LE CORBUSIER

INTRODUCTION :
• CHARLES EDOUARD JEANNERET now popularly known as LE CORBUSIER.
• Born on 6th of October 1887 at La chaux de fonds in Swissjura mountains 4 kms from
French border.
• He as a child prepared himself for manual occupation.
• He left his school at the age of 13½ yrs. Joined an art school later.
• He was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of
what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French
citizen in 1930.
• His career spanned five decades, and he designed buildings in Europe, Japan, India, and North and
South America.
• Dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities, Le Corbusier was
influential in urban planning, and was a founding member of the Congers International
d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM).
• Le Corbusier prepared the master plan for the city of Chandigarh in India, and contributed specific
designs for several buildings there, especially the government buildings.
EARLY LIFE & CAREER
• Attended a kindergarten that used Fröbelian methods
• Attracted to the visual arts and studied at the La-Chaux-de-Fonds Art School under Charles L'Eplattenier
• Architect René Chapallaz – Architecture teacher in school – large influence on Charles’ early works
• In his early years, he travelled around Europe
• Travelled to Paris – worked in the office of Auguste Perret – 1908
• Berlin – worked in the office of Peter Behrens – met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius – 1910 ~ 1911
• Visit to the Charterhouse of the Valley of Ema - influenced his architectural philosophy profoundly for the rest of his
life
• Journeyed to the Balkans and visited Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece, filling nearly 80 sketchbooks with
renderings of what he saw – 1911
• During World War I, Charles taught at his old school in La-Chaux-de-Fonds
• These four years in Switzerland, he worked on theoretical architectural studies using modern techniques
• Charles met the Cubist painter Amédée Ozenfant, in whom he recognised a kindred spirit – 1918
• Charles-Edouard Jeanneret adopted Pseudonym - Le Corbusier - 1920
STYLE AND PHILOSOPHY
Le Corbusier believed that Architecture schools weren't teaching students correctly and that
engineers would be the ones who save architecture.

Le Corbusier's personal style of architecture combined both classic Greek and more modern urban design.
Corbusier held the belief that a home is "a machine for living" that should be fully functional and industrial in its
core design. Corbusier also applied himself to his own personal "Five Point System". In this system the pilotis (or
concrete stilts) provided the foundation for the design whilst lifting it up and off of the ground. The pilotis
allowed for the creation of a free facade and open floor plan. Following this would be a second floor with long
stretches of windows and finally, a rooftop garden. The Golden Ratio was used almost religiously by Corbusier,
who stuck to it for its harmony and proportion in design. He also used the Fibonacci sequence in some of his
work. Corbusier often used the motif of an "open hand" in many of his works as it represented "peace
and reconciliation“.

Corbusier had a tremendous influence on the urban architecture planning and movement that would follow
after him. He also taught many students such as Nadir Afonso who adopted his ideas into their own work.
 IDEAS
• FIVE POINTS OF ARCHITECTURE
1. Pilotis – Replacement of supporting walls by a grid of reinforced concrete columns that bears the structural load is the basis of the new
aesthetic
2. The free designing of the ground plan—the absence of supporting walls—means the house is unrestrained in its internal use
3. The free design of the façade—separating the exterior of the building from its structural function—sets the façade free from structural
constraints.
4. The horizontal window, which cuts the façade along its entire length, lights rooms equally.
5. Roof gardens on a flat roof can serve a domestic purpose while providing essential protection to the concrete roof.
• Most succinctly summed up the five points of architecture – VILLA SAVOYE
FURNITURE DESIGNS:
FAMOUS WORKS
1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8.

1. Unité d'habitation 3. Mill Owner’sAssociation 5. Sanskar Kendra 7. Villa Schwob

2. Maisons Jaoul 4. Palace of Justice 6. Villa Shodhan 8. Maison Guiette/Les Peupliers
VILLASAVOYE 1929-1931

• LOCATION : Poissy,France
• MATERIAL : Reinforced Concrete
• Planned the entire composition as a sequence of spatial
effects
• Arriving by automobile, the visitor drives underneath
the house, circling around to the main entrance
• Stairs and Ramp for circulation - Sheltered by brightly
colored wind screens
• Celebrates Le Corbusier's belief that ideal, universal
forms, although rooted in the classical tradition, were
appropriate to architecture for the machine age
• Houses to be "machines for living in."
VILLASAVOYE 1929-1931

• Modulor design : The result of Le Corbusier's researches into mathematics, architecture (the
golden section), and human proportion
• No historical ornament - Abstract sculptural design
• Pure color : White on the outside - newness, purity, simplicity, and health
• Spiral staircases and ramps : Dynamic , non-traditional transitions between floors
DOM – INO HOUSE 1914

• A prototype as the physical

platform for the mass
production of housing
• Design idea to manufacture
in series, that combines the
order he discovered in
classical architecture
• The units could be aligned
in a series like dominoes, to
make row house of different
patterns
• This design became the
foundation for most of his
architecture for the next ten
years
Concrete slabs
Giving freedom to design the
interior configuration
Stairway providing access to
each level on one side of the
floor plan
Thin, reinforced concrete columns
- Pilotis
Free facade
CHAPEL OF RONCHAMP 1953-1955

• LOCATION : Ronchamp, France

• MATERIAL : Reinforced Concrete, Stone
• Singular in Corbusier's work, in that it departs from his principles of standardization and the machine aesthetic
• Giving a site-specific response

• Upturned roof • A wall starts out as • The openings slant towards their
• Appears to float above the walls a point on the east centres at varying degrees, thus
• The different-sized windows are end, and expands to letting in light at different angles
scattered in an irregular pattern up to 10 feet thick • Derived from a proportional system
across the wall its west side based on the Golden Section
CHANDIGARH CITYPLANNING 1950-1970

• Located at the picturesque junction of foothills of the Himalayas Mountain range and the Ganges plains
• Total area 114 sqkm & population of 1,054,600 inhabitants
• Sector of size 800 x 1200 meters
• Each SECTOR is a self-sufficient unit having shops, school, health centres and places of recreations and worship
800

Typical sector plan

Sector

Main axis

1200
Green Areas

Road Network
CHANDIGARH CITYPLANNING 1950-1970

• Analogous to human body

• Head (the Capitol Complex,
Sector 1),
• Heart (the City Centre Sector-
17),
• Lungs (the leisure valley,
innumerable open spaces and
sector greens),
• Intellect (the cultural and
educational institutions),
• Circulatory system (the network
of roads, the 7Vs)
• Viscera (the Industrial Area).
CHANDIGARH CITYPLANNING 1950-1970

• Basic Building
Typology - extremely
Rectilinear with
similar proportions

1. City Level Public Green • Sector 17- main public

Space with Artificial congregation area
Water Body • Houses all major • smaller individual
2. Free- Flowing Green shopping complexes, Residential Units are
Space, connecting the sports facilities and arranged around
entire site congregation spaces central common
3. Semi-Private Green Green Spaces
Areas for nearest
pockets
4. Private Green Areas for
Residential Units
CAPITOL COMPLEX 1950-1970

1. 3. 6.

7.
2.
4. 5.

1. Palace of Justice 3. Palace of Assembly 5. Open Hand Monument 7. Tower of Shadows

2. Secretariat Building 4. Geometric Hill 6. Martyr’s Memorial
CAPITOL COMPLEX 1950-1970

• All the masterpieces stand together,

representing the democratic India
• Also contains Piazzas, Water Pools and Gardens Palace of Assembly
• Separated by large piazzas
• The open hand stands in centre-emblem of
Chandigarh
• The pools are being constructed in front of the
High Court and the Assembly
• A concrete structure that represents the
monumental character authority of the
government
• Earlier it was designed to be in the centre of
the city as a dominant element, but later on it
was placed from the city as the head – “City
must never be seen”

Tower of Piazza
Secretariat Building Shadows &
Geometry
Hills
CAPITOL COMPLEX 1950-1970

1. Palace of Justice (1951-1957):

1. The structure has a double roof projecting over the office
block - like a parasol or an inverted umbrella
2. Three vertical piers rising 60 feet from the floor and
painted in bright colors – entrance
3. Gigantic egg-crate screen covers the building façade
4. Woollen tapestries on the rear walls of the courtrooms
4.

3.
1. 2.
CAPITOL COMPLEX 1950-1970

2. Palace of Assembly (1955):

1. A large box with the entrance portico on one side
2. Concrete piers on the other, and a repetitive pattern on the façade
3. Sculptural forms on the roof, a dramatic ‘funnel’ top light over the
Assembly, and a tilted pyramid over the Senate chambers
completed the composition
4.
4. The Assembly chamber, in the form of a hyperbolic shell, is
surrounded by ceremonial space
2.
3.

1.
CAPITOL COMPLEX 1950-1970

3. Secretariat (1953-1959):
1. Shaped in the form of an eight-storied concrete slab
2. Sculptured two-storey porticos in the centre
3. The cafeteria - giving a spectacular view of the city
4. The façade - kind of wall of images due to the wall of glass that covers compartmentalized and composed as a
page
5. Roof space - garden terrace - closer to nature as far these huge concrete blocks
6. Exposed concrete ramps - perforated with small square windows dominating the front and rear views

1.
6. 4.

2.