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14 Facts You Didn’t Know About Le Corbusier

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Le Corbusier by Willy Rizzo. Photos © Willy Rizzo.

Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965) will forever be known as an icon of
Modernism, but did you know that the man who changed the face of architecture led quite
the colorful personal life?

In honor of his 125th birthday, take a moment to check out some Corbu classics (perhaps
Convent of La Tourette, Ronchamp, Villa Savoye, Unite d’Habitation, or Villa Roche) and
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read on to learn more about the man behind the myth – Charles-Édouard Jeanneret.

Fun Facts About Le Corbusier (including what Salvador Dalí had to say about him. It isn’t
pretty) after the break!

Things You Didn’t Know About Le Corbusier… MOST


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After meeting Josephine Baker on an ocean liner to Europe from South America, Le
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Corbusier drew nude sketches of the famous actress.
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While Le Corbusier married a fashion model by the name of Yvonne Gallis, he
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maintained a long-term affair with Swedish-American heiress Marguerite Tjader
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Le Corbusier and Urban Planning
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Le Corbusier’s plans for Ville Contemporaine, a series of sixty-story, cruciform
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skyscrapers (never built) included plans for rooftop airports so commercial airliners
could fly between skyscrapers.
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Le Corbusier designed the first planned city in India – Chandigarh. The layout was
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based on the plans he conceptualized in his book La Ville Radieuse (The Radiant
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City), which itself was an update on ideas for Ville Contemporaine.
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Le Corbusier’s theories as an Urban Planner have been hotly contested, perhaps
none more so than by Jane Jacobs: ”Le Corbusier’s Utopia was a condition of what he
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called maximum liberty, by which he seems to have meant not liberty to do anything
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much, but liberty from ordinary responsibility.” The Complex Case of Architectural
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Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, relaxing on the Shukna Lake on a pedal boat manufactured by

Pierre Jeanneret, c. 1950. Photo by Sureh Sharma.

Unite d’habitation, 1952. Le Corbusier’s first large-scale housing project. Photo © Guzman Lozano

Chandigarh, India’s first planned city was designed by Le Corbusier. Photo by diametrik –

http://www.flickr.com/photos/diametrik/

Le Corbusier and Politics


Le Corbusier’s famous saying, “Architecture or Revolution,” came from his belief that
an efficient, industrialized architecture was the only way to avoid class-based
revolution. His arguments would solidify in his book, Vers une architecture (Toward an
Architecture) and culminate in his most famous work, Villa Savoye.
In 1934, he was invited by Benito Mussolini to lecture in Rome.
In the early 1940s, Le Corbusier was given an urban planning position by the Vichy
government to oversee designs for various cities, including Algiers. When his plans
were rejected, Le Corbusier withdrew from political life.

Villa Savoye, Arguably Le Corbusier’s most famous work. Photo © Flavio Bragaia

Le Corbusier and Art/Design

Le Corbusier adopted his pseudonym (a derivative of his grandmother’s last name)


after publishing a manifesto, co-written with artist Amédée Ozenfant, called “Aprés le
Cubisme.” Although he was working as a Cubist painter at the time, he felt that
Cubism had grown too romantic; thus, the manifesto was his ode to a new artistic
movement: Purism.
Although Salvador Dalí at one point considered Le Corbusier a “friend,” he was far
from complimentary about him upon his death in 1965. He was quoted calling Le
Corbusier‘s buildings “the ugliest and most unacceptable buildings in the world” and
said that Le Corbusier’s “ death filled me with an immense joy. [...] Le corbusier was a
pitiable creature working in reinforced concrete.” However, Dalí’s disdain didn’t stop
him from putting flowers on Le Corbusier’s grave, as, in his words, “on the one hand I
detested him but on the other hand I am an absolute coward.”
Le Corbusier collaborated with the architect Charlotte Perriand and his cousin Pierre
Jeanneret to design iconic, modernist furniture. He was quoted as saying: ”Chairs are
architecture, sofas are bourgeois.”
Convent of La Tourette. Photo © Samuel Ludwig

Le Corbusier and his Inspirations

Le Corbusier was taken with the image of the Open Hand, constructing many
sculptures of it over his lifetime. He called it a ”sign of peace and of reconciliation[...]
meant to receive the created riches, and to distribute them to the peoples of the world.
That should be the symbol of our epoch.” See this cool interview with him discussing
the 28-meter Open Hand sculpture in Chandigarh.
Le Corbusier’s design philosophy was heavily inspired by mathematical concepts
used by Leonard daVinci, such as the golden ratio and the Fibonacci series, which he
used as the basis for his architectural proportions.

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06 OCT
2012
by Vanessa Quirk
Architects Articles Editor's
Choice Le Corbusier Ronchamp, one of Le Corbusier’s most unusual works. © Cara Hyde-Basso

On August 27, 1965, Le Corbusier went for a swim, against his doctor’s orders, in
the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of his beloved summer home in the south of France.
His body was found by bathers.
“Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in
3.9k
light.”
Like Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture, 1923
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44 Cite:
Quirk, Vanessa. "14 Facts You Didn’t Know About Le Corbusier" 06 Oct 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 29 Aug
2014. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=278569>
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14 comments
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Ben Dover +55
Rare
Does anybody know a great architect that didn’t commit adultery? Or is this part of the images of Le
curriculum? Corbusier by Willy
Rizzo,
Reply in color

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