Photography: Philippe Savoir and Fondation Le Corbusier / ADAGP

Alessandro Mendini is the latest designer to restyle Apartment No. 50 in Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse housing block in Marseille.

The property’s owners, Jean-Marc Drut and Patrick Blauwart, invite designers every year to stamp their mark on the space. Previous participants include Konstantin Grcic and the Bouroullec brothers.

Mendini's design for Le Corbusier's Apartment no. 50 in Marseille's La Cité Radieuse
Photography: Philippe Savoir and Fondation Le Corbusier / ADAGP

For the 2016 edition, Mendini, also an architect, furnished the apartment with some of his Postmodern designs, including his Proust armchair from 1978. He also created eight totems, each coloured differently to match Le Corbusier’s original palette for the space.

‘I was stimulated by the spaces and the brilliant play of light, in addition to the master’s use of colour – warm, pictorial and essential to our sensorial enjoyment of the apartment,’ said Mendini.

Other details in the space – part of the Brutalist complex built in 1952 – include Mendini’s Amuleto lamp from last year as well as a Nepalese rug he designed for Joseph Carini Carpets.

The Italian also carved out little cabinets of curiosities in the wall, displaying little polychrome objects from his own personal collection.

Mendini's design for Le Corbusier's Apartment no. 50 in Marseille's La Cité Radieuse
Photography: Philippe Savoir and Fondation Le Corbusier / ADAGP

‘I call this display of mine a “performance”, because through its duration, it will be a presence acting with visitors to the apartment, favouring and accentuating their reading of it.’

Mendini’s design of Apartment No. 50, dubbed Corbu 8 Colors, will be open to the public from 15 July until 13 August.

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