ARCH417Class10

Le Corbusier(1887-1965)• Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris• La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (Swiss, later

becomes French citizen)• attends École des Arts Décoratifs at La Chaux-de-

Fonds to study watch engraving and enamelling (this is his father's métier)

Canton Map of Switzerland (by administrative district)Le Corbusier was from Neuchatel on French border

Town was rebuilt after huge fire in 1794; center of watch-making industry.

straight lines

“Man walks in a straight line because he has a goal and knows where he is going; he has made up his mind to reach some particular place and he goes straight to it. The pack-donkey meanders along, meditates a little in his scatter-brained and distracted fashion, he zigzags in order to avoid the larger stones, or to ease the climb, or to gain a little shade; he takes the line of least resistance...The Pack-Donkey’s Way is responsible for the plan of every continental city.”

—Le Corbusier, "City of Tomorrow," (1925)

Le Corbusier, student engraving projet

Man RayPortrait of Le Corbusier1921

Corbu's eyesight was not goodenough to follow in his father's profession: watch engraving and enamelling

Le Corbusier, Maison Blanche, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1912

axonometric viewMaison Blanche

Le Corbusier, Villa Schwob, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1916

• 1910 commissioned by the Art School of La Chaux-de-Fonds to research the decorative arts movement in Germany.

• 1912 wrote Etude sur le movement d’art decoratif en Allemagne (Study of the decorative art movement in Germany).

• Meets Walter Gropius and Mies Van der Rohe.

1919 Launches "L’Esprit Nouveau" ("The New Spirit") with Amedée Ozenfant and others, venue for publishing work.

Figure 12:Manager’s card for L’Esprit Nouveau magazine Reference:www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sysId=13&IrisObjectId=6725&sysLanguage=en-en&itemPos=89&itemCount=300&sysParentId=15

"Ville Contemporaine" (1922)

Vers une architecture 1923 Published in English in 1927 as Towards a New Architecture.

1924

• Open architecture practice in Paris.

• Publishes L’Urbanisme (based on articles in L’Esprit Nouveau).

Villa Savoye (1928)

Patrícia Aldeia, nº20

Poissy, suburban Paris

5 POINTS OF ARCHITECTURE

The following points in no way relate to aesthetic fantasies or a striving for fashionable effects, but concern architectural facts that imply an entirely new kind of building, from the dwelling house to palatial edifices.

1. THE SUPPORTS2. THE ROOF GARDENS3. THE FREE DESIGNING OF THE GROUND PLAN4. THE HORIZONTAL WINDOW5. FREE DESIGN OF THE FAÇADE

The five essential points set out above represent a fundamentally new aesthetic. Nothing is left to us of the architecture of past epochs, just as we can no longer derive any benefit from the literary and historical teaching given in schools.

5 POINTS OF ARCHITECTURE:2

4

31

5

Figure 26: Villa SavoyeReference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VillaSavoye.jpg

1. Support of ground-level pilotis, elevating the building from the earth and allowed an extended continuity of the garden beneath.

2. Functional roof, serving as a garden and terrace, reclaiming for nature the land occupied by the building.

3. Free floor plan, relieved of load-bearing walls, allowing walls to be placed freely and only where aesthetically needed.

4. Long horizontal windows, providing illumination and ventilation.

5. Freely-designed facades, serving only as a skin of the wall and windows and unconstrained by load-bearing considerations.

1. All four sides of the building was designed in response to the view and the orientation of the sun.

2. 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.

3. The four columns in the entrance hall seemingly direct the visitor up the ramp.

4. The ramp, that can be seen from almost everywhere in the house continues up to the first floor living area and salon before continuing externally from the first floor roof terrace up to the second floor solarium.

detail of plan, ground floor

Interiores

CARPENTER CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS (1963)

5 POINTS OF ARCHITECTURE:

1

3

4

2

5

Figure 28: Carpenter Center For Visual ArtsReference:http://www.google.co.in/imgres?newwindow=1&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=624&tbm=isch&tbnid=Pwe6OudP1Le3xM:&imgrefurl=https://exploringvenustas.wordpress.com/tag/carpentercenterforthevisualarts/&docid=BixPbEitwHnAlM&imgurl=http://exploringvenustas.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/carpentercenterforthevisualarts.jpg&w=640&h=424&ei=Xmx6UrXH8HRrQe6j4GIDw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:1,s:0,i:81&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=182&tbnw=276&start=0&ndsp=16&tx=164&ty=145

1. Pilotis – The replacement of supporting walls by a grid of reinforced concrete columns that bears the load of the structure is the basis of the new aesthetic.

2. Roof gardens – The flat roof can be utilized for any purpose while also providing essential protection to the concrete roof.

3. The free designing of the ground plan – The absence of supporting walls means that the house is unrestrained in its internal usage.

4. The free design of façade – By separating the exterior of the building from its structural function the façade becomes free.

5. The horizontal window – The façade can be cut along its entire length to allow rooms to be lit equally.

on furniture

Le Corbusier collaborated with the architect Charlotte Perriand and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret to design furniture.

”Chairs are architecture, sofas are bourgeois.”

LC-3 (1928)

LC-4 (1928)

1928

Helps to found CIAM (Congress Internationaux d’architecture moderne) at the castle of La Sarraz, in Switzerland.

1935La Ville Radieuse (The Radiant City).

• First trip to the USA, where he lectures in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Madison and Hartford.

1950 • Starts working on the Chapel at Ronchamp.• Hired to consult to the administration of Punjab for the planning of

the new capital city of Chandigarh, along with Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew.

1951 18 February, first trip to India : visits Chandigarh and Ahmadabad.Plans for the U.N.E.S.C.O. Headquarters in Paris are rejected.Presentation of the "Open Hand" monument in Chandigarh.

1955

Trip to Chandigarh for the inauguration of the High Court building by Jawaharlal Nehru.

SAINTE MARIE DE LA TOURETTE (1956-1960)

FIGURE 37: SECTION DRAWING AND EXTERIOR VIEWSOURCE: http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbc-drawing.cgi/Convent_of_La_Tourette.html/La_Tourette_Plan_1.jpg