Any architecture buff has marveled at the works of Le Corbusier, a master in functional structure and urban planning who came to define architectural modernism. Now, more than 25 buyers have a rare chance to own a piece of his direct design legacy. Paris-based auction house Artcurial is putting over one hundred metal sconces designed by the architect on the block today, all of which were previously housed in one of his historic public housing complexes. The lights were salvaged in 2004 from the building in Firminy, France, when it underwent major renovations.
A former mining town in the Loire Valley, Firminy underwent a substantial population boom after World War II. To cope with community and industry changes, Firminy's mayor, Eugene Claudius-Petit, tapped close friend Le Corbusier to completely overhaul the town's design. In 1955, Firminy's urban planning was turned over to the pioneering modernist architect in what was likely a dream project for the man who famously said, "To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects." Le Corbusier now had the opportunity to create, essentially from scratch, a feat of function and scale.
The architect had big plans, and a church, a cultural center, a stadium, and massive public housing unit were all constructed under his vision. Though perhaps not the most glamorous of his contributions to Firminy, the public housing unit best exemplifies Le Corbusier's architectural and urban planning vision—a functional, modernist space that improved the living conditions of a crowded city. Though he previously designed housing units in four other European cities (Marseille, Rezé, Berlin, and Briey), this unité d’habitation was his largest and most sophisticated. Le Corbusier laid the first bricks of the buildings with Firminy's mayor in May 1965 before his death three months later. His studio followed through with the completion of the buildings.
As a bright, personal touch to each unit, Le Corbusier designed a metal sconce to hang over each apartment's colorful door. The result is unexpected for a mostly gray, concrete structure—each hallway is a sea of color, as streams of rainbow light trace stripes onto the low ceilings. Artcurial is offering each of these remaining metal sconces as part of their Design auction.
Emmanuel Berard, head of the design department at Artcurial, explains how the auction house acquired the sconces. "Between 2000 and 2004, the public housing company made some significant renovation work including the replacement of all light fixtures that were not reaching the new standards anymore," he says. And though there are 440 flats total in the housing unit, Berard says that only 130 remained intact enough to use today, all of which will be up for grabs through Artcurial. "The sconces are really linked to the plastic vocabulary of Le Corbusier," Berard notes, "simple but with a really sophisticated design." Sold in pairs, sets of five, and sets of ten, each sconce is estimated to fetch between $671 and $895.
Though a monument in its own right, the "unité d’habitation" is still used as public housing today. (In 2016, the building was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its cultural significance and to honor Le Corbusier's legacy.) It's a legacy that undoubtedly endures.
