Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) (1887- 1965). Le Corbusier was the pseudonym chosen in 1920 to pay homage to one of his Albigensian ancestors. Both architect and town planner, he was the greatest theorist on functionalism. In 1912 he began his career as an architect, but did not neglect his painting; he met and frequented Braque, Juan Gris, Picasso, Lipchitz and Fernand Lger. Amongst his most famous works were several villas including the Jeanneret-Perret villa and the Favre-Jacot (Le Locle) villa, the La Roche and Jeanneret villas, the Beistgui apartment, the Planeix house (Paris), the Guiette house (Antwerp), the Ternisien house (Boulogne sur Seine), the Stein villa (Garches), the Weissenhof villas (Stuttgart), the Baizeau villa (Cartagine), the Church villa (Ville d'Avray), the Villa Savoye (Poissy), the Mandrot villa (Le Pradet), the Clart building (Geneva), the palace of rue Nungesser et Coli (Boulogne sur Seine), the Sestante villa (Les Mathes), and the Curutchet villa (La Plata). To him we also owe the workers houses (Lge Gironde) and the LipchitzMiestchaninoff residences (Boulogne sur Seine) and several public buidings such as the Pavilion of the Esprit Nouveau, the Nestl pavilion and the Swiss Pavilion in Paris, the cit Frugs in Pessac, the Centrosuyus in Moscow, and the Claude and Duval factory in Saint Di. In the post war period his work became charged with

new expressiveness and his greatest work from this period was the Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp (1951). His first trip to India dates back to 1951 where he constructed the Shodan and Sarabha villas (Ahmedabad), the Museum (Ahmedabad), the silk factory owners Palace (Ahmedabad), and began his studies for the Chandigarh project: Assembly, High Court, Governors Palace, Secretariat, Museum. In 1952 he returned to France and constructed the Jaoul residences (Neuilly sur Seine) and the Unite dHabitation (Rez les Nantes). In 1954 he devoted himself to the construction of the Convent of Sainte Marie de la Tourette (Eveux), the Maison du Brsil and the Cit Universitaire (Paris) with Lucio Costa. In 1958 and 1959 he constructed the Chandigarh Secretariat, the Philips Pavilion (Brussels) and the House of Culture (Firminy). 1962 saw the year of his trip to Brazil to study the foundation of the French Embassy in Brazilia, the inauguration of the building to accommodate the Chandigarh Assembly, and the construction of the Unite dHabitation (Firminy). In 1963 the Le Corbusier Centre (Zurich) was created. As well as being an architect Le Corbusier was an architectural theorist. His greatest publications were Vers une architecture (1923), Architecture d'poque machiniste in 1926 and La ville radieuse in 1935.

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Villa La Roche
The first sketches for Villa La Roche, designed by Le Corbusier for his banker friend Raoul La Roche, date back to 1923. In these sketches it was already possible to pinpoint the main characteristics of the building which was then constructed in 1925: the L shaped plan, the curved facade, the use of pilotis and the roof garden. In 1964, Raoul La Roche donated his villa to the Association for the Foundation, which assigned it to the "Le Corbusier Foundation" in 1971. Driven by the desire to ensure the continuation of his studies, his projects and of his paintings, the architect had laid the groundwork for the Association before his death. It was to this centre that all his assets were bequeathed. The Le Corbusier Foundation was then officially decreed open on the 31 July 1968. It owns the majority of Le Corbusiers original designs, studies and projects, a rich collection of written and photographic archives, as well as numerous paintings by Le Corbusier using various techniques.

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In 1927 Le Corbusier analysed the Five Points of the new architecture: the pilotis, which raised the house up above the ground, the open plan, the free

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facade, the window horizontal in length, and the roof garden. He anticipated the use of pilotis in Villa La Roche.

The attention to light was a constant factor in the work of Le Corbusier: He singled out the multiple possibilities and potential of natural light for creating light and shade and for shaping interiors. Large windows distinguish the facades of Villa La Roche.

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Maison du Brsil
In 1954 Le Corbusier designed in collaboration with Lucio Costa, the Brazilian architect and town planner of Brazilia. Inaugurated in 1959 the House of Brazil has been a centre for cultural, scientific and economic exchanges between France and Brazil for 40 years, in addition to being a centre of hospitality for Brazilians in Paris. In 1999 a restructuring programme began, which was managed in association with the Regional Historical Monuments Administration and the Le Corbusier Foundation. The collaboration between SirrahiGuzzini and the Le Corbusier Foundation in June 1999 also dates back to this restructuring programme.

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To commemorate the restoration of the Maison du Brsil, SirrahiGuzzini created the Brsil lamp using Le Corbusiers sketches.

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Brsil is the new edition of a lamp designed by the great architect in the early 50s, for the Maison du Brsil in Paris. The metal wall luminaire is distinguished by soft forms and rounded lines and is available in two versions for two different light sources. The flow of light is directed downwards: vents in the upper part allow a minimum amount of light to pass through towards the wall.

The materials used for the lamp are extruded aluminium for the body, glazed glass for the upper and lower protective screens; the side grips are of injected moulded technopolymers. A switch is incorporated on the horizontally pivoted lever.

Brsil

250

140

530

140

26W TC-DD G24d3 26W TC-DD G24q3

36W TC-D 2G11

La Roche

8W G5
40 100 40 100

24W G5

The La Roche wall luminaire is the new edition of a lamp designed by the great architect in the late 20s. In fact to commemorate the universal Exhibition in 1925 in Paris, Le Corbusier designed the Esprit Nouveau Pavilion where he used this lamp. It is a metal tubular wall luminaire in two different lengths, with brackets in high performance tecnopolymer, screen in glazed pyrex glass. The colour of the finish, taken from the original, makes up part of the exclusive range of tints created by the very same Le Corbusier.

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664

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iGuzzini illuminazione spa 62019 Recanati, Italy via Mariano Guzzini, 37 PO Box 56.75.103 telefono (+39) 071.75881 telefax (+39) 071.7588295 iguzzini@iguzzini.it www.iguzzini.com video: (+39) 071.7588453

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