Future technologies in Le Corbusier's environmental conditioning systems: city of refuge in Paris

Abstract

The City of Refuge in Paris (1929-30) is an experimental building where Le Corbusier wanted to apply his famous proposal of environmental conditioning systems of buildings through the combination of two technological advances that supported his concept of machine à habiter: the mur neutralisant and respiration exacte. This paper presents a historical journey from the first attempts to carry out these two technological innovations to a complete informative documentation on the major decisions and changes made in the City of Refuge by collecting letters and reports of the main actors who intervened in it. The aim of this study is to investigate environmental conditioning through passive and active strategies in Le Corbusier's architecture, carrying this study out in the year 2013, which marks the 50th anniversary of his death. The results and findings have allowed us to complete the analysis that architectural critics have produced on the City of Refuge, through understanding the real behaviour of the building as originally built, as well as the success that the combination of the mur neutralisant and the respiration exacte, advanced technologies for their time, could have had. At present these are once again being used in the design of active façades which deal with existing concerns about sustainability and energy efficiency.