Historical Figure
Le Corbusier
d. 1965
Swiss-French architect (1887–1965)
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Biography
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland to French-speaking Swiss parents and acquired French nationality in 1930. He designed buildings in Europe, Japan, India, and the Americas during a five-decade career. He considered that "the roots of modern architecture are to be found in Viollet-le-Duc."
In Their Own Words (5)
My own duty and my aim is to try and raise people out of their misery, away from catastrophe; to provide them with happiness, with a contented existence, with harmony. My own goal is to establish or re-establish harmony between people and their environment.
Le Corbusier: Architect, Painter, Poet by Jean Jenger (1996). , 1996
A hundred times I have thought: New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: it is a beautiful catastrophe.
When the Cathedrals Were White (1947) , 1947
You know, it is life that is right and the architect who is wrong.
Le Corbusier's reply upon learning that the housing project he had designed at Pessac had been altered by its inhabitants, quoted by Philippe Boudon, Lived-In Architecture: Pessac Revisited (1969) [trans. Gerald Onn] , 1969
Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.
The New York Times [obituary] (1965-08-28) , 1965
Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and the city.
1923
Timeline
The story of Le Corbusier, told in moments.
Born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Trained as a watchcase engraver. Traveled Europe studying architecture on his own. Never earned a degree.
Published Toward an Architecture. "A house is a machine for living in." The manifesto defined modernist architecture. Flat roofs, open floor plans, pilotis. He meant to demolish the old world.
Completed the Unite d'Habitation in Marseille. A massive concrete housing block for 1,600 residents with a rooftop running track, kindergarten, and shopping street. The prototype for public housing worldwide.
Designed the chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut at Ronchamp. A building that broke all his own rules. Curved walls, irregular windows, a swooping roof. Critics didn't know what to make of it. Pilgrims loved it.
Drowned while swimming in the Mediterranean at Cap-Martin, France. Age 77. He'd been warned about his weak heart. Went swimming anyway.
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