In Le Corbusier’s work, the architecture of housing has normally been identified from the point of view of his slogan “the house is a machine for living”, but the truth is that his thought and work were not guided in an exclusive way by the search of functionality.

Le Corbusier had to tackle the problem of the house on two fronts: on the one hand, the rational and optimal resolution of technical, functional and economical problems; and on the other, the architectonic answer to the way of living of modern man. The house-machine had to be an effective mechanism in both aspects. The challenge consisted in making them compatible among them and in giving a satisfying solution for both matters, never forgetting the initial and final aim of pursuing beauty.

In 1926 Le Corbusier formulated his “Five Points of a New Architecture”: the fenêtre en longueur (long horizontal sliding window), the pilotis (elevating the mass of the ground), the free plant, the roof garden – through which nature was introduced in the domestic sphere –, the free facade, and the suppression of the cornice (a sixth point, later forgotten). Through these points he proposed a useful architectonic system both in the formal and structural plan as in the functional and symbolic one, that allowed him to give a new definition of the modern habitat.