Le Corbusier

(1887-1965) (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret)

   architect, urbanist, painter, theorist

   Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, or Le Corbusier (he adopted his mother's maiden name), as he is known, had a major effect on the development of modern architecture. Born in La Chaux-de-Fonde, Switzerland, he received his early education there, then studied modern building construction in Paris. in 1922, he went into partnership in Paris as an architect with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret. While practicing architecture, Le Corbusier was also active as a painter and writer. in his painting, he was associated with amadée ozenfant. Together, they published Après le cubism (1918), a manifesto of "purism," one of the styles that had grown out of cubism. in 1920, they founded the review L'Esprit Nouveau, for which Le Corbusier wrote numerous articles to support his theories on architecture. He also published Vers un architecture in 1923 and, in 1925, L'Art décoratif aujord'hui and Urbanisme, in which he presented these theories of architecture as an essential part of modern life. Basically a functionalist, Le Corbusier broke with the forms and designs of historic styles and sought a new 20th-century style, to be based on engineering achievements in bridge building and steamship construction; on modern materials, including sheet glass, ferroconcrete, and synthetics; as well as on contemporary urban situations and requirements. Le Corbusier advanced the now-familiar international style of unadorned, low-lying buildings, dependent on functional and simple form and composition. His most notable buildings include the Palace of the League of Nations (Geneva, 1927-28); the Swiss Building (Cité universitaire, Paris, 1931-32); Ville Savoye (Poissey, 1931); Ministry of Culture (Rio de Janeiro, 1936-43) Unités d'habitation (Marseille, 1946-52); Notre-Dame-du-Haut (Ronchamp, 1950-55); and the High Courts Buildings (1952-56) in Chandigarh, india. The Secretariat Building of the United Nations in New York City is also primarily his design.