Le Corbusier
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.

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.

Le Corbusier died on Aug. 27, 1965 while swimming in the Mediterranean near Saint Martin in southern France.

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