Charles-Édouard Charles-Édouard JeanneretJeanneret

Who is Charles-Édouard Jeanneret??

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret was born on October 6,1887 at La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland

second son of Edouard Jeanneret, a dial painter in the town's renowned watch industry and Madame Jeannerct-Perrct, a musician and piano teacher.

Following on his father’s Following on his father’s footsteps…footsteps…

In 1902, he went to an art school to train to become a watch engraver just as his father was… a dial painter in the town's renowned watch industry.

Young Jeanneret was attracted to the visual arts and studied at the La-Chaux-de-Fonds Art School under Charles L'Eplattenier.

His architecture teacher in the Art School was the architect René Chapallaz, who had a large influence on Jeanneret’s earliest houses.

About 1907, he travelled to Paris, where he found work in the office of Auguste Perret, the French pioneer of reinforced concrete.

In 1908, He studied architecture in Vienna with Josef Hoffmann.

Between October 1910 and March 1911, he worked near Berlin for the renowned architect Peter Behrens.

Jeanneret taught at his old school in La-Chaux-de-Fonds during World War I, not returning to Paris until the war was over. During these four years in Switzerland, he worked on theoretical architectural studies using modern techniques. Among these was his project for the Domino House (1914–1915). This model proposed an open floor plan consisting of concrete slabs supported by a minimal number of thin, reinforced concrete columns around the edges, with a stairway providing access to each level on one side of the floor plan.

This design became the foundation for most of his architecture for the next ten years.

The Maison-Domino PlanThe Maison-Domino Plan

BUT………………BUT………………

Who is Charles-Édouard Jeanneret??

In the first issue of the journal, in 1920, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret adopted Le Corbusier, an altered form of his maternal grandfather's name, "Lecorbésier", as a pseudonym, reflecting his belief that anyone could reinvent themselves.

Yes….. Charles-Édouard Jeanneret is…

Le Corbusier

His Ideas…His Ideas…

Five points of Five points of architecturearchitecturePilotis – reinforced concrete stilts. Free façade – non-supporting wallsOpen floor plan – that the floor space

was free to be configured into rooms without concern for supporting walls.

Ribbon windows – that allow unencumbered views of the large surrounding yard.

Roof garden – to compensate for the green area consumed by the building and replacing it on the roof.

The ModulorThe Modulor Le Corbusier developed the

Modulor in the long tradition of Vitruvius, Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, the work of Leone Battista Alberti, and other attempts to discover mathematical proportions in the human body and then to use that knowledge to improve both the appearance and function of architecture. 

The system is based on human measurements, the double unit, the Fibonacci numbers, and the golden ratio.

Le Corbusier described it as a "range of harmonious measurements to suit the human scale, universally applicable to architecture and to mechanical things."

Commemorative Swiss coin showing the modulor.

The Open HandThe Open HandThe Open Hand (La

Main Ouverte) is a recurring motif in Le Corbusier's architecture, a sign for him of "peace and reconciliation. It is open to give and open to receive." The largest of the many Open Hand sculptures that Le Corbusier created is a 28 meter high version in Chandigarh, India.

FurnitureFurniture Le Corbusier began

experimenting with furniture design in 1928 after inviting the architect, Charlotte Perriand, to join his studio.

His most famous designs for furniture are:

LC-1 – "Basculant" LC-2 – "Fauteuil grand

confort, petit modèle" LC-3 – "Fauteil grand

confort, grand modèle"

LC-4 – "Chaise longue"

In the year 1964, while Le Corbusier was still alive, Cassina S.p.A. of Milan acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture his furniture designs. Today many copies exist, but Cassina is still the only manufacturer authorized by the Fondation Le Corbusier.

BasculantBasculant

Fauteuil grand confort, petit Fauteuil grand confort, petit modèlemodèle

Fauteil grand confort, grand Fauteil grand confort, grand modèlemodèle

Chaise longueChaise longue

Fondation Le CorbusierFondation Le Corbusier The Fondation Le Corbusier is a

private foundation and archive honoring the work of architect Le Corbusier.

The Fondation Le Corbusier was established in 1968. It now owns Maison La Roche and Maison Jeanneret (which form the foundation's headquarters).

Maison La Roche and Maison Jeanneret, also known as the La Roche-Jeanneret house, is a pair of semi-detached houses that was Corbusier's third commission in Paris. They are laid out at right angles to each other, with iron, concrete, and blank, white facades setting off a curved two-story gallery space. Maison La Roche is now a museum containing about 8,000 original drawings, studies and plans by Le Corbusier, as well as about 450 of his paintings, about 30 enamels, about 200 other works on paper, and a sizable collection of written and photographic archives.

It describes itself as the world's largest collection of Le Corbusier drawings, studies, and plans.

Some of Le Corbusier’s Some of Le Corbusier’s famous architect work…famous architect work…

Carpenter CenterCarpenter Center, at , at Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1961 to 1964.1961 to 1964. This, Le Corbusier's only

major building in the United States—designed to house classes in architecture, film, and other arts—has struck some critics as surprisingly 'modest and accommodating.'

Its concrete exterior has a smooth, precise finish; tall, thin columns break up its interior spaces. A great curvilinear ramp bisects the structure and connects with the main stair and an exhibition space.

Centre Le CorbusierCentre Le Corbusier, at , at Zurich, Switzerland, 1963 to Zurich, Switzerland, 1963 to 1967.1967. Centre Le Corbusier in

Zurich is two cubes, designed by Le Corbusier himself, with a ramp and an umbrella roof, also all steel.

It is an exercise in modular construction elegantly carried out using enamelled steel panels and glass infill. The plans were originally drawn for a house which was always thought of as an exhibition gallery as well. It has proved sufficiently flexible to be used for teaching and exhibitions.

Convent of La TouretteConvent of La Tourette, at , at Eveux-sur-Arbresle, France, Eveux-sur-Arbresle, France, 1957 to 1960. 1957 to 1960.  It was under the instigation of

Reverend Father Courturier that the Dominicans of Lyon have charged Le Corbusier with the task of bringing into being at Eveux-sur-Arbresle near Lyon, the Convent of La Tourette, in the midst of nature, located in a small vale that opens out onto the forest.

The buildings contain a hundred sleeping rooms for teachers and students, study halls, a hall for work and one for recreation, a library and a refectory. Finally the circulation connects all the parts, in particular those which appear in a new form (the achievement of the traditional cloister form is rendered impossible here by the slope of the terrain).

House at WeissenhofHouse at Weissenhof, at , at Stuttgart, Germany, 1927.Stuttgart, Germany, 1927.

"This was one of the most difficult post war problems which Le Corbusier had to solve. The rules concerning the ground were contradictory, the programme was complicated, and the budget unavoidably limited. Le Corbusier decided to use the commonest and crudest materials—brick, tiles and vaults formed with tiles as permanent shuttering (Catalan vaults), the roofs covered with grass.

The Modulor was used to determine the principal dimensions, spans of 7 ft. 6 in. and 12 ft. and a height to the soffit of the vault-carrying lintels of 7 ft. 6 in. The floors and the 'Catalan vaults' have an ordinary tile finish, the interior spine wall of unplastered brick runs right through the house. The exterior walls are unplastered on the outside and on the inside plastered to avoid condensation."

Maisons Jaoul, at Neuilly-sur-Maisons Jaoul, at Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, France, 1954 to Seine, Paris, France, 1954 to 1956. 1956.  A narrow walkway

slopes up from the street to entrances off a shared patio. The buildings are carefully positioned at right angles to one another on the site, with strategic setbacks from all the property lines, except to the south. There, unit A abuts the wall of an adjacent building. The result is a sequence of increasingly private outdoor spaces.

Museum at AhmedabadMuseum at Ahmedabad, , at Ahmedabad, India, 1953 at Ahmedabad, India, 1953 to 1957. to 1957.  "The museum is on pilotis

through which the building is entered into an open court from which a ramp, similarly opened to the sky, leads to the exhibition levels. One enters the main level in a nave of spiral squares 14 metres wide, consisting of 7x7 m structural bays. All precautions are taken against the excessive temperature of the day. It is assumed that visits to the museum will be made particularly in the evening and night-time; they will wind up on the roof which will offer a wonderfully flowered surface formed by more than 45 basins, of 50 square meters each, all filled with water to a depth of 40 cm."

Notre-Dame-du-HautNotre-Dame-du-Haut, at , at Ronchamp, France, 1955.Ronchamp, France, 1955.

Notre-Dame-du-Haut was a more extreme statement of Le Corbusier's late style. Pragmatically,...the church is simple—an oblong nave, two side entrances, an axial main altar, and three chapels beneath towers—as is its structure, with rough masonry walls faced with whitewashed Gunite (sprayed concrete) and a roof of contrasting beton brut. Formally and symbolically, however, this small building, which is sited atop a hillside with access from the south, is immensely powerful and complex.

Ozenfant House and Ozenfant House and StudioStudio, at Paris, France, , at Paris, France, 1922.1922. The house and studio in

Paris for Le Corbusier's friend the painter Ozenfant is an early example of 'minimal' architecture, a prototype of the Dom-ino house and a manifestation of some of the principles which Le Corbusier was to set out in his famous 'five points.' It possessed a geometrical clarity inside and out which has since been lost with the elimination of the north-light roof and its replacement by a flat one.

Palace of Assembly, at Palace of Assembly, at Chandigarh, India, 1953 to Chandigarh, India, 1953 to 1963. 1963.  One of the interesting points to

call attention to is the adoption of a circular form for the hall which seems contrary to the development of good acoustics. The Assembly Hall is made in a hyperbolic shell with an average thickness of 15 cm, constant throughout its surface, resulting in a very low cost and a minimum of weight (here the principle of industrial cooling towers has been applied to the architectural intentions).

This shell does not terminate in a horizontal but in an oblique section which shall receive a metallic framework (aluminum). This framework will become a veritable physical laboratory destined to ensure the interplay of natural lighting, artificial lighting, ventilation and acoustic-electronic mechanisms.

Philips Pavilion, at Brussels, Philips Pavilion, at Brussels, Belgium, 1958.Belgium, 1958.

The structure is composed of hyperbolic-paraboloid shells which, up to now, have not been used for the problems of the type. The walls are constructed of rough slabs cast in sand moulds on the ground, measuring about 5'-0" on a side and 2" in thickness. They are mounted in place by means of a movable scaffolding and are supported by a double network of cables, 3" in diameter, suspended along the cylindrical directrices of strongly reinforced concrete. Such is the principal of the structure.

"The electronic poem of Le Corbusier at the Philips Pavilion marks the first appearance of a new art form; 'The Electronic Games', a synthesis unlimited in its possibilities for color, imagery, music, words and rhythm.

Shodan HouseShodan House, at , at Ahmedabad, India, 1956.Ahmedabad, India, 1956.

The plans reveal an evident structural simplicity, but also, countering this, a wonderful plasticity in the handling of the rooms—in their form, their dimensions, in the shadows of the brise-soleiol on the faades and �of the roof parasol, and moreover, in the hanging gardens swept by an orchestration of benificent air currents. This plan recalls the ingenuity of the Villa Savoye of 1929-1930 at Poissy, placed here in a tropical and Indian setting.

Unite d'HabitationUnite d'Habitation, at , at Marseilles, France, 1946 to Marseilles, France, 1946 to 1952.1952. Le Corbusier's most influential

late work was his first significant postwar structure—the UnitÈ d'Habitation in Marseilles of 1947-52. The giant, twelve-story apartment block for 1.600 people is the late modern counterpart of the mass housing schemes of the 1920s, similarly built to alleviate a severe postwar housing shortage. Although the program of the building is elaborate, structurally it is simple: a rectilinear ferroconcrete grid, into which are slotted precast individual apartment units, like 'bottles into a wine rack' as the architect put it. Through ingenious planning, twenty-three different apartment configurations were provided to accommodate single persons and families as large as ten, nearly all with double-height living rooms and the deep balconies that form the major external feature.

United Nations United Nations HeadquartersHeadquarters, with others, , with others, at New York, New York, 1947 at New York, New York, 1947 to 1953.to 1953.

Providing office accommodation for 3,400 employees, the Secretariat is a 39 story building with an aluminum grille to conceal equipment on the roof. The narrow end walls are of white marble; the other two elevations are surfaced with green-tinted glass. Floors devoted to mechanical equipment divide these glass facades into three parts.

Villa SavoyeVilla Savoye, at Poissy, , at Poissy, France, 1928 to 1929.France, 1928 to 1929.

An early and classic exemplar of the "International Style", which hovers above a grass plane on thin concrete pilotti, with strip windows, and a flat roof with a deck area, ramp, and a few contained touches of curvaceous walls.

Villa Stein, at Garches, Villa Stein, at Garches, France, 1927. France, 1927. 

Also known as Villa Garches, Villa de Monzie. International Style exemplar, "deconstructed Palladian" structure.

Weekend house by Corbu, at Weekend house by Corbu, at suburb of Paris, France, suburb of Paris, France, 1935.1935. The principle imposed

upon this small house situated behind a curtain of trees was that it be as little visible as possible. As a consequence the height was reduced to 8 ft., the house was located in a corner of the site, the flat, vaulted roof was planted with grass and a very traditional material was employed: exposed quarrystone masonry.

ChandigarhChandigarh After the partition of

British India into India and Pakistan in 1947, the former British province of Punjab was also split between India and Pakistan. The Indian state of Punjab required a new capital city to replace Lahore, which became part of Pakistan during the partition. After several plans to make additions to existing cities were found to be unfeasible for various reasons, the decision to construct a new and planned city was undertaken.

Of all the new town schemes in independent India, the Chandigarh project quickly assumed prime significance, because of the city's strategic location as well as the personal interest of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India.

Commissioned by Nehru to reflect the new nation's modern, progressive outlook, Chandigarh was designed by the French (born Swiss) architect and urban planner, Le Corbusier, in the 1950s. Le Corbusier was in fact the second architect of the city, after the initial master plan was prepared by the American architect-planner Albert Mayer who was working with the Polish-born architect Matthew Nowicki.

On 1 November 1966, the newly-formed Indian state of Haryana was carved out of the eastern portion of the Punjab, in order to create Haryana as a majority Hindi-speaking state (with a Hindu majority), while the western portion of Punjab retained a mostly Punjabi language-speaking majority (with a Sikh majority) and remained as the current day federated state of Punjab. However, the city of Chandigarh was on the border, and was thus created into a union territory to serve as capital of both these states.

Taking over from Albert Mayer, Le Corbusier produced a plan for Chandigarh that conformed to the modern city planning principles of Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne CIAM, in terms of division of urban functions, an anthropomorphic plan form, and a hierarchy of road and pedestrian networks. This vision of Chandigarh, contained in the innumerable conceptual maps on the drawing board together with notes and sketches had to be translated into brick and mortar.

Le Corbusier retained many of the seminal ideas of Mayer and Nowicki, like the basic framework of the master plan and its components: The Capitol, City Center, besides the University, Industrial area, and linear parkland. Even the neighborhood unit was retained as the basic module of planning. However, the curving outline of Mayer and Nowicki was reorganized into a mesh of rectangles, and the buildings were characterized by an "honesty of materials". Exposed brick and boulder stone masonry in its rough form produced unfinished concrete surfaces, in geometrical structures. This became the architectural form characteristic of Chandigarh, set amidst landscaped gardens and parks.