Charles-Édouard Jeanneret

Le Corbusier
LE CORBUSIER
➢ Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris aka Le Corbusier was a Swiss-
born French architect, designer, urban planner andwriter.
➢ The main pioneer of MODERN ARCHITECTURE.
➢ His career spanned 5 decades and he designed buildings in
Europe, Japan, India and North and SouthAmerica.
➢ He viewed house as“a machine for living in”.
➢ He was awarded the “Australian Institute of Architects Gold
Medal” in 1961 and also Grand Officer's of the legion
d’Honneur” in 1964.
➢ Died on 27august 1965.
(6 OCTOBER1887 - 27
AUGUST 1965)

Ronchamp, Villa Savoye, Project :- Ville

Unite’d habitation, High Court,
Notre dame Poissy Radieude (1930)
Marseilles (1947) Chandigarh
(1954) (1930) (1955)
 Early life and education, 1887–1913
 Le Corbusier was attracted to the visual arts and studied at the La-
Chaux-de-Fonds Art School.
 His architecture teacher in the Art School was the architect René
Chapallaz, who had a large influence on Le Corbusier's earliest
houses.
 In 1908, He studied architecture in Vienna with Josef Hoffmann.
 He worked near Berlin for the renowned architect Peter Behrens,
where he might have met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter
Gropius.
Early career: the villas, 1914–1930
 Le Corbusier taught at his old school in La-Chaux-de-Fonds
during World War I.
 During these four years in Switzerland, he worked on theoretical
architectural studies using modern techniques. Among these was
his project for the "Dom-ino" House (1914–1915).
• This design became the foundation for most of his architecture for
the next ten years. Soon he would begin his own architectural
practice with his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret (1896–1967)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qyEhwu8hZI
FIVE POINTS OF ARCHITECTURE
 It was Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (1929–1931) that most succinctly summed up his five points of
architecture that he had elucidated in the journal L‘Esprit Nouveau And His Book Vers Une
Architecture, which he had been developing throughout the 1920s.
 Les 5 Points d' une architecture nouvelle, which Le Corbusier finally formulated in 1926 included
(1) the pilotis elevating the mass off the ground,
(2) the free plan, achieved through the separation of the load-bearing columns from the walls subdividing
the space,
(3) the free facade, the corollary of
the free plan in the vertical plane,

(4) the long horizontal sliding

window and finally

(5) the roof garden, restoring,

supposedly, the area of ground
covered by the house.
Le modular
➢ THE MODULAR is a scale of proportions developed by Le Corbusier.
➢ Le Corbusier created the Modular following the steps of Vitruvius, Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man,
and other attempts to discover mathematical proportions in the human body and then to use that
knowledge to improve architecture.
➢ This system is based on three aspects:
•Human measurements- refers to the measurement of living human
individuals for the purposes of understanding human physical variation.

•The Fibonacci Numbers-are a sequence of numbers where the first

number of the sequence is 0, the second number is 1, and each
subsequent number is equal to the sum of the previous two numbers of
the sequence itself.

• The golden ratio -Two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio
between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as
the ratio between the larger one and the smaller.
Furniture
 Corbusier said: "Chairs are architecture, sofas are bourgeois."
 Le Corbusier began experimenting with furniture design in 1928 after inviting the architect, Charlotte Perriand, to join
his studio. His cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, also collaborated on many of the designs. Before the arrival of Perriand,
 Le Corbusier relied on ready-made furniture to furnish his projects, such as the simple pieces manufactured by Thonet,
the company that manufactured his designs in the 1930s.
 The first results of the collaboration were three chrome-plated tubular steel chairs designed for two of his projects, The
Maison la Roche in Paris and a pavilion for Barbara and Henry Church.
Major written works
• 1918: Après le cubisme (After Cubism), with Amédée Ozenfant
• 1923: Vers une architecture (Towards an Architecture)
(frequently mistranslated as "Towards a New
Architecture")
• 1925: Urbanisme (Urbanism)
• 1925: La Peinture moderne (Modern Painting), with Amédée
Ozenfant
• 1925: L'Art décoratif d'aujourd'hui (The Decorative Arts of
Today)
• 1931: Premier clavier de couleurs (First Color Keyboard)
• 1935: Aircraft
• 1935: LaVille radieuse (The Radiant City)
• 1942: Charte d'Athènes (Athens Charter)
• 1943: Entretien avec les étudiants des écoles d'architecture (A
Conversation with Architecture Students)
• 1945: Les Trios éstablishments Humains (The Three Human
Establishments)
• 1948: Le Modulor (The Modulor)
• 1953: Le Poeme de l'Angle Droit (The Poem of the Right
Angle)
• 1955: Le Modulor 2 (The Modulor 2)
• 1959: Deuxième clavier de couleurs (Second Colour Keyboard)
• 1966: LeVoyage d'Orient (TheVoyage to the East)
Quotations
 "You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with
these materials you build houses and palaces: that
isconstruction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly
you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy
and I say: 'This is beautiful.' That is Architecture. Art
enters in..." (Vers une architecture, 1923)
 "Architecture is the masterly, correct, and
magnificent play of masses brought together in
light."
 "Space and light and order. Those are the things that
men need just as much as they need bread or a place
to sleep."
 "The house is a machine for living in." (Vers une
architecture, 1923)
 "It is a question of building which is at the root of
the social unrest of today: architecture or revolution
 "Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new
kind of plan, both for the house and the city.
 "The 'Styles' are a lie." (Vers une architecture, 1923)
MAJOR AND FAMOUS PROJECTS
OF
LE CORBUSIER

Ron champ/Notre dame

 Villa Savoye
Poissy, France

Villa Savoye is a modernist villa in Poissy, in the outskirts

of Paris, France. It was designed by Swiss architects Le
Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret built between
1928 and 1931 using reinforced concrete.
A manifesto of Le Corbusier's "five points" of new
architecture, the villa is representative of the bases of
modern architecture, and is one of the most easily
recognizable and renowned examples of the
International style.

The house was originally built as a country retreat on behest of

the Savoye family. During WWII the Jewish Savoye family was
sent to concentration camps by the Nazis who took over the
house and used it for storage.
A white square box supported by columns on the ground. The
building is surrounded by grass and blue sky. Garden was moved
to the roof.
S.L
Solarium Space
Roof Terrace

F.L
Living Room
Bedrooms
Roof Terrace

G.L
Garage
Maids Room
Ramp / Staircase
 The Villa Savoye was
designed to show off
the ”five points of a
new architecture” –
pilotis, roof garden,
free plan, free
façade,long windows.

•Support of ground-level pilotis, elevating the building from the

earth and allowed an extended continuity of the garden beneath.
•Functional roof, serving as a garden and terrace, reclaiming for
nature the land occupied by the building.

•Free floor plan, relieved of load-bearing walls, allowing walls to be

placed freely and only where aesthetically needed.
•Long horizontal windows, providing illumination and ventilation.
•Freely-designed facades, serving only as a skin of the wall and windows
and unconstrained by load-bearing considerations.
The plan was set out using the principle ratios of the Golden section: in this case a square divided into
sixteen equal parts, extended on two sides to incorporate the projecting façades and then further divided to
give the position of the ramp and the entrance.

All four sides of the Villa Savoye were designed in

response to the view and the orientation of
the sun.

On the ground floor he placed the main entrance

hall, ramp and stairs, garage, chauffeur and maids
rooms.

At first floor the master bedroom, the son's

bedroom, guest bedroom, kitchen, salon ( large
reception hall) and external terraces. The salon was
orientated to the south east whilst the terrace faced
the east. The son's bedroom faced the north west and
the kitchen and service terrace were on the south
west.

At second floor level were a series of sculpted

spaces that formed a solarium and terrace garden.
First Floor second Floor
 Elevation

Section

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8l1mQQHIEM
 Ronchamp / Notre Dame du Haut

"Ronchamp", the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp completed in 1954, is the most important examples of twentieth-
century religious architecture.

Notre Dame du Haut was thought of as a more extreme design of Le Corbusier’s late style. Although the building is small, it is
powerful and complex.

The chapel is a simple design with two entrances, a main altar, and three chapels beneath towers .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzRhymzGxS4
The Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut is located in Ronchamp, on
the hilltop of Bourlemont. In the middle age, this place was a
catholic pilgrimage center dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The
Chapel suffered a voracious fire in 1913, consequently was
rebuilt in Neo-Gothic style. In 1944, was bombarded by the
Nazis.
In 1950, Le Corbusier accepted rebuilt of the chapel at the
request of archbishop of Besancon. The master is touched by the
significance of the site, because was a place of bloody battles.
After five years of technical difficulties and the constant critic,
is finished in June 1955.
• Location: Ronchamp, France
• Date: 1955
• Building Type: church
• Construction System: reinforced concrete
• Climate: temperate
• Context: rural, mountains
• Style: Expressionist Modern
• Physical Characteristics:
Simplicity
Oblong nave
Two side entrances
Axial main alter
Three chapels
Three towers
4 ft to 12 ft thick, whitewashed, sprayed concrete walls (known
as Gunite or Gunnire)
Beton brut roof
Southern facing wall of windows
Exterior alter
Sculpture of the Virgin Mary
• Approach route of the chapel is from the Southeast .
• Chapel is placed at the high point on an East West axis.
• The site is high on a hill near Belfort in eastern France
THE CHAPEL OF NOTRE DAME DU HAUT
To the west is located a bell
tower, a very simple composition,
comprising a metal frame
holding 3 bells.

Towards the southern end, and in a

lower area of the topography, stands a
rectangular volume made of concrete,
contains the residence of the monks.
The building, austere and sober, has
classrooms, library, refectory, kitchen
and cells for monks.
At the northern end a stepped pyramid is located, built with
the remnants of the original church, which serves as a
monument to peace.

THE MONUMENT OF PEACE

 The Chapels act as periscopes
which establish contact with the
distant horizon. The site that
provided an irresistible genius
loci for the response, with the
horizon visible on all
four sides of the hill and its
historical legacy for centuries as a
place of worship.
• That Le Corbusier based his design off • Le Corbusier superimposed Ronchamp II
of praying hands, a ship, a bird, a nuns over Ronchamp I.
cowl.
PLAN OF THE
CHAPEL
ALTAR
CHOIR
THE MAIN ENTRANCE ( SOUTH )
 WATER
COLLECTION

The billowing roof of concrete

was planned to slope toward
the back, where a fountain of
abstract forms is placed on the
ground. When it rains, the
water comes pouring off the
roof and down onto the raised,
slanted concrete structures,
creating a dramatic but natural
fountain.
 THE LIGHT FROM HEAVENS
SHINING OVER THE CHAPELS
CONFESSIONALS
BACK ENTRANCE ( NORTH )
 The complex shapes at Ronchamp
start from a theme of acoustic
parabolas, playing a practical role on
the east wall to reflect the sound
from the outside altar for the
pilgrims gathered on the hill.
EXTERIOR ALTAR
EAST ENTRANCE
Le Corbusier made use of curved surfaces of reinforced concrete to generate a form that is bold
and organic. Since its construction, the building has evoked poetic notions in the mind of the
visitor observing the play of light and shadow on different surfaces
 Sculpture of the
Virgin Mary
This wooden sculpture is placed in a high niche. Above the plain
altar, the east wall is punctuated by several pinhole-windows and by
a single substantial window with the Madonna and Child in
silhouette; through the window this image also serves the outside
altar used during pilgrimages.
The interior of the chapel is modest, with plain pews down the south side only. The
walls curve, the roof curves, and even the floor curves down towards the altar,
following the shape of the hill.
The south wall which is punctuated with deep splayed windows of variable sizes and in
some cases fitted with colored glass.
The chambers within this thick wall are splayed and tapered to
delay and trap passing light, making each void inwardly
strategy excludes sky glare stabilizing incoming light and
creates a contemplative luminous environment.