MAMO

  • Photo © Olivier Amsellem
  • Photo © Olivier Amsellem
  • Photo © Olivier Amsellem
  • Photo © Olivier Zahm

mamo.fr

A place among the clouds devoted to art and design.

Up here, at the very top of the Cité Radieuse (built between 1945 and 1952), Ora ïto’s MAMO is making itself at home. Le Corbusier’s masterpiece ventures into new territory as the stage and springboard for future design, and indeed Corbu’s spirit will undoubtedly provide the breath of inspiration for this exceptional new arts centre.

“What more could one hope for? What could be more powerful, more iconic, more inspiring or more invigorating than this roof terrace perched in the sky?”

The Cité Radieuse is not a monument; it’s a manifesto. Christened Unité d’Habitation (housing unit) by its architect Le Corbusier and nicknamed “la maison du Fada” (the house of madness) by local residents, this mass of concrete raised on stilts is celebrated the world over by architecture enthusiasts. Its 337 duplex apartments come together to create a vertical village, complete with a restaurant, bookshop, grocer, hotel, crèche and school all connected by interior streets. Like an ocean liner cast in concrete and anchored to the earth, the Cité Radieuse boasts a ship’s bridge in the form of a roof-terrace, and a crow’s nest cast to the sky offering 360-degree views of the surrounding area.

mamo.fr