The Architecture and Philosophy

of Le Corbusier
Prof.K.Mohan, Principal
ABIT-PMCA
• Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, widely known as Le
Corbusier (October 6, 1887– August 27, 1965), was a
Swiss (naturalized French) architect, famous for his
contributions to what is now called modernism, or
the International Style.
• He was a pioneer in theoretical studies of modern
design and was dedicated to providing better living
conditions for the residents of crowded cities.
• His career spanned five decades, with iconic
buildings constructed across central Europe, India,
Russia, and one structure in the United States. He
was also an urban planner, painter, sculptor, writer
and furniture designer.
• "You employ stone, wood and
concrete, and with these
materials you build houses and
palaces: that is construction.
Ingenuity is at work. But
suddenly you touch my heart,
you do me good. I am happy
and I say: "This is beautiful.
That is Architecture. Art enters
in......"
• "Architecture is the masterly,
correct and magnificent play of
masses brought together in
light."
• "Space and light and order.
Those are the things that men
need just as much as they need
bread or a place to sleep."
• Swiss ten francs banknote with Le Corbusier's
portrait (left)
• That which is most significant about Le Corbusier is a
philosophy he promoted in his life which in turn influenced
many other architects and caused a paradigm shift in their
thinking.

• His main innovation was to greatly enlarge the scale of

buildings. And to strip them of all excess ornament and
clutter. The "clean lines" and "box like" shapes were named
the International Style.
• He longed for buildings that would house tens of thousands
of people. He was convinced this was the solution to
humanities problems.
• But not content to draw images which could not be realized,
he worked out a construction method based on steel
reinforced concrete floors and walls all supported by
massive columns.
• He went on to build huge complexes of
apartments and condominiums. He inspired
like buildings in many other countries.
• In America, were built many large housing
projects inspired in part by his ideas. Years
later, these buildings were deemed a failure
and torn down.
• Le Corbusier conceptualized that buildings were machines
for living.
• This idea was a direct result of the functionality principle of
the style.
• As mechanized parts move efficiently within a machine,
mechanized human workers must be able to operate
efficiently within a building.
• The ability to accomplish tasks easily is an attractive
thought, but the idea of people being mobile components of
a machine is somewhat degenerating.
• In a time of development and progress, feelings of the
individual were often overlooked. International Style was
not about feelings, however. It was about science and
functionality.
• The Radiant City
• This was his idea of a utopian city. It began with pre-
fabricated apartment houses which formed the central focus
of the city.
• He envisioned a very dense development of 2,700
inhabitants with fourteen square meters of space per
person. It was his intention to put this in the Paris 4th
district.
• Each complex was equipped with a catering section in the
basement, which would prepare daily meals. On top of the
apartment buildinds were roof top gardens.
• Children were to be dropped off at daycare centers and
raised by "scientifically trained professionals".
• The concept was created in the image of Corbusier himself,
he went to a lot of trouble to accomodate those things
which he himself loved to do; daytime activities like
basketball and laying in the sun.
• Nowhere in the plan was mentioned bars, pubs, cabarets or
nightclubs.
• Ville radieuse
• In his Plan Voisin de
Paris, Le Corbusier
proposed the demolition
of vast sections of Paris –
especially the second,
third, ninth and tenth
arrondissements – and
replaced these historic
sections with Le
Corbusier high-rise
complexes on a grand
scale.
• Each of the projected
facilities would hold
three thousand people,
and free them spatially
from the dead hand of
the past.
• Le Corbusier’s plan for a large city, The
Contemporary City for Three Million
inhabitants, which was exhibited at the Salon
d’Automne in 1922, revealed his utopian
ideals: a frighteningly totalitarian approach to
providing standardized, uniform housing,
much of it in high-rise blocks.
• His vision was total ,from small scale
considerations like cupboards and lighting to
the concept of housing entire cities.
• Projects designed by Le Corbusier
• Notre Dame Du Haut- Ronchamp, France
• Palace of the League of Nations - Geneva, Switzerland
• Front-de-Seine - Paris 15th district, Paris, France
• Aero-club de Doncourt - Conflans, France
• High Court (Palais de justice) - Chandigarh, India
• Visual Arts Center - Cambridge, MA USA
• Museum of Modern Western Art - Tokyo, Japan
• Unité d'habitation de Marseille - Marseille, France
• Centrosoyus - Moscow, Russia
• Centre culturel (musée) - Ahmedabad, India
• Baizeau - Carthago (Sainte Monique), Tunisia
• Immeuble Clarté - Genève, Switzerland
• Galerie des arts d'outre mer - Paris, France
• Dr.Currutchet's House - 1900 La Plata, Argentina - House of
the College of architects from La Plata, designed 1949 in
collaboration with M.Cadierno.
• Maison Errazuris - Chili
• Ministry of Education and Public Health - Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
• Pavillion de l'Esprit Nouveau - Bologna, Italy
• Pavillion Philips - Brussel, Belgium
• Centre de réadaptation et gymnastiqe - Paris, France
• Quartiers Moderne Frugès a Pessac - Bordeaux, France- his
Citrohan House Plans of 1919. A Workers housing project
near Bordeaux ordered by M. Henry Frugès, designed 1925
in collaboration with Pierre Jeanneret. In 1997 many houses
are restored to original state. One house in original state,
now a museum.
• Plan for the City of Chandigarh - Punjab, India
• Le Corbusier also
created TheModulor,
a system of relations,
based on human
proportions, and thus
on the GoldenGrid.
• He applied the
Modulor to the
interior and exterior
of his buildings.
• AlbertEinsteinsaid
about the Modulor:
"The Modulor makes
it easy to do good
things, and hard to do
bad things."
• In 1925, at the time when he conceived the
Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau, Le Corbusier
turned to the problem of furniture as part of
home equipment.
• He sketched several designs for furniture, and
at the Salon d'Automne in 1929 presented, in
collaboration with Pierre Jeanneret et
Charlotte Perriand, several models, including
an armchair with tip-up back, a big and small
version of the grand confort armchair, a chaise
longue, a table and standard storage units.
• Furniture designed by Le Corbusier
• LC2 chair, “cushion basket”
• Le Corbusier devoted several hours a day to painting.
Around 450 canvases painted from 1918 (the year when he
met the painter Ozenfant with whom he created Purism)
until he died in 1965.
• In 1945, Joseph Savina, a cabinetmaker from Brittany,
made a wooden sculpture after a painting by Le
Corbusier. This experiment led to a twenty-year
collaboration, during which forty-four sculptures
were made in natural or polychrome wood.
• Twenty-seven tapestry cartoons were made by Le Corbusier,
some of them in collaboration with P. Baudouin, between
1936 and 1965. Most of the subjects are inspired by his
paintings.
• There are about one hundred engraved works including
etchings, aquafortes and lithograph, some of which (Petite
Confidencce, Panurge, Cortège, Entre-Deux, La mer est
toujours présente Poème de l'Angle Droit) are published in
the form of portfolios.
• About one hundred works, using this technique on
different backing, have been identified
• This collection includes a number of works (about 8000)
using diffrent techniques and supports : travel sketches,
landscapes, surveys, studiesfor paintings, gouache paintings
and watercolours.
• Between 1952 and 1965, Le Corbusier made a number of
enamels (about thirty) in the Jean Martin studios in Luynes,
including those for the entrance doors of the Assembly at
Chandigarh and the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut at
Ronchamp.
• Notre Dame Du Haut- Ronchamp, France
• As a young architect Le Corbusier was fortunate enough to work in the
office of both Auguste Perret and Peter Behens.
• From the former he was able to comprehend the possibilities of
reinforced concrete and from the latter he was able to learn the positive
implications of combining design with large scale mechanization.
• Both themes came together in his Dom-ino housing scheme (1914-1915)
with which he hoped to provide quick cheap dwellings.
• Designed as a kit, each unit consisted of a six-pillared reinforced concrete
frame which supported cantilevered slabs of reinforced concrete.
• The ‘bare bones’ design based on strict geometric principles and flexible
in the manner in which the building could be sub-divided, highlighted his
preoccupation with creating a new basic system of construction.
• The walls no longer carried any weight so that they could be placed
anywhere.
• Domino House (perspective drawing)
• Le Corbusier. 1914.
 Maison Citrohan (1919-22)

• In October 1920, Le Corbusier exhibited his model house at

the Salon d’ Automne in Paris.
• He named it the Maison Citrohan as an intended
complement to the Citroen automobile company and
because he believed it to be as efficient as the new
machines which were transforming twentieth century life.
• Maison Citrohan was Le Corbusier’s answer to the prevailing
economic conditions in that he intended the side walls to be
of masonry so that they could be built by workers anywhere
in the country. The floors and roof were to be of reinforced
concrete
• Le Corbusier’s sketches for the Maison
Citrohan (1919-22) reveals the landmarks of
his own style- a geometric white block
constructed out of concrete, raised on slender
columns (pilotis), a flat roof, and lots of
windows set flush with the wall and terraces.
• Each element of the house was reduced to its
bare functional elements, geometrically
expressed- thus it became ( in Le Corbusier’s
much quoted phrase) a ‘machine for living in’
• Citrohan House
• Le Corbusier. 1920-22
• Citrohan House (facade,plaster model)
• Le Corbusier. 1920-22
• Maison de la
Roche (floor
plans)
• Paris, France.
Le Corbusier.
1923.
• Villas La Roche-Jeanneret
• Maison de la Roche (entrance hall)
• Paris, France. Le Corbusier. 1923.
• Villa (Stein House) Le Corbusier, Garches,
France 1927-28
• Villa Jeanneret
• Villa Schwob
• Villa Shodan
• Kharawala road -
Ahmedabad
• Maisons Jaoul
• Architecture was a significant part of International
Modern style and even today, buildings of this style
are widespread.
• They are “distinguished by flat roofs and large areas
of glazing” (Morrison).
• Villa Sovoy, created in 1929 by Le Corbusier came
the closest to being the exemplar of this style.
• This building, though an early model, displayed the
unadorned simple flat and curved walls, roof and
floor. The curve of the house was beautifully simple,
yet simply functional.
• Villa Savoye
(elev.,section,axon.,plan)
• Poissy, France. Le
Corbusier. 1928-29
• 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:
• Villa Savoye
• Villa Savoye
82 rue de Villiers
78300 Poissy
France
• Villa Savoye (exterior,north-east side)
• Poissy, France. Le Corbusier. 1928-29.
• One of the most famous houses of
the modern movement in
architecture, the Villa Savoye is a
masterpiece of Le Corbusier’s purist
design.
• It is perhaps the best example of Le
Corbusier’s goal to create a house
which would be a “ machine a
habiter”, a machine for living (in).
• The Villa Savoye was the
culmination of many years of design,
and the basis for much of Le
Corbusier’s later architecture.
• As with the church of Notre Dame
du Haut, Ronchap, the building looks
different from every angle.
• After falling into disrepair after the
war, the house has been restored
and is open to the public.
• Exterior overview
• Exterior overview
• Spiral staircase
• Interior spiral
stair
• Spiral stair
• Spiral staircase
• interior
• Bath
• View of the roof garden
• 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.'
Interior ramp
• Ramp to roof
garden
• Roof garden
• Roof garden
• Roof garden
• Ramp leading to the roof garden
• 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.'
• 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.'
• The free facade:
'The columns set
back from the
facades, inside the
house.
• The floor
continues
cantilevered.
• The facades are no
longer anything
but light skins of
insulating walls or
windows.
• The facade is free.'
• Ground floor
• Mill Owners
Assoc.
Headquarters
Le Corbusier,
Ahmedabad,
India 1954-56
• Pavillon Suisse, Cité Universitaire
• Unité d'Habitation de Marseille280, boulevard
Michelet - 13006 Marseille
• Unite d' Habitation
Le Corbusier,
Marseilles, France
1948-54
• Convent
of St.
Marie de
la
Tourette
Le
Corbusier,
Evreux-
sur
l'Abresle,
France
1957-60
• La Tourette
• Designed by Pierre Jeanneret, the hand crafted, cast-
iron manhole covers, showing the major elements of
the city's master plan, have become a trademark of
Chandigarh.
• High Court Chandigarh
• Palace of Justice Le Corbusier,
Chandigarh, India 1952-56
• Designed by Pierre
Jeanneret, the
hand crafted, cast-
iron manhole
covers, showing
the major elements
of the city's master
plan, have become
a trademark of
Chandigarh.
• Le Corbusier's idea of the '24 Solar Hours'
provides the impetus for this monument.
• This is an interesting study of the movement
of the sun.
• Here he explored various shading devices and
demonstrated 'that one can control the sun on
the four cardinal points of an edifice and that
one can play with it even in a torrid country
and obtain lower temperatures'.
• Carpenter
Visual Arts
Center
Harvard
University -
Cambridge,
MA (USA)
• Carpenter Center, Harvard University, Cambridge,
MA. 1962
• Carpenter Center,
Harvard
• Carpenter
Center,
Harvard
• Carpenter Center,
Harvard
• The Carpenter Center is Le Corbusier's only building in North
America, and one of the last to be completed during his
lifetime.
• Its wonderful collection of concrete forms bring together
many of the design principles and devices from Le
Corbusier's earlier works: the ondulatoires (windows above
left) from La Tourette; the brise soleils (below) originally
from the Marseille unité d'habitation but angled later in
Chandigarh (but here with glass for the Massachusetts
climate); and the original
• Five Points from the 1920s 'accentuated in a new way: as if
the Villa Savoye had been exploded inside out, with ramp
and curved partitions extending into the environment.‘
• The ramp and architectural promenade is particularly strong
at the Carpenter Center.
• 'At the heart is a cubic volume
from which curved studios pull
away from one another on the
diagonal.
• The whole is cut through by an S-
shaped ramp which rises from
one street and descends towards
the other... The layers and levels
swing out and back from the grid
of concrete pilotis within, making
the most of cantilevering to
create interpenetrations of
exterior and interior, as well as a
sequence of spatial events linked
by the promenade architecturale
of the ramp.'
• William J.R. Curtis in Le Corbusier:
Ideas and Forms
• Centre Le Corbusier, Heidi Weber Höchgasse 8 - 8034
Zurich (Suisse)
• Unité d'Habitation de Firminy
• Pavillon Philips
• Tombe Le
Corbusier
Roquebrune-
Cap-Martin
• Unité d'Habitation
Cité radieuse le Corbusier
La Maison du Fada
280 Boulevard Michelet
Marseille
• The Open Hand Sculpture at Chandigarh
• Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, 1950-54
• exterior
• exterior
• exterior
• Exterior
• Exterior
• interior
• interior
• Interior
Thank You