Urban domestic spaces as experimental workshops—the homes of the modernist architects Le Corbusier and Sven Markelius in the 1930s

In this article the homes of two pioneers of the Modern Movement are in focus – Swiss-French Le Corbusier (1887-1965) and Swedish Sven Markelius (1889-1972). They both belonged to a progressive avant-garde and contributed to a radical change of architecture and urban planning through several polemical texts, exhibitions and projects in an international context. In 1934 Le Corbusier designed a multi-storey building at 24 Rue Nungesser-et-Coli in Paris, while Sven Markelius’ collective house (Kollektivhuset) at John Ericssonsgatan 6 in Stockholm was constructed in 1935. In my study I analyze the two interiors through the concepts of space, rhetoric and identity. Different experimental aspects, with a strongly developed sense of spatiality and aesthetics, are clearly reflected in these domestic spaces. Furthermore, my study shows that, in addition to verbal and visual rhetoric in manifestoes such as Vers une Architecture and acceptera, the architects’ own homes can be interpreted as spatial rhetorics, challenging the prevailing norms and patterns.