Miguel Sánchez
After the Second World War, the concept of Automobile City took definitive form in the United States. A way of conceiving the urban space where any displacement passed through the use of the private vehicle. In this way, the cities tended to become more and more extensive. With large residential neighborhoods where each family nucleus lived atomized. Self-absorbed in a property isolated from the others due to the voluntary lack of public areas dedicated to the enjoyment of non-commercialized leisure. In fact, the few social centers were destined for commercial use. Installing in them shopping centers dominated by large chains and accesses designed by and for the car.
Thus, this urban layout shaped the interests of the metal, energy and large distribution companies on a day-to-day basis. Enthroning the Big Three of Detroit in their years of greatest splendor until the wake-up call generated by the first Oil Crisis in 1973. However, this connection of interests between the expansion of the automobile industry and the way in which the cities came from afar. Not in vain, examining The Five Points of a New Architecture published by Le Corbusier in 1927 we find something very revealing in the first of them. Where the need to build on stilts is pointed out in order to free up the lower spaces. Intended for the circulation and parking of vehicles.
Moreover, this architect had already seen connections between motoring and the new architecture in 1923. The year in which he proclaimed that "if houses were built in series, like cars, aesthetics would be formulated with incredible accuracy." Starting point for his urban ideas about polygons and apartment blocks with concrete as the protagonist. Being one of the most common ways of understanding architecture in the XNUMXth century, especially in massive urbanization processes with the rural exodus as a backdrop. Just the same process in which the popularization of the FIAT 500, 600 and 124 can be inserted. Not to mention the Trabant in the GDR, the Beetle in Germany and the eternal SEAT 600 in the Spain of developmentalism.
VOITURE MINIMUM, THE CALL OF PRACTICALITY
With this context in tow, it is worth indicating how Le Corbusier he was not just an occasional automobile theorist. Far from it, in 1936 he presented the Voiture Minimun design. A non-functional prototype -its current embodiment finds no powertrain installed- that ventured the possibility of creating a model capable of making motorsports accessible to the masses. Precisely in the same way and measure that the KdF-Wagen of 1938 tried to represent. With which many relationships have been established.
Comparisons aside, the truth is that the Voiture Minimum was a most interesting idea. Let's see. We are in full boom of the cities. A socioeconomic context where the new middle classes related to the services sector gained consumption capacity. However, beyond models like the obsolete Ford T motoring was still somewhat prohibitive for the average citizen. Moreover, the acquisition of a simple Citroën Rosalie was not within the reach of the majority. And that, due to the influence of Henry Ford in André Citroën, was conceived as a car as accessible as possible.
AN IDEA THAT DID NOT COME TO REALITY
Thus, in the mid-XNUMXs the Society of Automotive Engineers of France held a contest where the best two-seater economic model would be awarded. Obviously, that idea was fully connected with Le Corbusier's concerns regarding extensive urbanism. Enabling the implementation of your ideas on mobility and technological progress. Therefore, finalize the idea of the Voiture Minimum. Born at the end of the twenties with the aim of creating a car of reduced size but with maximum functionality.
Dominated by geometric shapes reminiscent of some Voisin models -curiously, Le Corbusier had a Voisin C7 that he used to include in the photographs of his buildings-, the Voiture Minimum had the wheels at the corners to give more space to the passenger compartment. Inside him two adults could be accommodated after accessing through the suicide opening doors. Behind the seats was the cargo space. And on the rear axle the engine. With all this, the Voiture Minimun was a kind of mix between the Isetta and the KdF-Wagen even though it was prior to them.
A simple, urban vehicle that, above all, would surely have been very cheap. Without a doubt, an unexpected prologue to the cars that defined mass motoring after World War II. However, he did not win the contest. So that There were not even real whims about being able to take it to series. a pity Because, personally, it strikes us as an excellent design for an access Voisin. In fact, after the war the brand went from luxury cars to the popular Biscúter. To imagine, that does not remain.
P.D. At this time you can see a material recreation of the design of the Voiture Minimum in the automobile exhibition installed at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. In addition, those responsible for the sample have seen fit to contextualize it perfectly by exhibiting it together with a Mini, an Isetta and a FIAT 500. Post-war models with which the same story that starts with our protagonist can be traced.
Photographs: Unai Ona
