Who is LE CORBUSIER? (ft Villa Sayoye, Unité d’Habitation & Notre Dame du Haut)

Who is Le Corbusier? Le Corbusier, born 1887, was an internationally recognised architect and city planner, who was best known for mixing the functionalism of the modern movement with bold, structural expression. #lecorbusier

Le Corbusier was born in a small town in Switzerland where, at the age of 13, he left primary school to learn how to enamel and engrave watches - his father's trade. One of the teachers at this school, Charles L’Eplattenier, also taught him art history and drawing. 3 years into his watch studies, L’Eplattenier decided Le Corbusier had what it took to become an architect, and so gave him practice via local projects. From 1907-1911 Le Corbusier travelled through central europe and the meditteranian, where he made 3 major architectural discoveries.

When we has 30 years old, he moved to Paris, where a year later he met painter and designer Amedee Ozenfant. While talking to Ozenfant, Le Corbusier discovered Purism - the pure, simple geometric features of everyday objects while rejecting Cubism - complicated abstractions.

In 1920, Le Corbusier exhibited a model - Citrohan House- that displays the 5 characteristics of what was modern in architecture
1 - pillars supporting the structure, thus freeing the ground beneath the building
2 - a roof terrace, transformable into a garden and an essential part of the house
3 - an open floor plan
4 - a facade free of ornamentation
5 - windows in strips that affirm the independence of the structural frame

In 1925-1926 he built a workers City of 40 houses in the style of the Citrohan House. The lack of local tradition and the unconventional use of colour meant that the municipal authorities refused to provide a public water supply, meaning it was uninhabited for 6 years.

Before WW2, Le Corbusier constructed two important buildings the Salvation Army Hostel in Paris, with its attempt at a “breathing” glass wall an unopenable glass surface equipped with an air conditioning system (a technological and financial failure), and the Swiss Dormitory at the Cité Universitaire in Paris (1931–32).

In the late 1930s, he built many now famous structures including the masterplans for Algiers and Buenos Aires, the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro, and infinitely expandable museum in Philippeville, North Africa.

During World War two, there was no need to new buildings to be erected, so he spent his time painting, writing and reflecting. During this time he began his Modulor concept - “a scale of harmonic measures that set architectural elements in proportion to human stature”.

In 1945 he made a plan for each of the cities Saint Die and La Pallice-Rochelle. Regarding Saint Die, he proposed moving the 30,000 inhabitants of the destroyed town into 5 skyscrapers. These plans were rejected, but circulated worldwide.
Later on in his career, he was finally given the opportunity to design a large housing complex in Marseille, France - named Unité d’Habitation . It was constructed in 1952. It is a community of 1800 people on 18 floors. The building includes shops, a school, a hotel, as well as a nursery, kindergarten, gym and theatre on the roof. At the end of the video this will be talked about in more detail.

In the early 60’s he designed the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyoand the Carpenter Visual Art Centre at Harvard University.
Le Corbusier died suddenly while swimming, in 1965.

The following are 5 of Le Corbusier's most successful structures.

5 - La Clarte - Le Corbusier is the Swiss architect of the building situated on Rue St Laurent. In 1932, Le Corbusier and a Genevan metal-smith industrialist built La Clarté, a structure comprising a steel frame, glass and slabs. Light shows through glass bricks. The construction material is both rigid and fragile. La Clarté is also called the ‘House of Glass’.

4 - Notre Dame du Haut
The main structure consists of thick masonry walls, which are curved to improve stability and provide structural support. Built in 1955, the chapel is a working religious building. It attracts around 80,000 visitors each year. The chapel is a simple design with two entrances, the main altar, and three chapels beneath towers

3 - National Museum of Western Art is the premier public art gallery in Japan that specializes in art from the Western tradition. It received over a million visitors in 2016.

2 - Unité d’Habitation measures 165m in length, 24m in width and 56m in height and was built between 1947 and 1951. Other Cites radieuses based on this Marseille model were built in Reze-Nantes, Firminy, Briey and Berlin.

1 - Villa Savoye
Based on his Citrohan House, Villa Savoye exemplifies Le Corbusier's five points for new constructions and modern architecture. After surviving several proposals to demolish it, it was designated as an official French historical monument in 1965

Видео Who is LE CORBUSIER? (ft Villa Sayoye, Unité d’Habitation & Notre Dame du Haut) канала Archiischool