ABSTRACT
The study of the creation process of two exemplary Corbusian urban spaces of the 1940s, the terrace of the Marseille Housing Unit and the Saint-Dié civic centre, together with particular attention given to the features which remain unchanged in each project from the initial to the final drawings and which correspond to a stated intention, showing the essence of each model. Upon preparation of the Saint-Dié civic centre programme, Le Corbusier mentioned specifically that he was creating several squares within the same space. For both the Saint-Dié civic centre and the terrace of the Marseille Housing Unit, the volumes express an equilibrium which in no way depends on the compositional rationale of the areas remaining within the projects. Le Corbusier began working on the Saint-Dié project reflecting on the civic centre. Le Corbusier, himself, highlights in several writings that the plastic beauty of the civic centre is attained through combining geometry with nature.
