LE

CORBUSIER
INTRODUCTION
• Le Corbusier was a Swiss-born French architect who belonged to the
first generation of the so-called International school of architecture.
• In his architecture, Le Corbusier chiefly built with steel and reinforced
concrete and worked with elemental geometric forms. Le Corbusier's
painting emphasized clear forms and structures, which corresponded
to his architecture.
EARLY LIFE:-
• Born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris on October 6, 1887, Le
Corbusier was the second son of Edouard Jeanneret, an artist who
painted dials in the town’s renowned watch industry, and Madame
Jeannerct-Perrct, a musician and piano teacher.
• At age 13, Le Corbusier left primary school to attend Arts Décoratifs at La
Chaux-de-Fonds, where he would learn the art of enameling and engraving
watch faces, following in the footsteps of his father.
• There, he fell under the tutelage of L’Eplattenier, whom Le Corbusier called
“my master” and later referred to him as his only teacher. L’Eplattenier
taught Le Corbusier art history, drawing and the naturalist aesthetics of art
nouveau. Perhaps because of his extended studies in art, Corbusier soon
abandoned watchmaking and continued his studies in art and decoration,
intending to become a painter. L’Eplattenier insisted that his pupil also
study architecture, and he arranged for his first commissions working on
local projects.
• After designing his first house, in 1907, at age 20, Le Corbusier took trips
through central Europe and the Mediterranean, including Italy, Vienna,
Munich and Paris. His travels included apprenticeships with various
architects, most significantly with structural rationalist Auguste Perret, a
pioneer of reinforced concrete construction, and later with renowned
architect Peter Behrens, with whom Le Corbusier worked from October
1910 to March 1911, near Berlin.
• "Le Corbusier's greatest contribution to twentieth-century
architecture is probably that of having rediscovered man who
had become lost in the frenetic development of technique,"
writes Francoise Choay, one of his biographers. His
contribution to both form and technique is indeed unique. His
work bears the mark of both rationalism and humanism and was
essentially a social action aimed at producing solutions to
man's problems.
• Le Corbusier became a legend during his lifetime, and as Patrick
Nuttgens in his book, 'Understanding Modern Architecture' wrote
insightfully, "His influence has been so colossal, so worldwide and so
comprehensive that he dominates not only the world of architecture
but, in effect, a great part of the world of invention and culture. He
ranks with Darwin, Freud, Einstein, Wittgenstein and Picasso among
major figures who have forever affected the world to which we
belong."
• India is the first country in the world to have invited Le Corbusier to
give concrete expression to his theories in the designing of the new
capital of Punjab, namely, Chandigarh. Le Corbusier found a
sympathetic and visionary patron in the first Prime Minister of India,
Jawaharlal Nehru. Corbusier's work in India has left an enduring
legacy in modern architecture not only in this country but in the entire
world.
• The early fifties saw the beginning of Le Corbusier's association with
India. It started when PN Thapar, the Chief Administrator of the
Chandigarh project and PL Varma, the Chief Engineer of Punjab were
sent to Europe to select a team to design a new capital for the state of
Punjab which would be named Chandigarh. They had with them a list
of potential candidates which was compiled with the assistance of Otto
Koenigsberger, a London-based planner. Le Corbusier's very presence
in India was to radically transform the image and status of architects
as well as architecture as a profession. However, the most significant
change was related to the aesthetic content of the formal training
courses of architects in the schools of architecture.
• Le Corbusier was a man with a strong ego and was intensely
preoccupied with working out a philosophy of town planning - a
philosophy of building a city from scratch. After initial hesitation to
appoint Le Corbusier to design the new capital, Thapar and Varma
accompanied by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew met Le Corbusier in his
office. Considering the potential of creating a city and the opportunity of
finally implementing his life-long ideas, Corbusier agreed to consider
taking up the Indian project. He accepted the assignment on the
condition that his cousin Pierre Jeanneret would be taken on for the
project team. The Indian selection team agreed to all his terms.
• Le Corbusier was happy with the new commission. He recorded his
feeling in his diary, "It is the hour that I have been waiting for - India,
that human and profound civilization - to construct a capital. Urbanism
is the activity of society. Capital is the spirit of a nation." After the
execution of the contract, Le Corbusier was appointed as Architectural
Adviser for Chandigarh project. He visited India for the first time on
February 18, 1951. After assuming charge of the gigantic assignment,
Le Corbusier prepared the master plan of the new city of Chandigarh
and subsequently designed the Capitol Complex, the City Centre and
the Museum Complex.
• This project offered Le Corbusier almost an unfettered
opportunity to give creative and concrete expression to his
philosophy of architecture. No country in the world including
France, Germany, or the United States of America gave him the
freedom to design a new city which India's first Prime Minister
gave. people of India have appreciated Le Corbusier's work.
Nehru's words are an eloquent testimony to it: "India has many
famous ancient cities and buildings. Among these reminders of
the past, there now stands a new and utterly different, growing
city - Chandigarh, which is, in the main, the creation of famous
architect, Le Corbusier. I think, however, that Chandigarh is a
great creation, which has already powerfully affected Indian
architecture and brought new and fascinating ideas to our
architects and town planners."
• The prowess of Le Corbusier's design can be gauged from the fact that the Capitol Complex designed by him has
now become a great tourist attraction with marvels of honed pieces of architecture. For architects and town planners
who came from all over the world, it is a living witness to man's search for himself, his interaction with space and
time, his understanding of form and function.
•
• Apart from Chandigarh, Le Corbusier also designed some
important buildings in Ahmedabad. These include Sanskar
Kendra, Villa Shodhan, Villa Sarabhai and Mill Owners'
Association Building. Though much has been written and
published on Le Corbusier's all projects in India and abroad, the
author chooses to dwell on the Mill Owners' Association Building,
Ahmedabad as a tribute to the master on his 132nd birth
anniversary.
• Mill Owners' Association Building, Ahmedabad (1954-56)
• This strongly disciplined, cube-like structure is situated on a
picturesque site, overlooking the River Sabarmati. The design is
based on the architect’s concept of Villa Cook (1926), a house
palace which he described as a place 'endowed with dignity.'
The structure is a symbol of the architect’s response to the
Indian climate and contains all of his formal inventions in this
regard, e.g., pilotis, free plan, free façade, brise-soleil and a
roof-garden.
• The building has accommodation for business, social and
cultural activities of the Mill Owners Association and is
expressive of its dual character—private and public. The ground
floor is partly open and contains the services and circulation
areas. A straight-flight linear ramp leads from the parking area
directly to the waiting area on the first floor, which is earmarked
for more private functions and houses a reception, offices and
conference hall.
• The second floor, intended for public functions, is treated as a
double floor and contains a lobby and an auditorium. The lobby,
with its open space defined by harsh angular forms, and the
top-lit auditorium, with curved surfaces penetrating the roof, add
to the visual variety of the interiors. The roof, with its terrace-
garden extending over the entire area, has been envisaged for
use for evening entertainment, besides protecting the interiors
from the heat of the sun. All these levels are vertically linked by
two elevators and an external staircase.
• The building is oriented to catch the prevailing breezes through
openings on it's east and west facades with reinforced-
concrete brise-soleil and adjustable blinds. The north and south
facades are predominantly blank with exposed brick surfaces.