| Le Corbusier was born in 1887 as Charles
Edouard Jeanneret, at La Chaux-de-Fonds in
Switzerland. In 1902 he went to an art school and
trained to become a watch engraver. However, his
teacher, Charles Eplattenier persuaded him to
become an architect. From 1908 to 1910 he studied
in Paris with August Perret. In the 1920s, he
adopted the name Le Corbusier, after his
grandfather, Lecorbesier. In 1923, he published a
book called Vers une architecture (Towards a New
Architecture). In 1930 he married Yvonne Gallis,
and became a French citizen. |
 |
| Image borrowed
from Microsoft©
Bookshelf CD-ROM |
Photo courtesy of Jeffery Howe at Boston College.
Here is his Corbusier page. |
After World War I, Le Corbusier adopted a
different form of modern architecture to help
rebuild France. he designed buildings to make the
most efficient use of space. In his architecture,
he stressed 5 major points. 1) The free standing
column, which held the first story of buildings
above the ground. 2) Having external and internal
walls independent from the supporting structure
of a building. 3)The open plan, allowing
flexibility in organizing space. 4) The free
facade. 5) And finally, roof gardens. Most of his
work was in urban planning. His style was
drastically different from the common low rise
communities. He often made rectangular structures
out of concrete, steel, and glass raised above
the ground, with smooth sides and roof gardens.
He called this "pure prisms." After
World War II, he changed to a style called New
Brutalism. It used rough forms of concrete,
stone, stucco and glass. |
| Some of his most famous works are
as follows: Notre Dame du Haut at
Ronchamp(1950-54); the plan for the city of
Chandigarh, in India(1950-70); the general
concept for the United Nations building (1946);
and his "Vertical City"(1946-52) in
Marseille, which was 340 villas with shops raised
above the ground on pilotis and a roof garden
gymnasium. The only building designed entirely by
Le Corbusier in the United States is the
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard
University. |
 |
Photo courtesy of Jeffery Howe at Boston College.
Here is his Corbusier page. |
| Le Corbusier died on Aug. 27, 1965 while
swimming in the Mediterranean near Saint Martin
in southern France. |
|
