World Heritage Corb: Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation in Marseille is one of French-Swiss architect's most recognised buildings, and is the last in our series exploring the 17 of his projects added to UNESCO's World Heritage List (+ slideshow).
The apartment complex in the French city ? also known as Cité Radieuse ? is the first of the architect's experimental developments created across Europe.

Widespread destruction during the second world war triggered an urgent need for accommodation in France, and Le Corbusier was commissioned by the government to "demonstrate a new art of building to transform housing".
The architect, whose vanguard designs interpreted the house as a "machine for living", took on the challenge with enthusiasm. The building he envisioned would act as a vertical city encompassing every human need.
He had already devised other large-scale housing schemes. For this project, he combined many of the principles used in his previous buildings.
For example, his 1932 Immeuble Clarté, in Geneva, features a double-loaded corridor system used to access the apartments. A similar system was employed in the Cité Radieuse, in which a single corridor serves four floors.

Le Corbusier also employed his signature exposed board-marked concrete structure, which he had realised would reduce construction costs.

Related story: Le Corbusier's Immeuble Clarté housing informed his Unité d'Habitation design

This strategy was used in earlie...