Le Corbusier
Who was Le Corbusier?
Pioneering modernist architect who developed the Five Points of Architecture and designed iconic buildings like Villa Savoye and the Unité d'Habitation.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Le Corbusier (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, was born on October 6, 1887, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, a town known for watchmaking in the Jura mountains. He studied at the École d'art de La Chaux-de-Fonds under Charles L'Eplattenier, who steered him towards architecture. Mostly teaching himself, he traveled throughout Europe, visiting places like Italy, the Balkans, and Greece, and had short stints working in Paris with Auguste Perret and in Berlin with Peter Behrens. These experiences helped him grasp classical proportion, reinforced concrete, and industrial design. He later settled in Paris and, in 1920, began using the pseudonym Le Corbusier, based on a maternal ancestor's name.
During a fifty-year career, Le Corbusier designed buildings in Europe, India, Japan, and the Americas, and became a leading 20th-century architect. He gained French citizenship in 1930 and married Yvonne Gallis, known as Yvonne Le Corbusier, who was by his side until her death in 1957. His architectural ideas were outlined in his Five Points of Architecture, advocating for elements like pilotis, flat roofs, open floor plans, horizontal windows, and free-design facades. These were best seen in the Villa Savoye near Paris, completed in 1931, which is now a key example of the International Style.
Le Corbusier was also devoted to urban planning and social change. He helped start the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in 1928, an organization aiming to spread modernist planning worldwide. His Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, finished in 1952, was a large residential block designed to serve as a vertical city with shops, a rooftop gym, and community spaces. His Chandigarh master plan for the new capital of the Indian state of Punjab was his most ambitious urban work and included the notable Capitol Complex with its Secretariat, High Court, and Assembly building. In 2016, seventeen of his projects in seven countries became UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Besides architecture, Le Corbusier was a busy painter, writer, and designer. Under his birth name Jeanneret, he co-founded the Purist art movement with Amédée Ozenfant in 1918, pushing for clarity and order in art as opposed to Cubism. He designed well-known furniture like the LC4 chaise longue and the LC1 sling chair with Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret. He also crafted carpets and textiles, and wrote books like Vers une architecture in 1923. He passed away on August 27, 1965, in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, after drowning while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea near his small vacation cabin.
Le Corbusier remains a debated figure. His urban planning ideas were criticized for ignoring existing communities and cultural heritage, and his ties to fascist ideology, antisemitism, and eugenicist beliefs have sparked ongoing academic debate. His Voisin Plan for Paris, which intended to replace much of the historic city center with uniform towers, was seen by critics as reflecting an authoritarian side to his urbanism. Despite these issues, his architecture, writings, and influence on institutions played a major role in shaping modern architecture and urban planning more than perhaps any other architect of his time.
Before Fame
Le Corbusier grew up in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a Swiss city laid out in a grid and known for its precision watchmaking. His father was a watch face enameler, and his mother a musician, both of whom shaped his early creative leanings. He attended the local École d'art, initially focusing on engraving. However, his teacher Charles L'Eplattenier, recognizing his talent for spatial design, guided him towards architecture. He completed his first building, the Villa Fallet, in 1907 at the age of nineteen.
Over the next few years, Jeanneret traveled and worked with influential figures, shaping his intellectual development. In Paris, he worked with Auguste Perret, an expert in reinforced concrete, and later joined Peter Behrens' Berlin office, working alongside Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. A 1911 trip to Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, which he documented in sketches and notes published as Journey to the East, was particularly significant. It introduced him to classical and vernacular architecture that he would reinterpret throughout his career.
Key Achievements
- Formulated the Five Points of Architecture, a foundational theoretical framework of modernist building design
- Designed the Villa Savoye (1931), widely considered one of the canonical buildings of the International Style
- Completed the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille (1952), an influential prototype for large-scale social housing worldwide
- Prepared the master plan and major civic buildings for Chandigarh, India, one of the twentieth century's most ambitious planned cities
- Had seventeen of his projects across seven countries inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2016, the first time a living architect's work had been so collectively recognized posthumously
Did You Know?
- 01.Le Corbusier adopted his pseudonym in 1920, taking it from a variant spelling of the name of a maternal great-great-uncle, and used it exclusively for his architectural work while continuing to sign paintings as Charles-Édouard Jeanneret.
- 02.He died on 27 August 1965 by drowning in the Mediterranean Sea near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, where he had built a tiny 16-square-meter holiday cabin called Le Cabanon, which he considered his ideal dwelling.
- 03.His Voisin Plan of 1925 proposed demolishing most of central Paris north of the Seine and replacing it with a grid of uniform 60-story cruciform towers, preserving only a handful of historic monuments as museum pieces.
- 04.The LC4 chaise longue, designed with Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret in 1928 and sometimes called the relaxing machine, was conceived on the principle that furniture should be understood as equipment for the human body.
- 05.Le Corbusier held an estimated 17 honorary doctorates and major awards including the Royal Gold Medal from the RIBA in 1953 and the AIA Gold Medal, yet he was twice rejected for membership in the French Institute of Architecture.
Family & Personal Life
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| AIA Gold Medal | — | — |
| Royal Gold Medal | 1953 | — |
| Frank P. Brown Medal | 1961 | — |
| Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour | — | — |
| Sikkens Prize | 1963 | — |
| honorary doctor of ETH Zürich | — | — |
| Honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva | — | — |
| honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge | — | — |
| honorary doctor of the University of Zurich | — | — |
| Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres | 1957 | — |
| Commander of the Legion of Honour | — | — |