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Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965) will forever be known as an icon of
Modernism, but did you know that the man who changed the face of architecture led quite
the colorful personal life?
In honor of his 125th birthday, take a moment to check out some Corbu classics (perhaps
Convent of La Tourette, Ronchamp, Villa Savoye, Unite d’Habitation, or Villa Roche) and
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read on to learn more about the man behind the myth – Charles-Édouard Jeanneret.
Fun Facts About Le Corbusier (including what Salvador Dalí had to say about him. It isn’t
pretty) after the break!
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Le Corbusier’s plans for Ville Contemporaine, a series of sixty-story, cruciform
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skyscrapers (never built) included plans for rooftop airports so commercial airliners
could fly between skyscrapers.
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Le Corbusier designed the first planned city in India – Chandigarh. The layout was
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based on the plans he conceptualized in his book La Ville Radieuse (The Radiant
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City), which itself was an update on ideas for Ville Contemporaine.
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Le Corbusier’s theories as an Urban Planner have been hotly contested, perhaps
none more so than by Jane Jacobs: ”Le Corbusier’s Utopia was a condition of what he
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called maximum liberty, by which he seems to have meant not liberty to do anything
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Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, relaxing on the Shukna Lake on a pedal boat manufactured by
Unite d’habitation, 1952. Le Corbusier’s first large-scale housing project. Photo © Guzman Lozano
Chandigarh, India’s first planned city was designed by Le Corbusier. Photo by diametrik –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/diametrik/
Villa Savoye, Arguably Le Corbusier’s most famous work. Photo © Flavio Bragaia
Le Corbusier was taken with the image of the Open Hand, constructing many
sculptures of it over his lifetime. He called it a ”sign of peace and of reconciliation[...]
meant to receive the created riches, and to distribute them to the peoples of the world.
That should be the symbol of our epoch.” See this cool interview with him discussing
the 28-meter Open Hand sculpture in Chandigarh.
Le Corbusier’s design philosophy was heavily inspired by mathematical concepts
used by Leonard daVinci, such as the golden ratio and the Fibonacci series, which he
used as the basis for his architectural proportions.
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06 OCT
2012
by Vanessa Quirk
Architects Articles Editor's
Choice Le Corbusier Ronchamp, one of Le Corbusier’s most unusual works. © Cara Hyde-Basso
On August 27, 1965, Le Corbusier went for a swim, against his doctor’s orders, in
the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of his beloved summer home in the south of France.
His body was found by bathers.
“Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in
3.9k
light.”
Like Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture, 1923
Facts via Wikipedia
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Quirk, Vanessa. "14 Facts You Didn’t Know About Le Corbusier" 06 Oct 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 29 Aug
2014. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=278569>
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Ben Dover +55
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Does anybody know a great architect that didn’t commit adultery? Or is this part of the images of Le
curriculum? Corbusier by Willy
Rizzo,
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