A 1920s "Zigzag" House by Le Corbusier Seeks €472k in France’s Wine Country
The recently renovated residence is located in a modernist housing development in Pessac, a suburb of Bordeaux.
The recently renovated residence is located in a modernist housing development in Pessac, a suburb of Bordeaux.
Among Le Corbusier’s notable contributions to 20th-century architecture were his ideas for low-cost social housing, which he famously advanced in the 1923 manifesto Vers une Architecture (Toward an Architecture). Around this same time, the visionary architect began working on the Quartiers Modernes Frugès, a master-planned community of several dozen homes in Pessac, France. Nearly a century later, the development is still buzzing with residents—one of whom recently listed a choice corner unit for sale.
This two-story corner residence is one of approximately fifty units that Le Corbusier designed for Quartiers Modernes Frugès in Pessac, France.
Photo courtesy of Architecture de Collection
Recent renovations retained most of the home’s original floor plan while adding new features such as rotating glass doors that open to the front and side gardens.
Photo courtesy of Architecture de Collection
The development was one of two that Le Corbusier planned and built for sugar industrialist Henri Frugès, and it served as a neighborhood for his employees. Each residence offered first-class amenities for the time period, including private rooftop terraces, car parking areas, bathrooms with showers, and boilers to supply hot water. Yet the design was not without controversy, and its vibrantly colored concrete facades were a stark departure from the traditional architecture of the surrounding area.
Le Corbusier, along with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, created six typologies for the residences, including the triplex "zigzag" design of the recently listed unit. Two of the zigzag structures were built—shown here in the lower-left corner of this schematic.
Courtesy of Architecture de Collection
See the full story on Dwell.com: A 1920s "Zigzag" House by Le Corbusier Seeks €472k in France’s Wine Country
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