Metaphor and track of the railroad in the definition of modern house in Le Corbusier

Abstract

With this article we would like to analyze the origins of the formulation of the minimum unit housing by Le Corbusier as well as by the architects and the architectural theorists, who from the International Congress on Modern Architecture (CIAM) promoted the renovation of the concept of housing and urbanism according to the new industrial times. Being the wagon one of the most determinant references on the definition of the modern housing, we will put out the Le Corbusier’s justifications in order to elude the pejorative connotations (as an industrial and old-fashioned monster) that from a rational and purism point of view were applied to railways. However, the spatial and functional conception of the railways allows to Le Corbusier draw up the formula for which he built up his theory on the machine à habiter: “A house is a 20 meters long wagon”. While analysing this questions using for that different primary sources, two journals outstands in particular given its nature (published by agents related with the French net of railways) and for playing the role of the diffuser of the architectural and social discourse spread by Le Corbusier.