ArtVisualizer Press Media | Archie Visual Design & Art Review

Easily regarded as one of the most adroit architects of 20th century, Le Corbusier was a a relentless designer, urban planner and writer dedicated to industrializing almost every city he came across.

This spring The Barbican — London's colossal multi-arts venue — is hosting an all-encompassing showcase of Le Corbusier's work, a survey which will include an abundance of original models, interior settings, drawings, furniture, photographs, films, tapestries, paintings, sculpture and books designed and written by the architect himself. More of a celebration than an exhibition, the festivities include concerts, films, guest speakers and a photo competition all in his honor.













The Art of Architecture
19 February-24 May 2009
Barbican Art Gallery
Silk Street
London EC2Y 8DS map
tel. +44 020 7638 4141


Biography of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret / Le Corbusier

1887
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret is born on 6 October in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, to Georges- Édouard Jeanneret, an engraver and enamellist, and Marie-Charlotte-Amélie Jeanneret, née Perret, a piano teacher.

1902
Enters the École d’Art in La Chaux-de-Fonds, with courses in engraving and chasing. He develops a close relationship with Charles L’Eplattenier, one of his teachers and a leading figure in the Swiss Art Nouveau movement, over the next ten years.

1906
Villa Fallet in La Chaux-de-Fonds (1906–7), in collaboration with the architect René Chapallaz and fellow students at the École d’Art. Louis Fallet was a member of the board at the School of Applied Arts in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

1907
First extended trip to Italy (Pisa, Florence, Siena, Padua, Ferrara, Verona, Venice and Ravenna), including a visit to the Certosa di Galluzzo (which he subsequently refers to as the Certosa d’Ema); extended stay in Vienna.

Villa Stotzer and Villa Jaquemet in La Chaux-de-Fonds (1907–8), in collaboration with René Chapallaz.

1908
Works in the atelier of August Perret until spring 1909, where he gains his first experience with ferro-concrete.

1910
Extended visit to Germany (until 1911) for study purposes, including stays in Munich and Berlin. Contacts with Theodor Fischer, Hermann Muthesius, Heinrich Tessenow, Wolf Dohrn and other advocates of the German reformist movement. Five-month apprenticeship in the office of Peter Behrens in Berlin- Neubabelsberg (until 1911), where Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe also gained experience.

Makes the acquaintance of William Ritter, a Swiss writer and arts critic, with whom he develops a close friendship that lasts into the 1940s.

1911
Trip through Eastern Europe and the Balkans (Voyage d’Orient) to Istanbul, together with August Klipstein, at the time an art history student in Berne who later became an antiques dealer. Return trip through Athens, Mount Athos, Pompeii, Naples, Rome, Florence. Publication of his travelogue in the gazette Feuille d’Avis de La Chaux-de-Fonds.

1912
First exhibition of a series of travel sketches and watercolours, entitled ‘Langage de pierres’, in Neuchâtel and at the Salon d’Automne in Paris.

Villa Jeanneret-Perret (Maison Blanche), Le Corbusier’s first independent work of architecture, for his parents in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Villa Favre-Jacot in Le Locle for the owner of the Zenith watch factory, Georges Favre-Jacot (1912–13).

Publishes Étude sur le mouvement d’art décoratif en Allemagne.

1913
Several residential interiors and furniture designs for clients in La Chaux-de-Fonds, especially for the families Ditisheim, Levaillant and Schwob (until 1923).

1915
Studies at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and abandons a literary work-in-progress on urban planning entitled La construction des villes.

Begins development of the Dom-ino system (simple skeleton structures made of reinforced concrete which are suited to mass production) together with Max Du Bois.

1916
La Scala Cinema in La Chaux-de-Fonds (based on plans by René Chapallaz).

Villa Schwob in La Chaux-de-Fonds (1916–17).

Design for a Villa on the Sea for Paul Poiret (project, 1916–17).

1917
Moves permanently to Paris and rents an apartment at 20 rue Jacob in the quarter of Saint Germain des Près, where he lives until 1934. Establishes an office at 20 rue de Belzunce, and subsequently at 29 rue d’Astorg.

1918
Collaborative work with the painter Amédée Ozenfant (until 1925) and first joint exhibition at the Galerie Thomas in Paris. The catalogue proclaims Purism as a new movement in painting.

Makes the acquaintance of Raoul La Roche, a banker and art collector from Basle.

Oil painting ‘La Cheminée’, later referred to by Le Corbusier as ‘mon premier tableau’. He continues to work in the fine arts (painting, graphic art and, beginning in the 1940s, sculpture and tapestry) until the end of his life.

Publishes Après le cubisme (together with Amédée Ozenfant).

1919
Founds the journal L’Esprit nouveau together with Ozenfant and the poet Paul Dermée.

1920
Begins to use the pseudonym Le Corbusier. He derives it from ‘M. Lecorbésier’, the name of his maternal great-grandfather, but often associates it in later years with the French word for raven (corbeau).

The first issue of L’Esprit nouveau is published in October.

First studies for Citrohan houses.

1921
Increasing contact with artists such as Picasso, Braque and Léger.
Advises Raoul La Roche on the purchase of paintings at art auctions.

1922
Opens an architectural office together with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret. This collaboration lasts until 1940.

Apartment complex Immeuble Villas (project, 1922–25).
Project for a Ville contemporaine de trois millions d’habitants (Contemporary city of three million inhabitants), presentation at the Salon d’Automne in Paris.

1923
Villa Le Lac (Petite Maison) for his parents in Corseaux, near Vevey, on Lake Geneva (1923–24).

House and Studio for the painter Amédée Ozenfant in Paris (1923–24).

Villa La Roche/Jeanneret in Paris (1923–25).

House and Studio for the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz in Boulogne-sur-Seine (1923–25).

Publishes Vers une architecture.

1924
Moves into the legendary architectural studio at 35 rue de Sèvres, Paris, located in the corridor of a former Jesuit monastery.

1925
Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau at the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in Paris. His project for a Ville contemporaine de trois millions d’habitants and the Plan Voisin are displayed inside the pavilion.

Last issue of the journal L’Esprit nouveau.
Publishes Urbanisme and L’Art décoratif d’aujourd’hui.

Publishes La peinture moderne (together with Amédée Ozenfant).

1926
Death of his father on 11 April in Corseaux, Switzerland.

Villa Cook in Boulogne-sur-Seine (1926–27).

Villa Stein-de Monzie in Garches (1926–28).

Publishes the Almanach d’architecture moderne.

1927
Designs two houses in the Weißenhof-Siedlung as part of the Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart (construction supervisor Alfred Roth).

Villa Church in Ville-d’Avray (1927–30).

Publishes Cinq points pour une architecture nouvelle (Five points for a new architecture), in which he articulates his design principles.

1928
Founding member of the Congrès internationaux d’architecture moderne (CIAM) at La Sarraz Castle in Switzerland.

Villa Savoye in Poissy (1928–31).

Centrosoyuz Building for the Union of Soviet Cooperatives in Moscow (1928–36, plans executed by Nikolaj Kolli).

Publishes Une maison – un palais and Mundaneum.

1929
Lecture series in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Montevideo. During this trip he makes the acquaintance of Josephine Baker.

Presents tubular steel furniture developed in collaboration with Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret at the Salon d’Automne in Paris.

Penthouse Beistegui Apartment on the Champs-Elysées, Paris (1929–31).

Cité de refuge, homeless shelter for the Salvation Army, Paris (1929–33).

Pavillon Suisse at the Cité Universitaire, Paris (1929–33).

1930
Contributes essays to the newly established monthly review Plans, of which 13 issues are published 1931–32.

Assumes French citizenship (19 September) and marries Yvonne Gallis (18 December).

Immeuble Clarté in Geneva for the industrialist Edmond Wanner (1930–32).

Publishes Précision sur un état présent de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme, a compilation of his lectures in Latin America.

Publishes the first volume of his Oeuvre complète with the Girsberger publishing house in Zurich. The eighth and final volume is published posthumously in 1970.

1931
Immeuble Molitor, rue Nungesser-et-Coli, Paris (1931–34).

Competition entry for the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow (1931–32).

Publishes Requête à M. le Président de la Société des Nations and Claviers de couleur.

1932
Plan Obus for Algiers.

1933
Attends the fourth CIAM conference on ‘The Functional City’ aboard the ship SS Patris II en route to Athens. He subsequently plays a major role in documenting the conclusions of the meeting, which are published as The Athens Charter in 1943.

Contributes to the journal Prélude, which appears in 16 issues 1933–36.

Publishes Croisade ou le crépuscule des académies.

1934
Moves into apartment and studio spaces on the seventh storey of the Immeuble Molitor, where he resides for the rest of his life.

1935
Visits the Bata shoe factory in Zlín, Czechoslovakia. Develops several architectural designs for Bata company locations in Zlín and France (projects, 1935–37).

Shows the exhibition ‘Les arts dits primitifs’, organised by Louis Carré, in his apartment at rue Nungesser-et-Coli.

Publishes La ville radieuse and Aircraft.

1936
Trip to South America in the dirigible Graf Zeppelin for a lecture series; contacts Oscar Niemeyer, Lucio Costa and Affonso Eduardo Reidy in Rio de Janeiro.

1937
Member of the organising committee for the 5th CIAM conference in Paris on the topic of housing and recreation (‘Logis et Loisirs’).

Pavillon des temps nouveaux at the Exposition internationale des arts et des techniques dans la vie moderne in Paris.

Publishes Quand les cathédrales étaient blanches. Voyage au pays des timides.

1938
Continues to work on plans for Algiers with the skyscraper project Quartier de la Marine.

Publishes Des canons, des munitions? Merci! Des logis . . . s.v.p.

1939
Paints wall murals in Jean Badovici and Eileen Gray’s Villa E.1027 in Roquebrune-Cap Martin, southern France.

Publishes ‘Le lyrisme des temps nouveaux et l’urbanisme’ in Le Point, special issue.

1940
Closes the office at rue de Sèvres and flees with his wife to Ozon in the Pyrenees following the occupation of Paris by German troops on 14 June. The business partnership with Pierre Jeanneret is dissolved.

Designs for mobile schools (Écoles volantes) and club facilities, together with Jean Prouvé.

1941
Exhibits gouache paintings at Willy Boesiger’s gallery in Zurich.

Publishes Destin de Paris and Sur les quatre routes.

1942
First studies on the Modulor, a universal system of measurement.

Publishes Les constructions «murondins» and La maison des hommes (in collaboration with François de Pierrefeu).

1943
ASCORAL (Association des constructeurs pour la rénovation architecturale) is founded as a re-formation of the French CIAM group.

Publishes Entretien avec les étudiants des écoles d’architecture and Urbanisme des CIAM. La Charte d’Athènes (published under the auspices of the French CIAM group, with an introduction by Jean Giraudoux).

1944
Reopens the office at rue de Sèvres, Paris, in August.

1945
Receives a commission from Reconstruction Minister Raoul Dautry for a housing project in Marseille; preliminary designs for the Unité d’habitation (1945–52).

Publishes Les trois établissements humains (group authorship).

1946
Trip to New York during the planning stages of a project for the United Nations headquarters. Meets Albert Einstein in Princeton.

Publishes Manière de penser l’urbanisme and Propos d’urbanisme.

1947
Designs for the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York. The structure that is eventually built by Wallace K. Harrison incorporates the ideas of Le Corbusier.

Completion of the Grille CIAM, a system of demonstration panels that serve as graphic illustrations of urban projects, in collaboration with ASCORAL and additional contributors (1947–49). Presented at the 6th CIAM conference in Bridgwater.

Creates his first wooden sculptures in collaboration with the Breton cabinetmaker Joseph Savina; his painting moves in new directions.

Publishes UN Headquarters.

1948
Unité d’habitation in Rezé-lès-Nantes (1948–55).

Paints a wall mural in the studio at rue de Sèvres.

Publishes Grille CIAM d’Urbanisme. Mise en applicaion de la Charte d’Athènes and New World of Space.

1950
Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp (1950–55).

Appointed Government Architectural Adviser for Chandigarh, which is to be constructed as the new capital of Punjab. Development of a master plan for the city (1950–51) in collaboration with PierreJeanneret, Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. Primary layout of the city in a grid of sectors with the Capitol complex on the northern edge.

Publishes Poésie sur Alger, Le Modulor and L’Unité d’habitation de Marseille (Le Point, n° spécial).

1951
High Court (1951–55), Secretariat (1951–58) and Legislative Assembly (1951–64) as part of the Capitol complex of Chandigarh.

Designs for the Governor’s Palace (1951–54) and a Museum of Knowledge as part of the Capitol complex of Chandigarh (projects).

Symbolic monuments in the grounds of the Capitol in Chandigarh: Open Hand (Main ouverte, completed 1985), Martyrs’ Memorial, Tower of Shadows, Geometric Hill.

Building for the Mill Owners’ Association (1951–54), Villa Shodhan (1951–56) and Villa Sarabhai (1951–56), all in Ahmedabad.

Cabin (Cabanon) in Roquebrune-Cap Martin, southern France (1951–52).

Jaoul Houses in Neuilly-sur-Seine (1951–55).

1952
Beginning of construction in Chandigarh.

Dedication of the Unité d’habitation in Marseille by Eugène Claudius-Petit.

1953
Awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Pavillon du Brésil at the Cité Universitaire in Paris, designed together with Lucio Costa (1953–59).

Dominican monastery Sainte Marie de la Tourette (La Tourette) in Eveux-sur-Arbresle (1953–60).

1954
Publishes Une petite maison.

1955
Maison de la Culture (1955–65) and Stadium (1955–68) in Firminy.

Publishes Architecture du bonheur, Le poème de l’angle droit and Modulor 2.

1956
Unité d’habitation in Berlin-Charlottenburg (1956–58).

Publishes Les plans de Paris, a compendium of renewal projects for Paris that he had created during the past decades.

1957
Yvonne Le Corbusier dies on 5 October.

National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo (1957–59).

Publishes Ronchamp and Von der Poesie des Bauens.

1958
Philips Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Brussels and design of the visual composition ‘Poème éléctronique’ to music by Edgar Varèse.

Publishes Claviers de couleur Salubra.

1959
Unité d’habitation in Firminy (1959–67).

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. (1959–62).

1960
Death of his mother on 15 February in Corseaux, Switzerland, at the age of 100.

Publishes L’Atelier de la recherche patiente.

1961
Beginning of construction of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University under the direction of Josep Lluís Sert.

Project for the church of Saint Pierre in Firminy (realised 2003–6 under the direction of José Oubrerie, a former employee of Le Corbusier).

Completion of seven wall tapestries for the High Court in Chandigarh.

1962
Retrospective exhibition of his work at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris.

Exhibition pavilion Maison de l’Homme in Zurich, commissioned by the art dealer Heidi Weber (1962–67).

1963
Design for a building for the French Embassy in Brasília (project, 1963–64).

1964
Inauguration of the Assembly Hall in Chandigarh with the official opening of the monumental enamelled steel door designed by Le Corbusier as a gift from France to the country of India.

1965
Dies on 27 August while swimming in the ocean in Roquebrune-Cap Martin, after suffering a heart attack.

1966
Le voyage d’Orient is published.

1967
Completion of the exhibition pavilion Maison de l’Homme in Zurich.

Completion of the Unité d’habitation in Firminy.

1968
Completion of the Stadium in Firminy.

On 24 July, in accordance with the prior wishes of Le Corbusier, the Fondation Le Corbusier is established in Paris as a non-profit-making organisation; it continues to administer his estate to the present day.