Le Corbusier architecture of the 20th century. Biography of Charles Edouard Le Corbusier (Le Corbusier)

This year, the architectural community is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the great Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris), who had a tremendous impact on the architecture of the 20th century. A number of events were timed to coincide with this date in Moscow, including an exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, a reprint of the book Le Corbusier and the Mysticism of the USSR, and others.

Exhibition of works by Le Corbusier in the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin. Photo: Moscow 24

The name Le Corbusier is associated primarily with the famous Ronchamp Chapel and Villa Savoy. But the architect is also the author of several projects for Moscow - the Palace of Soviets, the Centrosoyuz and the city development project "Response to Moscow", known as the "Radiant City". Le Corbusier visited Moscow three times - in 1928, 1929 and 1930. He was attracted by the new country and the new opportunities of the Land of the Soviets.

In 1931-32, a competition was held in Moscow for the building of the Palace of Soviets. The palace was planned to be placed on the site of the blown up Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The architect proposed a bold decision - he hung the main hall on a parabolic arch. But the innovative ideas of Le Corbusier were not implemented - at that time, the avant-garde in Russia was already giving way to Soviet neoclassicism.

Le Corbusier is working on a project for the Palace of the Soviets. Photo: Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin

And the house of the Tsentrosoyuz (Narkomlegprom) in Moscow was built according to the project of Le Corbusier. A competition for the design of the building was announced in 1928. It was attended by Russian constructivist architects brothers Alexander and Victor Vesnin, Boris Velikovsky, Ivan Leonidov and others. All of them asked Isidor Lyubimov, chairman of the Centrosoyuz, that the design be given to Le Corbusier.

Le Corbusier, designing the building, brought to life his main postulates: giant surfaces of glass on the facades, open pillars that support office blocks, free spaces on the ground floor and horizontal roofs. Le Corbusier's Centrosoyuz project was extremely innovative and ahead of its time. This applies to the materials used, and structures, and architectural appearance. The building is known for its unique interior ramps. The Tsentrosoyuz House was built in 1936 with the participation of the architect Nikolai Kolli. It became one of the first large office complexes in Europe with continuous glazing. The building is located on Myasnitskaya Street, 39. Currently, it houses the Federal State Statistics Service.

The building of the Central Union. Photo: Sofia Kondrashina

In the 1930s, architects in Moscow designed the "Green City", which was planned to be built in the north-east of Moscow. Le Corbusier was invited to comment on the project. He invited the architects to abandon the ideas of deurbanization and developed a new project for the city, "Response to Moscow", which is known as the "Radiant City". Le Corbusier wanted to radically change the face of Moscow by building up almost the entire center of Moscow. Not surprisingly, the architect's proposal was not accepted.

During his visits to Moscow, Le Corbusier became friends with many avant-garde architects of the time, including Moses Ginzburg and Alexander Vesnin. Le Corbusier even used Ginzburg's developments, his drawings of the Narkomfin building, while working on his "residential unit" in Marseille.

House of Narkomfin. Architect Moses Ginzburg. Photo: ITAR-TASS

Le Corbusier is a French architect of Swiss origin, a pioneer of modernism, a representative of international style architecture. Buildings according to his designs were built all over the world - in Switzerland, France, Germany, USA, Argentina, Japan, Russia, India and Brazil. Characteristic features of Le Corbusier's architecture are block volumes raised above the ground; free-standing columns below them; flat roof terraces used ("roof gardens"); "transparent", visible facades and free floor spaces ("free plan"). Over time, the postulates of Le Corbusier have become familiar features of modern architecture.

Prepared by Sofia Kondrashina

Each era has its own outstanding personalities, brilliant discoverers who own minds. In the twentieth century, such a cult figure in architecture was the Frenchman Le Corbusier. Along with such contemporaries as Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, Walter Gropius, Mies van Der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, he was a pioneer of new roads, a pioneer of modern architecture. Almost a whole century has passed under the sign of his ideas and his name.


The modern city according to Corbusier. Architectural fantasy of the 20s

The beginning of Corbusier's creative career as an architect coincided with the technical revolution of the new time, the main points of which were the emergence of such technical innovations as electricity, telephone communication and radio, the appearance of the automobile, the emergence of aviation, as well as the construction of new generation giant ships, ocean liners like the Aquitania ", "Olympic" or "Queen Mary-1". At the junction of traditional arts - theater, literature, fine arts and only invented photography, a completely new art, cinema, was born.

Marseille Block in green surroundings. By the way, the world first saw the LOGIA of apartments in such a representation at this very facility.

Television was invented (only in its rudiments, of course). The abundance of innovations and transformations in all areas made us talk about the advent of some new era. In construction, the turning point was the use of materials such as metal, glass and the recently invented reinforced concrete, reinforced concrete - they opened up prospects for builders and architects that seemed overwhelming, on the verge of fantasy. All these achievements of scientific thought, technology and design - phenomenal for their time - became for Corbusier the main inspirational moment of his work.

Marseille block. Terrace on the roof of the building: there is a solarium, a jogging track, a children's studio, a swimming pool. 1947-52

Le Corbusier (fr. Le Corbusier; real name Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris (fr. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris); October 6, 1887, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland - August 27, 1965, Roquebrune - Cap Martin , France) is a French architect of Swiss origin, a pioneer of modernism, a representative of international style architecture, an artist and designer.

Le Corbusier is one of the most significant architects of the twentieth century, his place is on a par with such architectural reformers as Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe. He achieved fame thanks to his buildings, always original in his own way, as well as to the talented pen of a writer-publicist.

Heidi WeberMuseum

Buildings designed by him can be found in different countries - in Switzerland, France, the USA, Argentina, Japan and even in Russia. The characteristic features of Le Corbusier's architecture are volumes-blocks raised above the ground; free-standing columns below them; flat, usable terraced roofs ("roof gardens"); "transparent", visible through facades ("free facade"); rough unfinished concrete surfaces; free floor spaces ("free plan"). Once belonging to his personal architectural program, now all these techniques have become familiar features of modern construction.

carpenter center

The extraordinary popularity of Le Corbusier's work can be explained by the universality of his approach, the social content of his proposals. It is impossible not to note his merits in the fact that he opened the eyes of architects to free forms. To a large extent, it was under the influence of his designs and buildings that there was a shift in the minds of architects, as a result of which free forms in architecture began to be used much more widely and with much more ease than before.

Center LeCorbusier

His personality traits are ambiguous: he is both a man of open consciousness, and a mystic, he is also a public leader, organizer of the International Congress of Contemporary Architects CIAM — and a hermit crab hiding from everyone in his tiny house-workshop on Cap Martin, this is an apologist for a rational approach , and at the same time an architect who created structures that seemed to contemporaries the height of eccentricity and irrationality.

Among the powerful of this world, Andre Malraux and Jawaharlal Nehru were his patrons. The characteristic features of Le Corbusier's image are a strict dark suit, a bow tie, and round horn-rimmed glasses, which have become his trademark.

Center Le Corbusier

Biography and creative activity

Swiss period 1887-1917

Le Corbusier, real name Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, was born on October 6, 1887 in Switzerland, in the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds, the French-speaking canton of Neuchâtel, in a family where the craft of an enamel watchmaker was traditional. At the age of 13, he entered the School of Art in Chaux-de-Fonds, where he studied arts and crafts with teacher Charles Leplatenier.

Education at the School of Arts was based on the ideas of the “arts and crafts” movement founded by J. Ruskin, as well as on the art nouveau style popular at that time. From the moment he entered this school, Edouard Jeanneret began to engage in jewelry business on his own, creating enamels and engraving monograms on watch covers.

E. Jeanneret undertook his first architectural project at the age of less than 18, with the help of a professional architect. It was the residence of the engraver Louis Fallet (Fallet's house), a board member of the School of Art. When the construction was completed, with the money earned, Jeanneret made his first educational trip - to Italy and the countries of Austria-Hungary

For about six months, Jeanneret was in Vienna, where he was busy with two new projects of residential buildings for Chaux-de-Fonds, studied the architecture of the Vienna Secession, met with artists and architects of this city, in particular with the then very popular Josef Hoffmann.

Seeing the drawings made by Jeanneret on a trip, Hoffmann offered him a job in his studio, which he refused, because he believed that the Secession (or Art Nouveau, as it is called in Russia) no longer meets modern challenges. The journey ended in Paris, where Jeanneret spent more than two years working as an intern draftsman for the firm of the brothers Auguste and Gustave Perret (1908–1910), innovators who promoted the newly discovered reinforced concrete. In 1910, for about six months, he trained (together with Ludwig Mies van Der Rohe and Walter Gropius) in the workshop of the famous German master of architecture Peter Behrens near Berlin (Neubabelsberg).

Later, for the purpose of self-education, Jeanneret took another trip to the East (1911) - through Greece, the Balkans and Asia Minor, where he had the opportunity to study ancient monuments, folklore and traditional folk construction of the Mediterranean. These travels became his universities and in many ways shaped his views on art and architecture.

Returning to his homeland, Jeanneret began working as a teacher at the School of Arts, the same one where he studied. In 1914 he opened his first architectural studio. In La Chaux-de-Fonds, he designed several buildings, mostly residential buildings, in particular, the Villa Jeanneret-Perret (1912) built for his parents. Commissioned by a local watch magnate, Villa Schwob (or "Turkish Villa", 1916-1917), according to Le Corbusier himself, was the first project in which he felt like an architect in full measure.

In the same period, Jeanneret created and patented the Dom-Ino project (1914), which was very significant for his creative biography (together with the engineer M. Dubois). It foresaw the possibilities of building from large-sized prefabricated elements, which at that time was an innovative step. Corbusier implemented the Dom-Hino concept later in many of his buildings.

In early 1917, Édouard Jeanneret left La Chaux-de-Fonds and Switzerland to settle permanently in Paris.

Purist period 1917-1930

Upon arrival in Paris, Ed. Jeanneret works as a consulting architect for Max Dubois' Society for the Application of Reinforced Concrete.

During his work in it (April 1917 - January 1919), he completed quite a few projects, mainly technical structures - a water tower in Podensac (Gironde), an arsenal in Toulouse, a power plant on the Vienne River, slaughterhouses in Challuy and Garshizy, and others .

These projects, not yet marked by special originality, were not included by Le Corbusier in his Complete Works. Working in the mentioned "Society ...", Ed. Jeanneret establishes a factory for the production of building products in Alfortville and becomes its director. He also teaches drawing in a children's art studio.

In Paris Ed. Jeanneret met Amédée Ozenfant, an artist who introduced him to modern painting, in particular Cubism. Ozenfant introduces Braque, Picasso, Gris, Lipchitz, and later Fernand Léger. Under the influence of these acquaintances, Ed. Jeanneret himself begins to actively engage in painting, which becomes his second profession.

Architects (from left): Erik Lallerstedt, Le Corbusier and Ivar Tengbom 1933 in Stockholm

Together with Ozanfant, they arrange joint exhibitions of their paintings, declaring them as exhibitions of "purists". In 1919, Jeanneret and Ozenfant, with the financial support of the Swiss businessman Raoul La Roche, began to publish the philosophical and artistic magazine Esprit Nouveau (French L'Esprit Nouveau - "The New Spirit"). Ed is in charge of the architecture department. Jeanneret, signing his articles with the pseudonym "Le Corbusier". The Esprit Nouveau magazine published Le Corbusier's Five Starting Points of Modern Architecture for the first time, a kind of set of rules for modern architecture.

In 1922 Ed. Jeanneret opens his architectural office in Paris, he takes his cousin Pierre Jeanneret as an employee, who becomes his constant companion. In 1924, they rented a wing of the old Parisian monastery at st. Sevres, 35 (fr. rue de Sevre, 35). Most of Corbusier's projects were created in this impromptu workshop, and a group of his assistants and employees worked here.

Haus Citrohan (Weißenhofsiedlung)

Stuttgart Germany

In the 1920s, Ed. Jeanneret (now Le Corbusier) designed and built several rich villas that made his name; most of them are located in or around Paris. These are buildings of a bright modernist style; their completely new and even defiant aesthetics for their time made Corbusier speak of the new leader of the European architectural avant-garde.

The main ones are the Villa La Roche/Janneret (1924), the Villa Stein in Garches (now Vaucreson, 1927), the Villa Savoy in Poissy (1929). The characteristic features of these buildings are simple geometric shapes, white smooth facades, horizontal windows, and the use of an internal frame made of reinforced concrete. They are also distinguished by the innovative use of interior space - the so-called "free plan". In these buildings, Corbusier applied his architect's code - "Five starting points of architecture."

Geneve immeuble Clarte

For the exhibition "Autumn Salon" in 1922, the Jeanneret brothers presented a model of the "Modern City for 3 million inhabitants", which offered a new vision of the city of the future. Subsequently, this project was transformed into the "Plan Voisin" (1925) - a developed proposal for a radical reconstruction of Paris. The Voisin plan provided for the construction of a new business center of Paris on a completely cleared area; for this it was proposed to demolish 240 hectares of old urban development.

Maison Blanch

Eighteen identical skyscrapers-offices of 50 floors each were located according to the plan freely, at a distance from each other. High-rise buildings complemented the horizontal structures at their feet - with the functions of all kinds of service and maintenance. At the same time, the built-up area was only 5%, and the remaining 95% of the territory was allocated for highways, parks and pedestrian zones (according to the accompanying annotation by L.K.) The “Plan Voisin” was widely discussed in the French press and became a kind of sensation.

In this and other similar projects - these are plans for Buenos Aires (1930), Antwerp (1932), Rio de Janeiro (1936), "Aubus Plan" for Algiers (1931) - Le Corbusier developed completely new urban concepts. Their common essence is to increase the comfort of living in cities through new planning methods, to create green zones in them (the concept of a "green city"), a modern network of transport routes - and all this with a significant increase in the height of buildings and population density. In these projects, Corbusier proved himself to be a consistent urbanist.

In 1924, by order of the industrialist Henri Fruget, in the suburb of Pessac near Bordeaux, the town “Modern Houses of Fruges” (fr. Quartiers Modernes Frugès) was built according to the project of Corbusier. This town, consisting of 50 two-three-story residential buildings, was one of the first experiments in the construction of houses in series in France.

Four types of buildings are used here, different in configuration and layout - ribbon houses (arcade type), detached houses (skyscraper type) and block houses. In this project, Corbusier tried to offer different types of modern homes at affordable prices - simple forms, easy to build, and at the same time with a modern level of comfort.

national museum of western artTokyo

At the International Exhibition of 1925 in Paris, the Esprit Nouveau pavilion was built according to the project of Corbusier. In terms of its aesthetics and internal structure, the pavilion was a kind of modernist architectural declaration, just like the pavilion of Soviet Russia by architect K. Melnikov for the same exhibition. The Esprit Nouveau pavilion included a life-sized living cell of an apartment building - an experimental apartment on two levels. Corbusier used a similar cell later, in the late 40s, when creating his Marseille Residential Unit.

1930s - the beginning of the "international" style

Residential building in the village of Weissenhof, Stuttgart, Germany. 1927

By the beginning of the 1930s, the name of Le Corbusier became widely known, large orders began to come to him. One of the first such orders was the House of the Salvation Army in Paris (1929-1931). In 1928, Corbusier participated in the competition for the building of the People's Commissariat of Light Industry (House of the Centrosoyuz) in Moscow, which was then built (1928-1935). Tsentrosoyuz was a completely new, in fact, unprecedented for Europe example of a modern business building. The construction was carried out under the guidance of the architect Nikolai Colli.

House of Tsentrosoyuz

In connection with the construction of the Centrosoyuz, Le Corbusier repeatedly came to Moscow - in 1928, 1929, in the early thirties. He met with Tairov, Meyerhold, Eisenstein, admired the creative atmosphere that prevailed in the country at that time, and especially the achievements of the Soviet architectural avant-garde - the Vesnin brothers, Moses Ginzburg, Konstantin Melnikov. Started a friendly correspondence with A. Vesnin. Participated in the international competition for the building of the Palace of Soviets for Moscow (1931), for which he made an extremely bold, innovative project.

Palace of Assembly Chandigarh

The Swiss Pavilion in Paris, built in 1930-1932, was an architectural discovery - a hostel for Swiss students on the territory of the International Campus. Its originality lies in the novelty of the composition, the most unexpected moment of which was the open support-columns of the first floor, unusual in shape, effectively shifted to the longitudinal axis of the building. Immediately after the completion of the construction work, the Swiss pavilion attracted the attention of critics and the press, making people talk about themselves.

Chandigarh High Court

In the post-war years, on one of the walls of the library hall, Corbusier created a large wall painting in an abstract and symbolic manner.

In 1935, Le Corbusier visited the United States, with lectures he made a tour of the cities of the country: New York, Yale University, Boston, Chicago, Madison, Philadelphia, again New York, Columbia University. In 1936, he again makes a similar trip, now to South America. In Rio de Janeiro, in addition to lecturing, Corbusier takes part in the development of the project for the building of the Ministry of Education and Education (architects L. Costa and O. Niemeyer).

On his initiative, solid glazing was used on the high-rise office block of this complex, as well as external sun-shading sun-blinds, one of the first experiments of this kind.

Le Corbusier was one of the founders of the international CIAM congresses - congresses of contemporary architects from different countries, united by the idea of ​​​​renovating architecture. The first CIAM congress was held in La Sarraz, Switzerland in 1928. Corbusier's urban planning concepts formed the basis of the "Charter of Athens", adopted at the IV International Congress of CIAM in Athens, 1933. Le Corbusier's theoretical views are outlined in the books "Toward Architecture" (1923), "Urban Planning" (1925), "Radiant City" ( 1935) and others.

Chandigarh Secretariat

All these years (1922-1940), young architects from different countries worked as apprentices in the Corbusier workshop in Paris on the Rue Sèvres. Some of them subsequently became very famous and even famous, such as Kunio Maekawa (Japan), Junzo Sakakura (Japan), Josep Luis Sert (Spain-USA), Andre Wozhansky (France), Alfred Roth (Switzerland-USA), Maxwell Fry (England) and others.

New York City United Nations UNO United Nations General Assembly

Corbusier was married to Yvonne Gallis (fr. Yvonne Gallis), from Monaco, whom he met in Paris in 1922, the marriage was formalized in 1930. In the same year, Corbusier took French citizenship.

Japan Peace Bell of United Nations

Period 1940-1947

In 1940, the Corbusier workshop was closed, and he and his wife moved to a farm away from Paris (Ozon, Pyrenees). In 1942, Corbusier made an official trip to Algiers, in connection with the urban planning project of the city of Algiers. Returning to Paris in the same year, due to the lack of orders, he studied theory, drew, wrote books.

By this time, the beginning of the systematic development of the Modulor, the system of harmonic proportions invented by Le Corbusier, which he applied in the very first large post-war projects, dates back to this time. In Paris, he founded the research society "Ascoral" (Assembly of Builders for the Renewal of Architecture), in which he presided. In various sections of society, topics were discussed, one way or another connected with the problems of construction, housing and healthy living.

After liberation, restoration work began in France, and Corbusier was invited by the authorities to participate in them as a city planner. He carried out, in particular, plans for the reconstruction of the cities of Saint-Dieu (1945) and La Rochelle (1946), which became a new original contribution to urban planning.

In these projects, for the first time, the so-called "residential unit" by Le Corbusier appears - fr. Unité d "habitation, a prototype of the future Marseille Block. In these, as in other urban development projects carried out at that time, the idea of ​​a "green city" is consistently carried out, or, according to Corbusier, the "Radiant City" (fr. "La Ville radieuse ").

Corbusierhaus Berlin

In Saint-Dieu, by order of the industrialist Duval, Le Corbusier erects the building of the Claude and Duval Manufactory (1946-1951) - a four-story block with industrial and office premises, with continuous glazing of the facades. In the Duval manufactory, the so-called fr. brise-soleil ("sun cutters" - special hinged structures invented by Corbusier that protect the glazed facade from direct sunlight. From that moment on, sun cutters become a kind of trademark of Corbusier's buildings, where they perform both a service and a decorative role.

Villa Anatole Schwob

In 1946, Corbusier, along with other famous architects from different countries (Niemeyer, Richardson, Markelius and others), was invited to design the UN headquarters complex on the banks of the East River in New York. He worked on it from January to June 1947. For some reason, he did not have to participate in the project until it was completed, and officially Corbusier did not appear on the list of authors. However, the overall layout of the complex, and especially the high-rise 50-story Secretariat Building (built 1951), largely reflects his design proposals.

The contribution of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, who worked under the pseudonym Le Corbusier (1887-1965), to world architecture is very great. He is rightfully included in the list of leading architects of the 20th century, literally working on changing the face of residential development in Europe. Le Corbusier has many projects, let's highlight the most significant ones.

Let's start with the smallest house that was built by Le Corbusier - "Cabanon". The architect built this hut for his wife as a summer house, and the project itself was sketched out in just 15 minutes. Corbusier was sure that the house with an area of ​​3.66 by 3.66 m turned out to be very comfortable. The roof is flat, the ceiling is 2.26 m high. The hut has a bathroom, a dining room, a work area, and enough storage space. But it was decided to abandon the kitchen - there is a restaurant next to the house.

We already mentioned the “Village of Frouge” in Pessac, near Bordeaux, when we wrote about typical urban development. This is a truly landmark project by Le Corbusier, which had a social focus - it was planned to create inexpensive, typical, but at the same time comfortable housing for workers. Over 50 houses were built according to seven main projects, and the customer, a sugar industrialist, insisted on painting the buildings in different colors, to whom the village seemed too gloomy. The local authorities did not accept the project, implemented in 1926, and the settlement of the buildings began only in 1930.

The architect built the Savoy Villa (Poissy, a suburb of Paris) according to his five principles: with a roof-terrace, ribbon windows, concrete columns at the base, an open plan and a free facade. Le Corbusier applied a minimum of decor, the house is very simple, but elegant. Unfortunately, the flat roof, which was supposed to be a recreation area, soon began to leak, the building materials used in the 1920s did not allow it to be more reliable. Because of this, the architect had a dispute with the customer. Now the house is an architectural monument, owned by the French government.

Corbusier worked in different countries of the world, there is his significant project in Moscow. This is the office building of Tsentrosoyuz, located between Akademika Sakharov Avenue and Myasnitskaya. Now Rosstat is located here. Construction began in 1928 and was completed eight years later. The Tsentrosoyuz building is considered a model of European modernism of the beginning of the last century and is one of Moscow's architectural rarities. One of the first complexes with continuous glazing. It is not surprising that a monument to the architect himself was erected in front of this building.

Kuruchet House, 1949. This relatively small private mansion was proposed by the Argentine government to be included in the UNESCO list, because the building is considered the absolute of ultramodernism and an important milestone in the work of Le Corbusier. The house has four levels, outwardly it turned out to be very light, open, simple. The building, located in the province of Buenos Aires, was built by an architect for a doctor and therefore includes a medical office on the ground floor.

Villa La Rocha. The house, built in 1923 in Paris, includes a gallery and a residential wing. All the principles of Le Corbusier are again noticeable: a flat roof suitable for use, a minimum of decor on the facade, ribbon windows, support columns. The project was innovative for its time, brought fame to the architect, but the customers - the family of a wealthy collector - were not very satisfied and soon set about expensive repairs.

Villa "Le Lac" was built by the architect for his own parents, and he returned to this project more than once, coming to visit Soros in Switzerland. A rather simple house, which became the basis for the "new architecture" of Corbusier, was built in 1923. The three main principles are strip glazing, a flat roof and an open plan. The southern façade overlooking the lake is finished with aluminum, and this had to be done to hide a crack in the wall.

Residential unit in Marseille (France). Another social project of Corbusier, aimed at creating standard buildings and inexpensive housing for workers. The house was built in 1945, right after the war. There are 350 apartments in the building, up to 1.7 thousand people can live at the same time. There is a terrace with a kindergarten, a hotel-restaurant, a shopping street, and the apartments themselves are two-story, overlooking both sides.

Notre Dame du Haut, a chapel whose name means "Madonna on the Heights". An unusual project by Corbusier, who created a pilgrimage church made of concrete in the town of Ronchamp (France). The shape of the roof was inspired by a shell found by the architect, and the building itself fits perfectly into the picturesque landscape. The construction was completed in 1955 and belongs to the late period of Corbusier's work.

One of the most ambitious projects of Corbusier was the development of the city of Chandigarh, the new capital of the state of Punjab (India). In this city, the architect erected several iconic buildings, including the Secretariat, the Palace of Justice, the Museum and Art Gallery, and the Assembly Building. Corbusier also worked on the plan for the city itself, designed for half a million inhabitants and divided into about 60 rectangular residential sectors. This project was implemented from 1951 to 1962. Since Corbusier himself only outlined the plan of Chandigarh and erected the largest, main buildings in the center, his cousin, also an architect, Pierre Jeanneret, did the rest of the work.

An outstanding architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Charles Edouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, was born in the Swiss town of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Charles initially chose the profession of a watchmaker-engraver, which was more of a family tradition, but soon he was fascinated by architecture. By chance, the bright architect of the 20th century could not receive a special education according to his passion, and his schools of architecture were only museums, libraries, travel, as well as creative communication with the luminaries of that time.

Villa Savoy 1929-1931

The years 1910-11 for Le Corbusier were spent in Berlin at work in the workshop of P. Behrens, where he met Walter Gropius himself. By the beginning of 1916, the 29-year-old architect arrived in Paris to work at a building materials factory. On rest days or in the evenings, Corbusier studied the theory of art and painting, after which, in 1918, he and his friend A. Ozanfant published the manifesto “After Cubism”.

Villa Savoy. Plans.

This literary appeal revealed the formulation of the main provisions of purism - a new trend in the usual painting. After friends published the Esprit Nouveau (new spirit) magazine, it was on its pages that Charles first signed the pseudonym Le Corbusier, the surname of a relative of his mother.

1922 prepared a change for the young architect. Le Corbusier left the factory and, together with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, opened his own design studio in Paris.

The main theme of his work was to develop theses for the construction of modern cities and dwellings. Back in 1914, Charles put forward the idea of ​​a "House with Cells" (project "Dom-Ino"). The plan of this building resembled lined up chains, as in the game of Dominoes, with columns in the form of points on the knuckles. In essence, this was the very first frame-type house project for serial construction.

Thanks to his famous five architectural points, formulated in 1926, modern man can study buildings such as:

• Swiss Villa Fale 1905
• Ozenfant's Parisian Atelier House 1922
• Paris Exhibition Pavilion "ESPRI NUVO" 1924
• Salvation Army refuge house in Paris (1926)
• Moscow House of Tsentrosoyuz (1928-33)
• Villa Savoy in Poissy, France (1929-1931)
• House Curuchet in the provincial Argentine town of La Plata (1949)
• Punjab Palace of Justice in India (1951-55)
• Art Museum in Japan, Tokyo (1957-59)
• Last built Boston Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts 1962

Pavilion "Esprit Nouveau" 1924

Salvation Army House 1926

Assembly building. Chandigarh is the new capital of Punjab, India. 1951-1962

The main five architectural qualities in the work of Le Corbusier were the free planning of the building, so that it was possible to arrange internal partitions in any way. In addition, the building had to stand on supports in the territory of the green cover, the free facade (not load-bearing) was designed depending on the layout. The buildings were to be crowned with flat roofs in the form of a terrace with a garden to restore the greenery selected by the building. And finally, the window openings merged into one ribbon window to create a special façade pattern and improved room lighting.

Le Corbusier was born on October 6, 1887 - an architect, artist, author of urban planning theories, a symbol of modernism in the architecture of the 20th century.

Le Corbusier created his first architectural project at the age of 17 under the guidance of an experienced teacher. It was an apartment building for Louis Fallet, a board member of the School of Art, where Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (real name Le Corbusier) studied arts and crafts at the time.

In 1914, the architect opens his own workshop in his native Swiss city of La Chaux-de-Fonds, and already in 1922 he creates his own office in Paris and settles there. Painting occupied a special place in the life of Le Corbusier. With his friend, the artist Amédée Ozanfant, they established the term “purism” in the art world, the principles of which Le Corbusier transferred to his architectural projects. Purism rejects the decorativeness inherent in its predecessor - cubism, and proclaims the image of a "purified" reality. In 1920, they created the Esprit Nouveau magazine (L`Esprit Nouveau - "The New Spirit"), which lasted until 1925. The publication became a platform for discussions about art and architecture, and it was there that Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, under the pseudonym Le Corbusier, published the most important articles for his work, which were then combined into the collections “Toward Architecture”, “City Planning” and others.

Le Corbusier, like many of his colleagues, became widely known for his projects of private villas. In the 1920s, he built several buildings in a modernist style, new and challenging for its time - the Villa La Roche / Jeanneret, the Villa Stein in Garches, the Villa Savoy in Poissy. They began to talk about Le Corbusier as a representative of the architectural avant-garde, because he used fundamentally new techniques in design. The distinctive features of his projects were white smooth facades, simple geometric shapes, volumes floating in the air, horizontal glazing, reinforced concrete structures.

In 1925, Le Corbusier built a pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris under the familiar name "Esprit Nouveau" as a kind of manifesto for the architectural avant-garde. The French pavilion was in many ways similar to the pavilion of the USSR, made by our compatriot Konstantin Melnikov.

Le Corbusier starts large orders in the early 1930s. At the same time, he participates in a competition for the construction of the Tsentrosoyuz building in Moscow and visits the USSR. After the Second World War, the architect manifests himself as an urban planner and creates plans for the reconstruction of the French cities of Saint-Dieu and Roshal. It is here that Le Corbusier consistently implements his famous idea of ​​the "Radiant City", which is still being discussed by urbanists and partially finds its application in metropolitan areas. Everything is perfect in its Radiant City: symmetry in planning, many parks and green areas, a developed transport system and convenient zoning. The architect proposed building residential areas with apartment buildings no higher than 50 meters and settling up to 2,000 people in them. These ideas were partially embodied in the famous Marseille Unit, and then in the architect's largest project - the planning of the city of Chandigarh in India.

1. Villa La Rocha/Janneret in Paris

In 1923, the architect builds a double house for the banker Raoul La Roche and his older brother Albert Jeanneret. In this project, for the first time, the main features of the author's style of the architect, by which we recognize his work, appeared: white color, large vertical planes, prismatic forms. Now the Le Corbusier Foundation functions in the building of Villa La Rocha.

2. Villa Savoy in Poissy

More recently, the Savoy Villa and the Moscow Melnikov House have become sister monuments as part of the Russian-French Year of Cultural Tourism 2016-2017. They are both deservedly symbols of modernism in architecture. In the project of the Villa Savoy, Le Corbusier embodied all his innovative ideas, which are also called the “five starting points of architecture”: piles instead of the usual foundation, white smooth facades, horizontal strip glazing, a flat roof on which a garden can be arranged, free planning of premises.

3. Building of Tsentrosoyuz in Moscow

Luckily for us, a building designed by Le Corbusier was also built in Moscow. Tsentrosoyuz was built from 1928 to 1935, and during this time the architect came to Moscow more than once, where he met the main figures of the Soviet avant-garde - the Vesnin brothers, Konstantin Melnikov, Moses Ginzburg. Tsentrosoyuz is not a typical office building and an example of modern architectural style. For Russian construction practice, the use of reinforced concrete structures was a completely new experience. With the help of cutting-edge building technology, Le Corbusier was able to apply his beloved free-planning principle, as well as provide an internal air-conditioning system to create a comfortable working environment. Endless stairs-ramps form the unique interior of the building. On October 15, 2015, a monument to Le Corbusier was unveiled in front of the facade of the building on Myasnitskaya Street.

4. Chapel in Ronchamp

The architect received an order for the construction of a chapel in Ronchamp in 1950. Here he creates an amazing architectural form of the building, not similar to its previous geometrically correct volumes. Le Corbusier, inspired by natural images, made the roof look like a crab shell or a sea shell. The inner space of the chapel is illuminated by multi-colored highlights from the stained-glass windows in the southern wall of the building.

5. Residential unit in Marseille

In this project, the architect realized his dream of a "garden city". Post-war Marseille was in dire need of living space, and Le Corbusier was able to accommodate 337 apartments in a reinforced concrete frame, while creating comfortable living conditions. The house was erected on powerful pillars, inside of which communication pipes were placed. The living space was divided into several levels, connected by "air streets". On one of the streets, general supply services and a hotel were organized, and the top floor acquired a gym and a kindergarten.

In the cladding of the building, Le Corbusier first used "raw" concrete (béton brut), which he then used in the construction of the Assembly Palace in Chandigarh.

6. Monastery of La Tourette in Lyon

The secluded monastery is made entirely in the style characteristic of Le Corbusier. The building was built in the shape of a rectangle with a courtyard divided by covered galleries. The ascetic appearance of the monastery is combined with amazing functionality, borrowed by the architect from the projects of apartment buildings.

The space of the monastery contains cells for 100 monks, a church, a public area with refectories, a library and meeting rooms. As in his other projects, the architect certainly dilutes the gray color with colored spots. Here he paints the chapel attached to the church blue, red and yellow.

7. Project of the Indian city of Chandigarh

For Le Corbusier, Chandigarh was the first exceptional opportunity to build an entirely new city. As a result, it turned out that he got the breakdown of the plan of the ensemble and the construction of the buildings of the Capitol - the political center of the city. The construction of the remaining facilities was entrusted to British and Indian architects. One of the most important projects created by Le Corbusier in Chandigarh is the Palace of the Assembly. It is recognized as the most original and complete in functional terms. In the huge inner hall, the architect placed several volumes - the hall of the Upper Chamber with a glazed top in the form of a pyramid and a conference room in the form of a hyperboloid. Externally, the building stands out for its bizarre facade with a curved portico facing the Capitol.

Text: Sofia Karpenko
Photo: Getty Images; FLC/RAO; ADAGP/RAO; Olivier Martin Gambier; Paul Kozlowski; Natalya Sazonova; Press service archives