Primer

CONCRETE

"A hard strong building material made by mixing a cementing material (as Portland cement) and a mineral aggregate (as sand and gravel) with sufficient water to cause the cement to set and bind the entire mass."
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

Employed as early as Roman times, concrete became a widespread building material with the advent of reinforced concrete (initially involving the introduction of iron rods, now replaced by steel).
Reinforced concrete was invented in 1848 by Joseph Lambot, who used it to fabricate a rowboat which he set afloat. But it was only in the early twentieth century that reinforced concrete was used in construction. Tested, developed and exploited, notably by Auguste Perret, it was to provide the pioneers of modern architecture with the basis of their architectural language.
Le Corbusier first used it by coating and painting it in order to obtain a smooth, uniform surface. Seeking to be perfectly candid about his preferred building material, he was later to leave it in its raw state. Through the use of shuttering made from unplanned timbers, the concrete revealed the imprint of the boards and took on a rough aspect which reflected the idea of 'architectural brutalism'. Good examples of this approach may be seen in the pilotis (freestanding piers), under-surface and roof terrace of the Unité d'habitation (Housing Unit, 1945-1952) in Marseilles.

At the Historial, Henri Ciriani employs a white concrete (obtained via the use of white cement) and willingly calls it 'poured stone', thus insisting on the nobility of the material, in the same way as stone, brick or marble. Indeed, just as we can appreciate the veins revealed by the composition of a marble that is not pure, we can also be sensitive to the random textures and designs caused by water retention resulting from the pouring of the concrete into its shuttering.
To give it this smooth surface, the shuttering used at the Historial were made of Bakelite-coated plywood for the walls and resinated wood for the columns. The different panels are marked with circular indentations at 70 cm intervals; these holes correspond to the spacers separating the sections of the shuttering. The choice of not hiding these holes reflects a concern for preserving the characteristic signs associated with the use of this material.

SPACE

"Taking possession of space is the first gesture of living creatures, humans and animals, plants and clouds, a fundamental manifestation of equilibrium and duration. The first proof of existence is occupying space."
Le Corbusier, L'espace indicible (The indescribable space)
The post-slab system, the open plan, the disappearance of the necessity of the outer load-bearing wall, the multiple possibilities offered by reinforced concrete and the artistic preoccupations of the early twentieth century with regard to space and its translation quickly gave rise to the notions of open and closed space. In other words, space open to other inside spaces but also to the outside, in a relationship of exchange, complementarities and freedom.
Exchange, freedom, opening are closely tied to, or rather, integrated into the idea of the 'architectural promenade'. This expression of Le Corbusier should not be taken to evoke an amusing walk or the stroll of a rarefied aesthete but as the very matter of the practice of architectural space.
Inside, "on enters, one walks, one looks while walking, and the forms explain themselves, develop themselves, combine with each other". Outside, "one approaches, one sees, one becomes interested, one appreciates, one moves around, one discovers. One continuously receives different, successive shocks. And the game reveals itself. One walks, one circulates, one keeps moving, looking back." For Le Corbusier, the 'architectural promenade' is a generator of architectural events.
Architecture is made for being moved through, lived and not simply seen. Positioning in the architectural space is not "based on a fixed point [which is] central, idea, rotary, with a simultaneous circular vision. That's the architecture of the schools, the academies, the decadent fruit of the High Renaissance; it's the death of architecture, its petrifaction." Le Corbusier, in Maurice Besset, Le Corbusier (Skira, 1968).

FAÇADE

One of the consequences of the 'open plan' and the free organization of space is the disappearance of the idea of a privileged or main façade. There is no longer any hierarchy among the four similarly treated façades.
Le Corbusier commented on the Villa Savoye in Poissy (1930) in these terms: "The house should not have a front. Situated on the top of the cupola,* it should open itself to the four horizons. . . . It is by woaling, moving about, that one sees the layout of the architecture.
This is a principle contrary to Baroque architecture, which is conceived on paper around a theoretical fixed point." Jean-Louis Avril.
De Ledoux à Le Corbusier, origines de l'architecture moderne (Editions du Demi-cercle, 1991).
* 'Cupola' should be taken as referring to the site: pastures and orchards in the shape of a dome.

LIGHT

Along with space and matter, light constitutes one of the basic elements of architecture. Modern architects, and notably Le Corbusier, give it a predominant role.
It participates along with space in the organization of the architectural matter. Le Corbusier involves it in the structuring process (e.g., the 'light guns', distinguishing features of his architectural style, which he placed on the roof terraces).

At the Historial, Ciriani makes light play a remarkable role in both its treatment and its action and the architectural devices which introduce this light are extremely subtle. For example, the breathtaking rift which separates the 'pre-war' room from the other museum spaces is first of all perceived as a functional separation and a symbolic break. But, with its square skylight, it is also and above all a means capturing and indirectly conveying light into the large central room.
"Light in an interior space is what penetrates it from nature, what situates us ever so slightly in the cosmos. The cosmos is absent from underground parking lots." Henri Ciriani in Architecture d'Aujourd'hui. Interview with François Chaslin and Marie-Jeanne Dumont.

VOLUME

"Architecture is a skilful, correct and magnificent play of volumes assembled in light. . . . The shadows and lights reveal the forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the major primary forms that light reveals well; their image is clean and tangible, without ambiguity. That is why these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms. . . ."
Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture (Towards a New Architecture, 1923).

PILOTIS

Beyond their support function, the pilotis (or piers) raise up the architectural volume, lighten it and free a space for circulation under the construction. Pilotis have varied appearances in Le Corbusier's architecture. They alternately take the form of refined, sometimes quite slender columns, of flared bases with a 'brutalist' look (Marseilles Housing Unit, 1945-1952), of strips extending the verticals of the sun shields which pattern the surface of the façade all the way to the ground (Chandigarh Capitol, 1958) or of pierced concrete walls disposed perpendicular to the façade plane and, at Chandigarh, supporting the umbrella roof of the High Court and Parliament buildings.
At the Historial, the pilotis take the form of white concrete columns whose resinated shuttering has created a smooth, refined surface. On the west side, the pilotis lift up the volumes and eliminate any effect of heaviness linked to the architectural matter.


MODULOR

Le Corbusier's architectural choices were guided above all by the needs of the human being, "that animal who should be able to shake himself at his leisure in the space of his house."
His reflection on human behavior, on the equilibrium, dimensions and proportions of the volumes led him to develop a grid of measurements based on the Golden Section. This 'Modulor', as he called it, was constructed in relation to the different parts of the human body. Le Corbusier thus represented it on the silhouette of a standing man with a raised his arm. This image of the Modulor has become very well known. By building on a human scale, Le Corbusier notably returned to the architects of ancient Greece, who for their part used the telion: 10, a perfect number because of the ten fingers of the two hands used for building. The human body is 10 times the size of the head and the space that houses this body is proportional to it. Like the ancient Greeks, Le Corbusier laid out the architectural space so that the body can find its bearings in it.
"Architecture, by taking human beings as a module, reproduces them and projects them beyond themselves. This projection is not infinite: it is intended to mark out the space in which the human would otherwise float, without points of reference. "It is intended to bring the immoderation of the universe back to human moderation."
Catherine Millet, "Architectures de Jean Dubuffet," Art press no. 45 (February 1981).