Le Corbusier
 Le Corbusier studying architectural plans and a small model of building in his office, Paris, 1946. | |
| Born |
October 6, 1887 Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Died |
August 27, 1965 (aged 77) Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France |
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier (1887 – 1965), was an architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer and one of the pioneers of what is now called modern architecture. His career spanned five decades, with his buildings constructed throughout Europe, India, and America.
Life and work
He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930. Young Jeanneret was attracted to the visual arts and studied watch engraving at the La-Chaux-de-Fonds Art School, under Charles L’Eplattenier (1900). In 1904, he entered the Advanced Decorative Arts Course (based at the Art School) directed by Charles L’Eplattenier, who acquaintes Le Corbusier with architecture.
A member of the Board of the Art School, Louis Fallet commissioned the young architect to design a villa (Villa Fallet) in La Chaux-de-Fonds, which he built in collaboration with the architect René Chapallaz. It was his first commission as an architect at the age of 17. It was completed in 1905. Now it is recognised as a building of cultural significance in Switzerland.
In September 1907, Le Corbusier took a trip to Italy for two and a half month (Milan, Florence etc.), and on his way back in Vienna he worked on the plans for the Stolzer and Jacquemet villas (La Chaux-de-Fonds). In Paris, he worked for Auguste and Gustave Perret as draughtsman, half-time (1908). In autumn 1909 he returned to La Chaux-de-Fonds to supervise construction of the Stotzer and Jacquemet villas.
In May 1911, he left Dresden for a journey to the East: Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Kasanlik, Istanbul, le Mount Athos (21 days), Athens and southern Italy, in the company of his friend Auguste Klipstein, an art history student. During this trip, he made numerous drawings, sketches and notes in his sketchbooks, as well as several hundred photographs.
In 1912, he built for his parents the villa Jeanneret-Perret in the rue de la Montagne and the Villa Favre-Jacot in the town of Le Locle.
Next year he had an exhibition of 10 watercolors Le langage des Pierres [The Language of Stones], at the Salon d’Automne, Paris and received the certificate of competency for teaching art.
In 1914, he travels to Cologne for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition and conference and begins studies on his Dom-ino concrete house project. The name (domino) is from the floor plan resembled a domino game piece and because the units could be aligned in a series like dominoes, to make row houses of different pattern.
In 1915, he works on his manuscript La construction des villes. He builds Villa Schwob and the Scala cinema in La Chaux-de-Fonds (1916).
In 1917 he leaves his native town (La Chaux-de-Fonds) and opens his first Parisian architecture studio at 20 rue de Belzunce (10th arrondissement), then at 29 rue d’Astorg (8th arrondissement). He lives in Paris at 20 rue Jacob (6th arrondissement) until 1933. He works as consultant to the SABA (Société d’application du béton armé) from April 1917 to January 1919.
In 1918 Le Corbusier paints La cheminée and have the Purist exhibition at the Galerie Thomas in Paris, with the painter Amédée Ozenfant.
In 1919 he launches L’Esprit Nouveau magazine with Amédée Ozenfant and Paul Dermée.
1920 is important in his biography because he adopts the pseudonym "Le Corbusier" for his architectural persona, derived from his maternal grandfather, Lecorbésier. Adopting a single name to identify oneself was in vogue by artists in many fields during that era, especially in Paris.
In 1921 he exhibits paintings ("des peintures puristes") with Amédée Ozenfant in the Galerie Druet (Paris). On the graphic poster appears in block capital the name "Jeanneret".
In 1923 he publishes Vers une Architecture (based on articles published in "L’Esprit Nouveau"), published in English in 1927 as Towards a New Architecture. One year later he establishes his architectural office at 35 rue de Sèvres (6th arrondissement) and gives lectures in Geneva, Lausanne and Prague. Same year he publishes L’Urbanisme (based on articles in L’Esprit Nouveau magazine).
He publishes in 1925 Almanach d’architecture moderne (An Almanach of modern architecture) and L’Art décoratif d’aujourd’hui (Decorative Art of Today) and (with Amédée Ozenfant) La Peinture Moderne (Modern Painting). All books are based on articles published or intended for "L’Esprit Nouveau". Le Corbusier builds Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau (Paris) and the Pessac housing estate near Bordeaux (1925).
In 1926 he publishes Architecture d’époque machiniste (Architecture of the machine age), on the same year when his father (Georges Edouard Jeanneret) dies. He lectures in Madrid (1927), Prague and Moscow (1928), Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Frankfurt (1929).
In 1930 he takes French nationality and marry Yvonne Gallis on 18th December. And he will publish Précisions sur un état présent de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme (based on his 1929 lectures in South America).
In 1937 he receives the title of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government. He publishes Quand les Cathédrales étaient blanches (When the Cathedrals were white) and he builds the "Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux at the International Exhibition in Paris.
In 1938 he had painting exhibitions at the Kunsthaus (Zürich) and at the Louis Carré Gallery (Paris), under the name "Le Corbusier". He publishes Des canons, des munitions? Merci! Des logis... S.V.P (Guns and ammunition? No thanks! Give us housing please) and Ilôt Insalubre N° 6 (Insanitary Zone N° 6). He paints eight wall murals in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in Eileen Gray’s house (Villa E1027).
In 1939 he publishes Le lyrisme des temps nouveaux et l’urbanisme (The lyricism of the new age and urbanism) in the French magazine Le Point.
Le Corbusier closes his office at 35 rue de Sèvres on 11 June 1940 and leaves for Ozon in the Pyrenees with Yvonne, and Pierre Jeanneret (his son) and had a extended stay in Vichy (1941).
Works
Villa Jeanneret-Perret, ca. 1912.
Villa Le Lac at Corseaux on Lake Geneva, 1920s.
The model of Villa Radieuse and Le Corbusier, 1930s.
Le Corbusier with a model of Villa Savoye, 1935.
- Selection
- Villa Fallet, Switzerland, 1905
- Villa Stotzer, Switzerland, 1907
- Villa La Roche, Paris, France, 1923
- Villas at Weissenhof Estate, Stuttgart, Germany, 1927
- Tsentrosoyuz, Moscow, Russia, 1928
- Maison Errazuriz, Chile, 1930
- Curutchet House, La Plata, Argentina, 1949
- United Nations headquarters, New York City, 1952
- Mill Owners' Association Building, Ahmedabad, India, 1951
- National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan, 1957
- Philips Pavilion at the World Expositon Brussels, Belgium, 1958
- Center for Electronic Calculus, Olivetti, Milan, Italy, 1961
- Church of Saint-Pierre, Firminy, Firminy, France, designed in 1960, built posthumously and completed under José Oubrerie's guidance, 2006
Literature
- By Le Corbusier
- Étude sur le mouvement d’art décoratif en Allemagne (Study of the decorative art movement in Germany), 1912. (in French)
- Vers une architecture, 1923. (in French)
- L'Urbanisme, 1924.
- Towards a New Architecture, 1931; 1986.
- El viaje de Oriente, 1984; 1993. (in Spanish) [1]
- Analisis de la Forma, 1984. (in Spanish) [2]
- Willy Boesiger, Oscar Stonorov, Max Bill (eds.), Le Corbusier - Oeuvre complete, vol. 1 (1910-1929), Vol. 2 (1929-1934), Vol. 3 (1934-1938), Vol. 4 (1938-1946), Vol. 5 (1946-1952), Vol. 6 (1952-1957), Vol. 7 (1957-1965), Vol. 8 (1965-1969) (French, English and German Edition), 1990-.
- About Le Corbusier
- Jacques Lucan, Le Corbusier - Une Encyclopedie, 1987 (in French)
- Curtis, William J.R., Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms, Phaidon, 1994
- Frampton, Kenneth, Le Corbusier, London, Thames and Hudson, 2001
- Eliel, Carol S., L'Esprit Nouveau: Purism in Paris, 1918 - 1925. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002
- Flora Samuel, Le Corbusier in Detail, 2007
- http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79183
