Unité d'Habitation Berlin

For the béton brut origin

Le Corbusier · 1958 · Berlin

In short

Le Corbusier's Berlin Unité, built 1956 to 1958 for the Interbau: a 17-storey concrete slab on a rise by the Olympiastadion, with about 530 flats.

Berlin's rules raised his 2.26 m Modulor ceilings to 2.50 m and cut most shared facilities, and Le Corbusier distanced himself from the result.

The flats became owner-occupied in 1979, the house was listed in 1994, and a three-year restoration of the west facade ended in April 2026.

Siana Pick

Get off at S Olympiastadion and walk round to the east side of the ground floor. Find the inscription pressed into the concrete that calls the house a "village vertical" for 2,000 people, then step back onto the lawn and look up at the loggia walls, each split on the diagonal into two colours.

The building, measured

Architects: Le Corbusier (1887–1965); André Wogenscky (Paris office); Felix Hinssen (site architect); Erich Böckler, Fritz Eske (Berlin planners)
Client: Heilsberger Dreieck Grundstücks-AG (from the Thomashof Grundstücks-AG), director Frithjof Müller-Reppen
Original use: Rental housing, about 530 flats, with shop, post office, laundry and own heating and power plant
Current use: Owner-occupied flats (condominiums since 1979); kindergarten in Hinssen's former youth centre
Completion: 1958
Style: Brutalist
Heritage: Baudenkmal (listed monument), Gesamtanlage, Obj.-Dok.-Nr. 09040533
Condition: standing
Address: Flatowallee 16, 14055 Berlin

Dates

1955: invitation from building senator Rolf Schwedler (24 Feb); Heilsberger Dreieck site agreed after the September meeting
1956: construction starts
1957: shown at the Interbau; dispute over unapproved plans from April
1958: completed
1959: Ilse Kubaschewski acquires about 75% of the owning company
1979: rental flats converted to condominiums
1982: heating renewed, rooftop condenser pavilion removed
1994: listed as a monument
1997–1998: interior streets restored
2005: heritage management plan (Denkmalpflegeplan) by Beer Architekten
2014: south facade restored
2023–2026: west facade restored, 326 loggias (Jan 2023 to Apr 2026)

Worth knowing

The concrete was mixed with crushed brick as aggregate, which gives it a light grey-brown cast.
The house made its own power. Heavy-oil steam turbines on the ground floor supplied heat, hot water and electricity for the lifts and pumps, and a condenser pavilion stood on the roof until the heating was renewed in 1982.
Berlin first offered a plot in the Hansaviertel at Händelallee and Klopstockstraße. Le Corbusier found it far too small; the Walter-Gropius-Haus stands there now.
In 2016 Philipp Mohr bought flat 258 and rebuilt it to Le Corbusier's plans, down to the 2.26 m ceiling Berlin had refused.
Kestrels have nested on the roof since March 2019, in a box the residents call "apartment 1101", with a live webcam.

Plan set

A-01 Overview
The Unité d'Habitation Typ Berlin is a 17-storey housing slab in Westend that Le Corbusier designed with André Wogenscky for the 1957 Interbau, built from 1956 to 1958 with Felix Hinssen as site architect. At 141 m long it was the largest housing block in Europe when it was finished. Berlin's building code pushed his 2.26 m ceilings up to 2.50 m, and the suffix "Typ Berlin" marks how far the result strayed from his plans.
Architects
Le Corbusier
Built
1956–1958
Style
Brutalism
Location
Berlin-Westend
Download the poster
Unité d'Habitation Berlin. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-02 The ceiling fight
Le Corbusier sized his Unités with the Modulor: a 1.83 m man with a raised arm reaches 2.26 m, and Marseille took that as its ceiling height. Berlin's building code asked for 2.50 m, and the city held to it against his protest. To keep the golden ratio of the room section, the flats widened from 3.66 m to 4.06 m.
Fire rules also ruled out the double-height living rooms of Marseille, so each maisonette shows two window bands with a coloured parapet between them. Social-housing norms trimmed the room sizes, and the services planned for the 7th floor shrank to a laundry. Le Corbusier accepted some changes in 1957, distanced himself a year later and left the house out of his Œuvre complète.
Read the full explanation
Unité d'Habitation Berlin. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-03 One corridor, three floors
An interior street serves three levels: its own storey and the half storeys above and below. The flats interlock around it. One climbs a stair from the street, its neighbour goes down, and both run through the building to get light from two sides and cross-ventilation. In Berlin only a small share of the flats run the full depth.
The streets have no daylight. They are lit artificially and coloured floor by floor so residents can tell them apart. The lifts stop only at street floors. The Berlin clients asked for more one-room flats than the type allowed, so some maisonettes end in the middle of the house. The listing counts nine streets; Wikipedia counts ten.
Read the full explanation
Unité d'Habitation Berlin. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-04 Standing on wall legs
Marseille stands on thick rounded piers. Nantes, Berlin, Briey and Firminy stand on parallel wall plates, alternately A-shaped and V-shaped. The shapes follow the bracing and the way the loads come down. The open ground floor, about 7 m high, was meant to leave the ground free.
Above the legs, the building is a cross-wall structure: slabs cast in place, party walls precast in steel moulds two storeys high and craned in. The 98 m northern part is braced along its length by edge beams that carry wind loads to the lift tower. In the 43 m southern part, five axes turn by 90° and brace it instead. The foundations are rammed concrete.
Read the full explanation
Unité d'Habitation Berlin. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-05 Loggias as sunshades
The loggias descend from the brise-soleil Le Corbusier developed for Algiers in 1933 and Rio de Janeiro from 1936. Every flat has one, three-room flats have two. Where one-room flats on the 7th and 8th floors have no loggia, a brise-soleil grid takes its place.
Inside the deep frames, the side walls and parapets carry contrasting colours from light yellow to brown and black, and each wall is split on the diagonal into two fields. The palette has seven colours including white and black, set against raw béton brut, and each loggia has its own combination. A model in the Berlinische Galerie of unknown date now serves as the colour reference for repairs.
Read the full explanation
Unité d'Habitation Berlin. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.
A-06 A closed north end
The slab runs strictly north to south. East and west faces open up to morning and afternoon sun, and the north end is a closed wall that keeps heat in. Coming along the Heerstraße from the west, you meet the narrow end first and the long face catches the afternoon light.
The site was the second choice. Berlin's first offer, a plot in the Hansaviertel, was too small for an Unité, and the city gave him the Heilsberger Dreieck, a rise between the Heilsberger Allee and the S-Bahn by the Olympiastadion. Le Corbusier wanted the house to be largely self-sufficient, with shops, a post office and its own power plant on the ground floor.
Read the full explanation
Unité d'Habitation Berlin. Siana Architecture. NTS. Concept illustration.

Why it looks like this

Sources: Denkmalpflegeplan Corbusierhaus, Beer Architekten (2005); Denkmaldatenbank Berlin 09040533; Wikipedia.

The ceiling fight

Le Corbusier sized his Unités with the Modulor: a 1.83 m man with a raised arm reaches 2.26 m, and Marseille took that as its ceiling height. Berlin's building code asked for 2.50 m, and the city held to it against his protest. To keep the golden ratio of the room section, the flats widened from 3.66 m to 4.06 m.

Fire rules also ruled out the double-height living rooms of Marseille, so each maisonette shows two window bands with a coloured parapet between them. Social-housing norms trimmed the room sizes, and the services planned for the 7th floor shrank to a laundry. Le Corbusier accepted some changes in 1957, distanced himself a year later and left the house out of his Œuvre complète.

See sheet A-02

One corridor, three floors

An interior street serves three levels: its own storey and the half storeys above and below. The flats interlock around it. One climbs a stair from the street, its neighbour goes down, and both run through the building to get light from two sides and cross-ventilation. In Berlin only a small share of the flats run the full depth.

The streets have no daylight. They are lit artificially and coloured floor by floor so residents can tell them apart. The lifts stop only at street floors. The Berlin clients asked for more one-room flats than the type allowed, so some maisonettes end in the middle of the house. The listing counts nine streets; Wikipedia counts ten.

See sheet A-03

Standing on wall legs

Marseille stands on thick rounded piers. Nantes, Berlin, Briey and Firminy stand on parallel wall plates, alternately A-shaped and V-shaped. The shapes follow the bracing and the way the loads come down. The open ground floor, about 7 m high, was meant to leave the ground free.

Above the legs, the building is a cross-wall structure: slabs cast in place, party walls precast in steel moulds two storeys high and craned in. The 98 m northern part is braced along its length by edge beams that carry wind loads to the lift tower. In the 43 m southern part, five axes turn by 90° and brace it instead. The foundations are rammed concrete.

See sheet A-04

Loggias as sunshades

The loggias descend from the brise-soleil Le Corbusier developed for Algiers in 1933 and Rio de Janeiro from 1936. Every flat has one, three-room flats have two. Where one-room flats on the 7th and 8th floors have no loggia, a brise-soleil grid takes its place.

Inside the deep frames, the side walls and parapets carry contrasting colours from light yellow to brown and black, and each wall is split on the diagonal into two fields. The palette has seven colours including white and black, set against raw béton brut, and each loggia has its own combination. A model in the Berlinische Galerie of unknown date now serves as the colour reference for repairs.

See sheet A-05

A closed north end

The slab runs strictly north to south. East and west faces open up to morning and afternoon sun, and the north end is a closed wall that keeps heat in. Coming along the Heerstraße from the west, you meet the narrow end first and the long face catches the afternoon light.

The site was the second choice. Berlin's first offer, a plot in the Hansaviertel, was too small for an Unité, and the city gave him the Heilsberger Dreieck, a rise between the Heilsberger Allee and the S-Bahn by the Olympiastadion. Le Corbusier wanted the house to be largely self-sufficient, with shops, a post office and its own power plant on the ground floor.

See sheet A-06

Story

Berlin's building senator Rolf Schwedler invited Le Corbusier to the Interbau in February 1955. The plot he was offered in the Hansaviertel was too small for an Unité, and after a tense meeting in September 1955 the city gave him the Heilsberger Dreieck by the Olympiastadion instead. A company formed for the project, led by Frithjof Müller-Reppen, acted as client, and Felix Hinssen ran the site.

Construction ran from 1956 to 1958. Berlin's building code and social-housing rules forced changes: 2.50 m ceilings, no double-height rooms, more one-room flats, a supermarket on the ground floor and no shops halfway up. From April 1957 the client built from plans Paris had not approved. Le Corbusier demanded that Müller-Reppen and Hinssen be removed and later distanced himself from the building. The house opened with about 530 flats for a planned 1,600 people; 1,200 moved in.

In 1959 the film producer Ilse Kubaschewski bought about three quarters of the company. In 1979 the rental flats were sold as condominiums. The house was listed in 1994. The interior streets were restored in 1997 and 1998, the south facade in 2014, and from January 2023 to April 2026 the owners restored the west facade, 326 loggias in all. About 1,000 people live there. The Förderverein Corbusierhaus runs group tours.

Analysis

The Berlin Unité is the version Le Corbusier would not sign. That gives it an odd value. Marseille shows the idea, and Berlin shows what happened when the idea met a German building code, a commercial client and a tight Interbau deadline. Every compromise is legible: the taller ceilings, the widened bays, the shops pulled down to the ground, the shared roof left bare.

The idea survives the compromises better than its author admitted. The slab still stands free on its wall legs, the loggias still shade the glass, and the colours still turn a long concrete wall into a grid of rooms you can count. The interior streets still do their job, and the maisonettes still get light from both sides. What Berlin lost is the collective programme: the shopping street, the roof terrace, the sense of a town in one building.

Set against the rest of the Interbau, the Unité is the outlier. The Hansaviertel spread its towers and slabs in a park; Le Corbusier stacked a neighbourhood on one plot and moved it to the edge of the city. Its scale reads as a rebuke to the polite modernism down the road and to the Stalinallee in the east.

Its future looks secure in a way few Brutalist buildings can claim. Owner-occupiers have run it since 1979, a heritage plan has guided repairs since 2005, and the west facade restoration finished in 2026. The open question is colour: the reference is a model of unknown date, so each restoration is also an interpretation.

Diagrams

Berlin raised the ceiling to 2.50 m and widened the room to 4.06 m. Both keep the golden ratio.
One interior street serves three floors, and each maisonette runs through the house from east to west.
The slab stands on flat wall supports, alternately A-shaped and V-shaped, above an open ground floor.
Seven colours including white and black, and each loggia wall split on the diagonal.
The slab runs north to south. East and west open up, and the north end stays closed.

Poster

The building, its numbers and its history on one sheet.

Photographs

The slab from the south-west, Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
West facade across the lawn, Manfred Brückels, CC BY-SA 3.0 source
East facade, KMH1975, CC BY-SA 3.0 source
South-west corner, 2017, A.Savin, FAL 1.3 source
The closed north end, Matthias Süßen, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Loggia grid, Matthias Süßen, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Loggia colours, Matthias Süßen, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
From the Drachenberg, 2025, Leonhard Lenz, CC0 source
At night, Leonhard Lenz, CC0 source