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Le Corbusier

Swiss born architect, theorist and designer Le Corbusier (1887-1965) worked and wrote with a unique vision, energy and clarity that made him one of the most influential figures shaping the international style during the early 1900s. Born Charles Edouard Jeanneret, he rechristened himself Le Corbusier in Paris in 1920, around the time he started his journal L'Esprit Nouveau. An active member of the Parisian art scene and co-founder of the Congrs Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), he championed a minimalist modernism built around the idea of the home as a "machine for living." Le Corbusier originally trained as a watch engraver in his hometown of La Chaux de Fonds at the vocational arts college. He began a successful career as an engraver, in 1902 he was awarded a prize at the Turin Exhibition for a watch engraving, but he soon turned his attention to architecture. In 1905 he worked on his first project, the Villa Fallet, and in 1907 he left for Italy and Paris to study different architectural styles. He worked at the architectural offices of Auguste Perret in Paris and apprenticed himself to Peter Behrens in Berlin for a year in 1910. In 1912 he returned to close the circle of his training years by working as an architecture teacher in La Chaux de Fonds until 1914.
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The Domino House of 1914 represented an emergence of the free-flowing interior plan that would dominate his architectural style. The structural frame of this building was made of reinforced concrete supported by steel pillars. The lack of supporting walls turned the domestic space into an open, industrially elegant environment. In 1917 he moved to Paris where the contagious immediacy of the art scene inspired him to produce a number of paintings. Along with painter Amde Ozenfant he wrote the manifesto, "Aprs le Cubisme" championing a new post-cubist purism. Le Corbusier designed Ozenfant's home in 1922. Throughout the 1920s Le Corbusier solidified his philosophies about design and began publishing books and journals. In 1923 he came out with his book, Towards a New Architecture which was followed, in 1926, by Five Points of a New Architecture wherein he outlined architectural guidelines such as the necessity of a roof terrace, an unrestricted interior space, expansive windows, a plain exterior and columns for structural support. In 1928 he began creating furnishings for his buildings as part of a collaboration with Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. The three created a series of tubular steel furniture that they exhibited at the 1929 Salon d'Automne in Paris and from which emerged some of the most lasting icons of the international style. The furniture, entitled as a group, "Equipment for Living," was designed in rich leather or cowhide upholstery and featured the "B 302" swivel chair, the "B301" armchair and the "B 306" chaise longue, which Le Corbusier referred to as the "relaxing machine." Thonet

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originally manufactured these pieces and many have been reissued in recent years by Cassina as part of their line of classics. Le Corbusier, Jeanneret and Perriand also designed the "Grand Confort" furniture, which was a plump, upholstered answer to the lean art deco shapes of the other series.

Horizontal windows provide even illumination and ventilation. 5. The freely-designed facade, unconstrained by load-bearing considerations, consists of a thin skin of wall and windows.
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Villa Savoye
The Villa Savoye is considered by many to be the seminal work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. Situated at Poissy, outside of Paris, it is one of the most recognisable architectural presentations of the International Style. Construction was substantially completed ca. 1929. The house was emblematic of Le Corbusier work in that it addressed "The Five Points", his basic tenets of a new aesthetic of architecture constructed in reinforced concrete: The pilotis, or ground-level supporting columns, elevate the building from the damp earth and allow the garden to flow beneath. 2. A flat roof terrace reclaims the area of the building site for domestic purposes, including a garden area. 3. The free plan, made possible by the elimination of load-bearing walls, consists of partitions placed where they are needed without regard for those on adjoining levels.
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The Villa Savoye was designed as a weekend country house and is situated just outside of the small village of Poissy in a meadow which was originally surrounded by trees. The polychromatic interior contrasts with the primarily white exterior. Vertical circulation is facilitated by ramps as well as stairs. The house fell into ruin during World War II but has since been restored and is open for viewing. Corbusier designed the building to use a flat roof, a move he said was for functionality, though may have been partly due to way it looked for him. Indeed the roof failed its functionality, as the roof leaked, causing the owners to attempt to take Corbusier to court. However at the same time WW2 broke out, and Corbusier left the area, leaving the building in a state of disrepair.

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The Villa Savoye is a wonderful demonstration of Le Corbusier's 'five points of a new architecture', which he developed in 1927, exploiting the new opportunities of reinforced concrete:

The pilotis (supporting columns): 'The house on pilotis! The house is firmly driven into the ground - a dark and often damp site. The reinforced concrete gives us the pilotis. The house is up in the air, far from the ground: the garden runs under the house...'

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The roof gardens: '...the garden is also over the house, on the roof... Reinforced concrete is the new way to create a unified roof structure. Reinforced concrete expands considerably. The expansion makes the work crack at times of sudden shrinkage. Instead of trying to evacuate the rainwater quickly, endeavor on the contrary to maintain a constant humidity on the concrete of the terrace and hence an even temperature on the reinforced concrete. One particular protective measure: sand covered with thick concrete slabs, with widely spaced joints; these joints are sown with grass.'

Free plan: 'Until now: load-bearing walls; from the ground they are superimposed, forming the ground floor and the upper stories, up to the eaves. The layout is a slave to the supporting walls. Reinforced concrete in the house provides a free plan! The floors are no longer superimposed by partition walls. They are free.'

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The horizontal window: 'The window is one of the essential features of the house. Progress brings liberation. Reinforced concrete provides a revolution in the history of the window. Windows can run from one end of the facade to the other.'

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Floor plan

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The modular scale

In 1887 Charles-Edouard Jeanneret(later called Le Corbusier) was born. He first studied with Charles LEplattenier, who always stressed nature. His first job was with Peret where he worked from 1908 to 1909 in Paris. During that time he also probably made many trips to Notre Dame. Notre Dame fascinated him especially the way in which they used the Golden ratio in it. After he decided to take a trip across Europe. His first stop was in Germany where he took with Peter Behrens who probably taught him many of the werkbund fundamentals of which consisted of the Golden Ratio, more that likely it was this influence that first introduced this great proportion to him which he based so many things on. There also rumor that he worked side by side with the great Walter Gropius who also has a page dedicated to him on this website. From there he went to Athens where he spent 7 weeks studying the Parthenon and other ancient Greek buildings. In fact he said, "The Parthenon is certainly one of the purest works of art that man ever made." He also said it was the form that Greek scale, the Greek measure of man that amazed him. That meaning that it was the way that the Greeks used the Golden ratio throughout their work which seemed so inspirational to him. Throughout the rest of his work you can almost always see some way in which he used the Golden Ratio. In 1923 he published Vers Un Architecture which shows a new form of Architecture based on many old buildings which incorporated the golden ratio. Also in his book he portrayed many correlations between modern modes of transportation and the golden ratio. Le Corbusier spent much of his life showing the
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world this great ratio. In much of his paintings after 1926 he introduces humans and human proportions into his paintings. In 1928 he actually won the best design in the League of Nations, but unfortunately his work cannot be seen for the fact that he used the wrong ink. Between 1943 and 1947 he works on Le Modular a great measuring device he used on all his works past 1947 especially Ron Champs, the of Le Modular design. Le Modular consisted of a man of certain proportions. It starts of with a base grown out of the Fibonacci sequence which he redeveloped without even knowing Fibonacci did. It consists of several squares constructed of a base consisting of a "quasi-Finbonacci" series this system tied many human proportions and in fact Einstein said, "it made the bad difficult and the good easy." If you look at from foot to navel is the golden rectangle and from navel to the arm top forms a golden rectangle with the given with. By using certain numbers from his "quasi-Fibonacci" created part of his modular he would create the most perfect part of human proportions. This great idea which answered the problem of how space-time conceptions of modern physics can be brought back into the neighborhood of the arts and visualized in terms of their theories o proportion. It was this that Le Corbusier strove to find and it was one of his greatest triumphs. Le Corbusier did attempt to use the Golden Spiral with the design of the infinite growing museum, but his work in that was not very astounding and other people, like Tatlin and Wright achieved a much more suprising finish.

( He also introduce Modular system : a scale of proportion based on the human and natural. Modular system Section was used by classical Greek mathematicians; a:b = (a+b). Le Corbusier explored the number from the GOLDEN SECTION to develop the red Series and the blue Series. The series consisted of mathematical relation to a size of a man in various position. Modular system of proportion defined the average height of human body as 1.75m. Thus le Corbusier calculated that the ideal height for room was 2.26m. )

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The Unit d'Habitation

educational facilities, and a hotel. The flat roof is designed as a communal terrace with sculptural ventilation stacks and a swimming pool. Inside, corridors run through the centre of the long axis of every third floor of the building, with each apartment lying on two levels, and stretching from one side of the building to the other, with a balcony. In the block's planning, the architect heavily drew on his study of the Soviet Communal housing project, the Narkomfin Building. Appropriately, unlike many of the inferior system-built blocks it inspired, which lack the original's generous proportions, communal facilities and parkland setting, the Unit is popular with its residents and is now mainly occupied by middle-class professionals. The building is constructed in bton brut (rough-cast concrete), as the hoped-for steel frame proved too expensive in light of post-War shortages. The replacement material influenced the Brutalist movement, and the building inspired several housing complexes including the Alton West estate in Roehampton, London, and Park Hill in Sheffield. These buildings have attracted a great deal of criticism. Other, more successful, manifestations of the Unit include Chamberlin, Powell & Bon's Barbican Estate (completed 1982), Gordon Tait's Samuda Estate, Isle of Dogs (1965) and Ern Goldfinger's Trellick Tower (1972), all in London.

The Unit d'Habitation (French, literally, "Housing Unity" or "Housing Unit" since Unit has a double meaning in French) is the name of a modernist residential housing design principle developed by Le Corbusier (with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afonso), which formed the basis of several housing developments designed by him throughout Europe with this name. The first and most famous of these buildings, also known as Cit Radieuse (radiant city) and, informally, as La Maison du Fada (French - Provenal, "The Lunatic's House"), is located in Marseille, France, built 1947-1952. Probably his most famous work, it proved enormously influential and is often cited as the initial inspiration of the Brutalist architectural style and philosophy. The Marseille building comprises 337 apartments arranged over twelve stories, all suspended on large piloti. The building also incorporates shops, sporting, medical and
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Le Corbusier's utopian city living design was repeated in four more buildings with this name and a very similar design. The other Units were built in Nantes-Rez 1955, Berlin-Westend 1957, Briey 1963 and Firminy 1965.

Ronchamp), France completed in 1954 is considered one of the finest examples of architecture by the late French/Swiss architect Le Corbusier and one of the most important and successful examples of religious architecture in the 20th century, an honor it shares with the Matisse Chapel in Vence.

Structure

Notre Dame du Haut

The structure is made mostly of concrete and is comparatively small, enclosed by thick walls, with the upturned roof supported on columns embedded within the walls, like a sail billowing in the windy currents on the hill top. The Christian Church sees itself as the ship of God, bringing safety and salvation to followers. In the interior, the spaces left between the walls and roof and filled with clerestory windows, as well as the asymmetric light from the wall openings, serve to further reinforce the sacred nature of the space and reinforce the relationship of the building with its surroundings. The lighting in the interior is soft and indirect, from the clerestory windows and reflecting off the whitewashed walls of the chapels with projecting towers. The structure is built mostly of concrete and stone, which was a remnant of the original chapel built on the hilltop site destroyed during World War II. Some have described Ronchamp as the first Post-Modern building. It was constructed in the early 1950s.

Informally known as Ronchamp, the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp (French: Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de
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The main part of the structure consists of two concrete membranes separated by a space of 6'11", forming a shell which constitutes the roof of the building. This roof, both insulating and watertight, is supported by short struts, which form part of a vertical surface of concrete covered with "gunite" and which, in addition, brace the walls of old Vosges stone provided by the former chapel which was destroyed by the bombings. These walls which are without buttresses follow, in plan, the curvilinear forms calculated to provide stability to this rough masonry. A space of several centimeters between the shell of the roof and the vertical envelope of the walls furnishes a significant entry for daylight. The floor of the chapel follows the natural slope of the hill down towards the altar. Certain parts, in particular those upon which the interior and exterior altars rest, are of beautiful white stone from Bourgogne, as are the altars themselves. The towers are constructed of stone masonry and are capped by cement domes. The vertical elements of the chapel are surfaced with mortar sprayed on with a cement gun and then white-washed - both on the interior and exterior. The concrete shell of the roof is left rough, just as it comes from the formwork. Watertightness is effected by a built-up roofing with an exterior cladding of aluminium. The interior the walls are white; the ceiling grey; the bench of African wood created by Savina; the communion bench is of cast iron made by the foundries of the Lure.

Interior, facing External altar The Chapel is The rear of the the altar for pilgrimage partially Chapel days visible on approach

Chapel of Ntre Dame du Haut F-70250 Ronchamp France Le Corbusier 1955 'Here we will build a monument dedicated to nature and we will make it our lives' purpose.' Le Corbusier's 'chapel of our lady of the height' is a pilgrimage chapel, though on most days more frequented by architectural pilgrims than the intended variety. Perched on a commanding hill above the village of Ronchamp, it is the latest of a long history of chapels on the site. Its predecessor was destroyed in fighting in the Second World War, though
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much of its stone is used in the walls of Le Corbusier's building. The thick, curved walls - especially the buttress-shaped south wall - and the vast shell of the concrete roof give the building a massive, sculptural form. Small, brightly painted and apparently irregular windows punched in these thick walls give a dim but exciting light within the cool building, enhanced by further indirect light coming down the three light towers.

'The shell has been put on walls which are absurdly but practically thick. Inside them however are reinforced concrete columns. The shell will rest on these columns but it will not touch the wall. A horizontal crack of light 10cm wide will amaze.'

The heaviness of the walls and roof is misleading. In Le Corbusier's words,

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. 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] south wall provokes astonishment. Vertical triganular frames of reinforced concrete 16cm thick varying, at the base, from a width

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of 3m70 to 1m40 to 50cm at the top, carrying the immense, spreading shell of the roof; the rest, the bays, embrasures and splays which break up the interior wall (and scarcely puncture the facade) is a membrane of concrete 4cm thick sprayed on to expanded metal by cement gun.'

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. Simple, geometric shapes from Le Corbusier's earlier buildings have given way to more subtle, fractal, 'natural' shapes here, leading to the description of Ronchamp as the first Post-Modern building.

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