LE CORBUSIER ARCHITECTURE

Contemporary Architecture and Ideas

Le Corbusier is one of the most prominent architects in the history of Modern architecture. His impact on the conceptual, functional, and artistic sides of architecture, as well as on the art world, are still lasting today.

Le Corbusier was born in 1887 in Switzerland. Originally named "Charles-Édouard Jeanneret", Le Corbusier changed his name in the 1920's. His body of work spans over 5 decades and his influence is found in many countries around the globe. He died in 1965 at the age of 77 years.

A true Renaissance man, Le Corbusier played many roles in his lifetime. While his forays into architecture are of great significance, he also made contributions as a designer, writer, painter, and artist. He studied the affects of architectural design in urban centers with high populations. One of his goals as an architect was to provide multi-unit modern and efficient living spaces in urban settings. This goal was meant to achieve a higher quality of living in overpopulated areas. His projects span the globe, and includes buildings in Europe, India, Russia, South America, and one in North America.

His schooling was focused in the visual arts. He studied at the "La-Chaux-de-Fonds" art school under the architect René Chapallaz. He travelled throughout Europe in his early years, learning as he went and meeting many inspiring artists, inventors, and architects. He was particularly inspired by his visit to the Parthenon in Greece; this visit would later be referenced in the work, "Towards a new Architecture" from 1923. Some of his more notable influences include renowned architect Peter Behrens and Josef Hoffmann.

Earlier Works:

Le Corbusier was working in Switzerland during the first World War. His work was focused on architectural theory and modern applications of these ideas. He designed plans with open floor plans that highlighted the use of concrete slabs supported by thin, concrete columns. This design became the foundation of his architectural design for many years. Eventually, he began his own architectural firm with his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret that would endure until the 1950's when it was interrupted by the second World War.

In 1918, he met Cubist artist Amédée Ozenfant who encouraged him to explore paint as a new medium for his creativity. The two artists collaborated for a period. Together, they created a new movement that rejected the "irrationality" and "romanticism" of cubism. They published a manifesto titled, "Après le cubisme" and the new artistic movement Purism was born. It was in 1920 in the first issue of this magazine that the pseudonym "Le Corbusier", an altered version of his grandfather's name, was used.

Residential Design:

His theoretical studies developed into several different single-family residential home models. Among these was the Maison "Citrohan" which used modern industrial methods and materials. Le Corbusier proposed a three-floor structure, with a double-height living room, bedrooms on the second floor, and a kitchen on the third floor. The roof would be occupied by a sun terrace. On the exterior Le Corbusier installed a stairway to provide second-floor access from the ground level. The design of the façades included large expanses of uninterrupted banks of windows. Le Corbusier and Jeanneret left the interior aesthetically spare, with any movable furniture made of tubular metal frames. Light fixtures usually comprised single, bare bulbs. Interior walls also were left white.

Between 1922 and 1927, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret designed many of these private houses for clients around Paris.

Urban Design:

Le Corbusier's interest in urban design grew out of the urban housing crisis in France in the 1920's. His desire was to create a method of organizing living spaces in an efficient and modern way that would alleviate the stress of urban living. His modern architectural forms provided a new solution that had the potential to raise the quality of life for the struggling lower classes.

His "Immeubles Villas" in 1922 was a project that was designed around large blocks of cell-like individual apartments stocked on top of one another. Each unit had a living space, bedrooms, a kitchen, and a garden terrace.

In a different venture, Le Corbusier undertook the design of an entire imaginary "Contemporary City" that held 3 million occupants. At the center of this plan stood a group of 60-story skyscrapers with steel frames and huge walls of glass. There was also a large transportation system that met at the center of the city that included depts for buses and trains, highway intersections, and even an airport.

In this new industrial spirit, Le Corbusier contributed to a new journal called L'Esprit Nouveau that advocated the use of modern industrial techniques and strategies to transform society into a more efficient environment with a higher standard of living on all socioeconomic levels. He believed that this transformation was necessary.

Le Corbusiers attempts at urban design were not always met with enthusiasm from others. Nevertheless, he maintained an interest in solving the problem of cramped, dirty conditions that existed in the urban core.

Five Points of Architecture:

Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture are best summed up in his work "Villa Savoye".

1) Raised Structure: The bulk of the structure is elevated from the ground and is supported by "pilotis", or, reinforced concrete stilts. These stilts provide the structural support for the dwelling.

2) A Free Facade: the stilts that support the structure allow for non-supporting walls that can assist the archietct's design as he sees fit.

3) Open Floor Plan: like the free facade, the open floor plan is made possible by the system of supporting stilts. This open space was free for the architect to configure into rooms or to re-purpose to fit a certain design.

4) Ribbon Windows: The second floor of the Villa Savoye includes long strips of ribbon windows that allow unencumbered views of the large surrounding yard. These strips of elongated windows allowed for impressive views of the exterior and let in a great amount of natural light.

5) Rooftop Garden: The idea of the rooftop garden was to replace the green area that had been consumed by the building's footprint and to transplant it to the roof of the building., and which constitute the fourth point of his system. The fifth point was the roof garden to compensate for the green area consumed by the building and replacing it on the roof.

Later Works:

In the 1930s, Le Corbusier expanded and reformulated his ideas on urbanism. Ultimately, his idea was to purge the city of its "frightening chaos and saddening monotony". He wished to clean the city of Stockholm through organizational design - to assemble a multitude of buildings that would bring order and calm to the urban center. In the end, his design was never realized. Later, architects would attempt to reinterpret his designs without much success.

After the second World War, Le Corbusier attempted to realize his urban planning schemes on a smaller scale by constructing a series of housing blocks around France. The most famous of these was the "Unité d'Habitation" of Marseilles (1946–1952).

His work then moved to India, where Le Corbusier designed many administration buildings including a courthouse, parliament building and a university. He also designed the general layout of the city dividing it into sectors.

A Modulor System:

Le Corbusier used the golden ratio in his Modulor system for the scale of architectural proportion. He saw this system as a continuation of the long tradition of Vitruvius, Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man", the work of Leon Battista Alberti, and others who used the proportions of the human body to improve the appearance and function of architecture. In addition to the golden ratio, Le Corbusier based the system on human measurements, Fibonacci numbers, and the double unit.

Le Corbusier's 1927 Villa Stein in Garches exemplified the Modulor system's application. The villa's rectangular ground plan, elevation, and inner structure closely approximate golden rectangles.

Le Corbusier placed systems of harmony and proportion at the centre of his design philosophy. His faith in the mathematical order of the universe was closely bound to the golden section and the Fibonacci series, which he described as "rhythms apparent to the eye and clear in their relations with one another. And these rhythms are at the very root of human activities. They resound in Man by an organic inevitability, the same fine inevitability which causes the tracing out of the Golden Section by children, old men, savages, and the learned."

Large Scale Sculpture:

The Open Hand Monument in India is a recurring motif in Le Corbusier's architecture. To him, it was a sign of "peace and reconciliation. It is open to give and open to receive." The largest of the many Open Hand sculptures that Le Corbusier created is a 28 meter high version in Chandigarh, India.

Furniture:

Corbusier said: "Chairs are architecture, sofas are bourgeois."

Le Corbusier began experimenting with furniture design in 1928. His cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, also collaborated on many of the designs. Le Corbusier defined three different furniture types: type-needs, type-furniture, and human-limb objects. He defined human-limb objects as: "Extensions of our limbs and adapted to human functions that are type-needs and type-functions, therefore type-objects and type-furniture. The human-limb object is a docile servant. A good servant is discreet and self-effacing in order to leave his master free. Certainly, works of art are tools, beautiful tools. And long live the good taste manifested by choice, subtlety, proportion, and harmony".

In the year 1964, while Le Corbusier was still alive, Cassina S.p.A. of Milan acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture his furniture designs. Today many copies exist, but Cassina is still the only manufacturer authorized by the Fondation Le Corbusier.

In Remembrance:

Following his death in 1965, Le Corbusier was widely regarded as one of the most prominent figures in Modern architectural design. He had made considerable impact in many cultures. President Lydon Johnson noted that, "His influence was universal and his works are invested with a permanent quality possessed by those of very few artists in our history". The Soviet Union added, "Modern architecture has lost its greatest master".

Notable Works:

Ronchamp Chapel
Sainte Marie de La Tourette
National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, Japan
Centre Le Corbusier (Heidi Weber Museum) in Zurich-Seefeld (Zürichhorn)
Palace of Justice, Chandigarh
Assembly building, Chandigarh, India
Secretariat building, Chandigarh, India
Villa Fallet, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (1905)
Pavillon de L'Esprit Nouveau, Paris (destroyed) (1924)
Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine, France (1928)
Cité du Refuge, Armée du Salut, Paris, France (1929)
Pavillon Suisse, Cité Universitaire, Paris (1930)
Maison Errazuriz, Chile (1930)
Tsentrosoyuz, Moscow, USSR (1933)
Palace of Ministry of National Education and Public Health, Rio de Janeiro (1936)
The "Cartesian" sky-scraper (1938)
Unité d'Habitation, Marseille, France (1947–1952)
Curutchet House, La Plata, Argentina(1948)
United Nations headquarters, New York City (Consultant) (1949–1952)
Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France (1950–1954)
Unité d'Habitation of Nantes-Rezé, Nantes, France(1952)
Buildings in Chandigarh, India (1952 - 1959)
o 1952: Palace of Justice (Chandigarh)
o 1952: Museum and Gallery of Art (Chandigarh)
o 1953: Secretariat Building (Chandigarh)
o 1953: Governor's Palace (Chandigarh)
o 1955: Palace of Assembly (Chandigarh)
o 1956: Shodan House (Chandigarh)
o 1959: Government College of Art (GCA) and the Chandigarh College of Architecture(CCA) (Chandigarh)

Museum at Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India (1956)
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (1957)
Maison du Brésil, Cité Universitaire, Paris (1957)
Unité d'Habitation of Berlin-Charlottenburg, Flatowallee 16, Berlin (1957)
Unité d'Habitation of Meaux, France (1957)
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (1961)
House of Man, Zurich, Switzerland (1963)
Unité d'Habitation of Firminy, France (1964)
Heidi Weber Museum (Centre Le Corbusier), Zurich, Switzerland (1967)

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