building underwent a restoration campaign in 2018.
Hôtel de Ville de Boulogne-Billancourt, preparatory drawing, Tony Garnier architect, Collection of the Musée de beaux-arts de Lyon
Dora Gordine studio, Perret brothers, 1929
Boulogne-Billancourt, land of the avant-garde
Boulogne-Billancourt was the cradle of great industrial and artistic adventures at the beginning of the 20th century, and became a favourite haunt of the creative avant-garde between the wars: cubist art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, pioneers in cinema (Abel Gance, Jean Renoir), sculpture (Landowski, Joseph Bernard, Lipchitz), painting (Juan Gris, Chagall) and literature (Michel Leiris, André Malraux). The effervescence of the city in the 1920s encouraged artists to settle in Boulogne-Billancourt. They chose the Bois de Boulogne and Parc des Princes area to build their homes, and called on the most innovative architects of their time (Le Corbusier, Perret, Mallet-Stevens, Patout). This was the city’s architectural golden age.
Urban planning projects designed for Mayor André Morizet and several private commissions for wealthy clients keen to live in a new world of forms brought Le Corbusier to Boulogne. Here, he created a number of “manifesto architectures” for artist friends, industrialists and wealthy citizens: in addition to the studios of Jacques Lipchitz and Oscar Miestchaninoff (1925), the Cook house (1927), the Villa Ternisien (now demolished) (1927) and the Molitor building, where he lived (1934).
Le Corbusier in 1961. ©
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier
Born in Switzerland in 1887 and died in 1965, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, was an architect and town planner renowned for his ability to turn architecture into a total art. He thought about buildings and interior design in terms of both furnishings and comfort, and took the urban planning dimension into account in all his creations. He remains undeniably one of the most emblematic figures of the Modern Movement.
Throughout his career, Le Corbusier shared his visions and theories through his participation in international exhibitions such as that of 1925, where he presented the Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau, and that of 1937, with his Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux.
A defender of modernism and rejecting the decorative arts, Le Corbusier inscribed his architectural thinking in his villas, most notably in the villa Savoye in 1928, where he theorised the “five points of modern architecture” (pilotis, the flat roof, banded windows, the free facade and the free plan).
Although he was one of the most prolific architects of his time, many of his projects never saw the light of day, such as the Neighbour Plan or the Contemporary city of three million inhabitants. Although sometimes too polemical or radical in the eyes of the general public, Le Corbusier’s work nevertheless had international resonance. His last major project was offered to him by the city of Chandigarh, India. He was commissioned to direct all the urban planning work for the creation of the new capital of Punjab, where he blended raw concrete with lush vegetation.
Technical elements
Asking price: €590,00
The fees are payable by the vendor.
Property: 31 lots
No proceedings in progress.
Average annual amount of the share of running costs : NC
Land tax: €739
ENERGY CLASS: F / CLIMATE CLASS: F
Estimated average annual energy costs for standard use, based on 2021 energy prices: between €1,270 and €1,770.
Housing with excessive energy consumption: class F
