Le Corbusier

Authored by:
Gregory Capone
Ryan Caswell
Daniel Loveless
Matthew Perch
Camille
 Biography
The Life of Le Corbusier
• Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris was born in La
Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland, 1887. Trained as
an artist, he travelled extensively through
Germany and the East. In Paris he studied under
Auguste Perret and absorbed the cultural and
Early Life
artistic life of the city. During this period he
developed a keen interest in the synthesis of the
various arts. Jeanneret-Gris adopted the name Le
Corbusier in the early 1920s.
• In 1917 he settled in Paris where he issued his
book Vers une architecture [Towards a New
Architecture], based on his earlier articles in
L'Esprit Nouveau. . He believed that
architecture had lost its way. From 1922 Le
Corbusier worked with his cousin Pierre
Jeanneret. During this time, Le Corbusier's ideas
began to take physical form, mainly as houses
which he created as "a machine for living in" and
which incorporated his trademark five points of
architecture.
 War Times
• During World War II, Le Corbusier produced
little beyond some theories on his utopian
ideals and on his modular building scale. In
1947, he started his Unite d'habitation.
Although relieved with sculptural roof-lines
and highly colored walls, these massive post-
war dwelling blocks received justifiable
criticism.
• Le Corbusier's post-war buildings rejected
his earlier industrial forms and utilized
vernacular materials, brute concrete and
articulated structure. Near the end of his
career he worked on several projects in India,
which utilized brutal materials and sculptural
forms. In these buildings he readopted the
recessed structural column, the expressive
staircase, and the flat undecorated plane of
his celebrated five points of architecture.
1887- October 6, birth to the 38 street of the Greenhouse, the
Lime-of-Bottoms, of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (Corbusier) ,
wire of George Edouard Jeanneret, engraver and enameller of
watches, and Marie Charlotte Amélie Jeanneret-Perret, musician. Time Line
1891- Primary school of the Lime-of-Bottoms.
1902- Diploma of honor to the International exhibition of Arts
1913- First exposure of the ten watercolours " the language of
1916- Construction of the villa Schwob (Lime-of-Bottoms) and of
1923- Publication of "Worms an Architecture" - Exposure
1929- Voyages in South America - Cycle of ten confere
1938- Exposure of painting to Kunsthaus of Zurich and the Gallery
nces
1944- "Discussions with the students of the Schools of
Architecture" and "the Charter of Athens" - Research on the
Housing units .
1946- Travel to the United States - Meeting with Albert Einstein
1965- Le passes away
Villa Savoye

Designed in 1931, is to be considered an

architectural icon. Also said to be one of the last
purest Villas built with a reinforced concrete frame.
This structure is based on his new architectural five
point system. The Entire volume is raised on
pilotis, sheathed by simple planes disengaged from
the columns within. A single, elemental window
dominates each side of the facades. The Free plan
culminates in the roof plan. He consider this to be
an object- type villa refined and standardized for
the elite.
Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau

Started as an exhibit in the International

Exhibition of Arts held in Paris in 1925,
but not actually built till 1977. This
pavilion has two parts, one full-scale
mock of the maisonette dwelling unit, the
other is a rotunda with dioramas of urban
scheme where the apartment building
belongs. Used machine-age culture in all
aspects, even when designing the
furniture.
Assembly Building (Parliament)

It was built in 1961 for the Indian government.

The forms for this building came from both
Indian culture and the conceptualization of the
functions of a government assembly. In plan,
the u-shaped office blocks and front portico
together form the perimeter of the concourse.
The general assembly room is a circular space
contained inside this volume, and the
governor’s council is two cubes that rise
through the building to the roof. This he
thought would “make a great space for
favorable encounters among law-givers.”
Chapel of Notre Dame-du-Haut

Constructed in 1955 in Lure, France. This

chapel is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is
very sculptural. This chapel is not given away
as a place of worship but the shapes used to
design this, evoke the earliest for of ancient
deities. Many architects were shocked and
saw this chapel as an irrational, expressionist
aberration.
 Le Corbusier and Post
Modernism

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris was designing his most powerful

work in the 1920’s, after he took on his pseudonym Le Corbusier. At this time
he took his place among one of the most infamous post-modernist architects in
Europe. During the 1930’s and 1940’s Le Corbusier was highly disliked for his
stark forms and radical cubed shapes. Postmodernism was the return to
classical architecture which at the time was very unpopular with many critics
and underwent severe persecution.
 Le Corbusier as a Purist

Le Corbusier was deeply involved in the purist movement which focused on

seeing objects in the world and rendering them exactly as they appear in their purest
forms. At this time the purist movement went hand in hand with the post-modern style
of architecture and suited Le Corbusier for a short period of time while he developed his
theories on the layout of urban dwelling known as Unite d’habitation. This was the
architects way of rationalizing his unique style of housing. Much of his radical design
was centered on the basic shape and form of the cube.
 The effects and influences of Le Corbusier’s work
- Le Corbusier has influenced many by the use of manipulating light and his concept
of Unite d’Habitation, a large housing complex in Marseille. His influence with
light can be found in a church he designed in Ronchamps and in the work of Joost
van Santen.
 The effects and influences of Le Corbusier’s work

- In the Unite d’Habitation, Le Corbusier designed the apartments on two floors

because of the extremely tight area he had to work within. The Maisonette Towers
is an example of a building who used a similar concept based on the Unite
d’Habitation.
 Technological Innovations
Le Corbusier Revolutionized the world of
Architecture by applying The Golden
Section into his Work. By using
varieties of vertical and horizontal
planes and arranging them according
to human proportions, he brought
Architecture closer to humans . Also
all of his work is mounted on to a flat
ground plane keeping a certain
distance from all nature elements to
emphasize the significance of human
in Architecture. He also introduced a
technique of building without using
load-bearing walls but just simple
dividers to created the separation
between spaces.
 Non-Architectural work of Le
Corbusier
Le Corbusier was an artists as well as a sculptor in edition to being an architect. From a
young age, Le Corbusier was involved in the arts, working as a clock painter in the local clock shop.
He soon attended art school where he developed his own personal styles. Le Corbusier’s ideas
expressed in his art are Purist in nature utilizing geometry and sketch as tools of conveying space
and form. While studying at art school, he permutated ideas of looking to nature for inspiration into
ideas of looking at nature as a source of patterns as well as utilizing certain governing rules as
systems of applying order as well as variety. Subdividing his work allowed him to organize his
work according to the elements in the subject of the work; a practice he began in in 1919 1.

La Femme a L’Accordeon et
Une Biche Nature Morte Images from 35works of Le corbusier le Coureur
 Furniture of Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier is perhaps some of the most influential work of the early nine-teen
hundreds. Unlike other furniture from the period or prior to, Le Corbusier designed his
furniture with the general framing systems as metal and on the exterior. The cushions are
free of any type of connection to any other element of the whole. Le Corbusier also
incorporates Golden Section into his armchair and Grand 2 seat sofa, a practice also
evident in his architecture.2

Table
Resting Chair

Images from www.sunsetsettings.com

and www.modernliving.com
Arm chair
 Works Cited

1 35 Works by Le Corbusier. Sotheby. London: 1987. 429. 420, 412, 414

Baker, Geoffery H. Le Corbusier – The Creative Search, The Formative Years

of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret. Van Nostrand Teinhold, New York: 1996
247 – 263

Gans, Deborah. The Le Corbusier Guide. Princeton Architectural Press,

New York: 1987.

Lyon, Dominique. Le Corbusier Alive. Vilo Publishing, Paris: 1999.

LC10 – P <http://www.modernliving.com/meda/lc10.pdf> accessed on

3/17/2004

2 <http://www.sunsetsettings.com/furniture/cassina/corb_grand_armchair.html> accessed
on 3/17/2004
 Work Cited (cont.)
http://westworld.dmu.ac.uk/architecturenew/express/express.
Html accessed on 2/17/04

http://home.wanadoo.nl/~joostvansanten/RONCHAMP/roncha
.htm accessed on 2/17/04

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/l
ecorbusierc2.shtml accessed on 2/17/04

http://www.bwk.tue.nl/architectuur/dmw/group4/le%20corbu
sier%20unite.htm accessed on 2/17/04

http://www.chbooks.com/online/eastwest/046.html accessed
on 2/17/04