LE CORBUSIER

LE CORBUSIERNameCharles-Édouard Jeanneret-GrisLe Corbusier

Nationality Swiss / French

Birth date October 6, 1887(1887-10-06)

Birth place La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Date of death

August 27, 1965 (aged 77)

Place of death

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France•Le Corbusier was an architect, designer, urbanist, writer and also painter, who is famous for his contributions to what now is called Modern architecture. •His career spanned 8 decades, with his buildings constructed throughout central Europe, India, Russia, and one each in North and South America. He was also an urban planner, painter, sculptor, writer, and modern furniture designer.•Died in the mediterranean•Dad was watchmaker•Grew up seeing the alps – adored cows right from his childhood (inspiration for chandigarh secratariat)•Self made architect•Gave the world one of the STRONGEST proportioning systems.•Minimalistic approach.

MODULAR THOERY

- Le Corbusier explicitly used the golden ratio in his Modular system for the scale of architectural proportion. - Le Corbusier based the system on human measurements, Fibonacci numbers, and the double unit.- He took Leonardo's suggestion of the golden ratio in human proportions to an extreme: he sectioned his model human body's height at the navel with the two sections in golden ratio, then subdivided those sections in golden ratio at the knees and throat; he used these golden ratio proportions in the Modular system.- Le Corbusier placed systems of harmony and proportion at the centre of his design philosophy, and his faith in the mathematical order of the universe was closely bound to the golden section and the Fibonacci series

Le Corbusier's 1927 Villa Stein in Garches exemplified the Modular system's application. The villa's rectangular ground plan, elevation, and inner structure closely approximate golden rectangles.

VILLA SAVOYE

Situated at Poissy, outside of Paris, it is one of the most recognisable architectural presentations of the International Style.

The Villa Savoye was designed as a weekend country house and is situated just outside of the small village of Poissy in a meadow which was originally surrounded by trees.

The polychromatic interior contrasts with the primarily white exterior.

Vertical circulation is facilitated by ramps as well as stairs.

The house fell into ruin during World War II but has since been restored and is open for viewing.

•The house was emblematic of Le Corbusier work in that it addressed “THE FIVE POINTS", his basic tenets of a new aesthetic of architecture constructed in reinforced concrete:•The pilotis, or ground-level supporting columns, elevate the building from the damp earth allowing the garden to flow beneath. •A flat roof terrace reclaims the area of the building site for domestic purposes, including a garden area. •The free plan, made possible by the elimination of load-bearing walls, consists of partitions placed where they are needed without regard for those on adjoining levels. •Horizontal windows provide even illumination and ventilation. •The freely-designed facade, unconstrained by load-bearing considerations, consists of a thin skin of wall and windows.

VILLA SAVOYE (1928 – 1931)

GROUND LEVEL PLAN UPPER LEVEL PLAN

•Austerely functional on the outside, its volume is supported by pilotis above a large expanse of lawn.•Direct access for cars, parked between the pilotis, beneath the house.•Once through the glass wall, visitors have two access options – stairway and ramp.•In Le Corbusier’s eyes, the stairway “separates” whereas the ramp “links”.•Ramp – stretches from the lawn to the sky, like a majestic “architectural promenade”, extending from the entrance through the apartment on the second floor to the roof terrace.•The dwelling is arranged in the form of an “L” that cleanly separates the public areas from the bedrooms.•Two-thirds of the living room – patio.•Access to the three bedroom – via corridors isolating the main bathroom.

PLANS, SECTIONS & ELEVATIONS

MILL OWNERS ASSOCIATION BUILDING

•The building is located on Ashram Road, in the western part of the city, overlooking the river Sabarmati in Ahmedabad.

•A ceremonial ramp makes for a grand approach into a triple height entrance hall, open to the wind.

•Arrival is on the first floor, where (as per the original design) the executives’ offices and boardroom are located.

•The ground floor houses the work-spaces of the clerks and a separate, single-story canteen at the rear.

•On the second floor of the Mill Owners’ Building, the lobby is treated as “an open space defined by harsh, angular forms and the auditorium as an enclosed space delineated by soft, curvilinear forms …two contradictory elements that both need the other in order to exist.”

•It’s a brilliant display of classic Corbusier, highlighting clean lines, warm light and bright spaces with hints of colour against the textured concrete.

• On the third floor is a high, top-lit auditorium with a roof canopy and a curved, enclosing wall, in addition to a generous lobby.

•The east and west facades are in the form of sun breakers or brise-soleil, one of Corbusier’s many formal inventions, which, while avoiding harsh sun, permit visual connection and air movement. While the brise-soleil act as free facades made of rough shuttered concrete, the north and south sides, built in rough brickwork, are almost unbroken.

mill owners association ahmedabad

ramp and staircases

VIEWS OF THE BUILDING PREMISES

•The toilets are two interlocking curves with a service shaft in between which grows up to the terrace.

•Its form and scale contradicts its surrounding.

•Visual privacy is achieved by virtue of its form.

•Entries are on opposite sides of the curves.

•Ventilators are pulled out of the height and emphasized.

•View to the Sabarmati.

•Subtle transition from the built to unbuilt.

Second floor entry door, with a large pivoted orange door.

By way of explanation, Corbusier placed these giant angled louvers on the west side of the building in an attempt to capture the prevailing wind, directing it through the building and thereby increasing ventilation and keeping the place cool.

•Six shaped auditorium.

•Its naturally lit by skylights which forms a gallery.

•Cladded by ply for better acoustics.

mill owners association ahmedabad

mill owners association ahmedabad

CHANDIGARH

chandigarh•The idea of building Chandigarh was conceived soon after India's independence in 1947, when the tragedy and chaos of Partition, and the loss of its historic capital Lahore, had crippled the state of Punjab.

•A new city was needed to house innumerable refugees and to provide an administrative seat for the newly formed government of re-defined Punjab.

•Chandigarh was regarded as a unique symbol of the progressive aspirations of the new republic and the ideology of its struggle for independence.

•It aimed to provide a generous cultural and social infrastructure and equitable opportunities for a dignified, healthy living even to the "poorest of the poor".

•The near vacuum of indigenous expertise needed to realize this dream prompted the search for Western skill.

• Yet, conscious of the specificities of their situation, the search was narrowed to "...a good modern architect who was not severely bound by an established style and who would be capable of developing a new conception originating from the exigencies of the project itself and suited to the Indian climate, available materials and the functions of the new capital.

•"The Chandigarh Project was, at first, assigned to the American planner Albert Mayer, with his associate Matthew Nowicki working out architectural details. Le Corbusier's association with the city was purely fortuitous, a result of Nowicki's sudden death .

•Corbusier continued to be associated with the city as the principal ‘architectural and planning advisor' for the till his death in1965. 

Corbusier's plan of modern Chandigarh

•Taking over from Albert Mayer, Le Corbusier produced a plan for Chandigarh that conformed to the modernist city planning principles, 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 Centre, besides the University, Industrial area, and linear parkland.• Even the neighbourhood 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. •

Le Corbusier on site

•The initial plan had two phases: the first for a population of 150,000 and the second taking the total population to 500,000. Le Corbusier divided the city into units called "sectors", each representing a theoretically self-sufficient entity with space for living, working and leisure. •The sectors were linked to each other by a road and path network developed along the line of the 7 Vs, or a hierarchy of seven types of circulation patterns. At the highest point in this network was the V1, the highways connecting the city to others, and at the lowest were the V7s, the streets leading to individual houses. Later a V8 was added: cycle and pedestrian paths.

chandigarh•The city plan is laid down in a grid pattern. •The whole city has been divided into rectangular patterns, forming identical looking sectors, each sector measures 800 m x 1200 m. The sectors were to act as self-sufficient neighbourhoods, each wit•h its own market, places of worship, schools and colleges - all within 10 minutes walking distance from within the sector.• The original two phases of the plan delineated sectors from 1 to 47, with the exception of 13 (Number 13 is considered unlucky). •The Assembly, the secretariat and the high court, all located in Sector - 1 are the three monumental buildings designed by Le Corbusier in which he showcased his architectural genius to the maximum. •The city was to be surrounded by a 16 kilometre wide greenbelt that was to ensure that no development could take place in the immediate vicinity of the town, thus checking suburbs and urban sprawl.•While leaving the bulk of the city's architecture to other members of his team, Le Corbusier took responsibility for the overall master plan of the city, and the design of some of the major public buildings including the High Court, Assembly, Secretariat, the Museum and Art Gallery, School of Art and the Lake Club. Le Corbusier 's most prominent building, the Court House, consists of the High court, which is literally higher than the other, eight lower courts. Most of the other housing was done by Le Corbusier 's cousin Pierre Jeanerette. •It continues to be an object of interest for architects, planners, historians and social scientists.

Open hand

•Open hand in Chandigarh, India is one of the most significant monuments of the city.

•The credit for laying down its plan goes to Le Corbusier.

•It is located in sector 1 in the Capitol Complex.

•Chandigarh open hand monument has been designed in the form of a giant hand made from metal sheets that rotates like a weathercock, indicating the direction of wind.

•This giant hand is 14 metres high and weighs around 50 tonnes.

•The significance of open hand is that it conveys the social message of peace and unity that is "open to give & open to receive."

•Open hand is the city's official emblem.

chandigarh Corbusier’s

works

palace assembly

high court

secretariat

museum

high court

•This structure has a double roof, projecting over the office block like a parasol or an inverted umbrella.

• This magnificent outward sweep of the upper roof is symbolic of protection & justice to the people.

•The 3 vertical piers, rising 60 feet from the floor and painted in bright colours from the grand entrance of the building facade. On the rear walls of the court rooms, hang the giant wooden tapestries.

•Classic example of cubism.

•Perfectly composed vertical and horizontal lines wit solids and voids.

secretariat

•The Secretariat is the largest of these edifices in the Capitol Complex. It is the headquarter of both Punjab and Haryana governments.• It is a huge multi-storied linear slab-like structure, intended as a work place for 4000 people.• The building is 254 meters long and 42 meters high. It is composed of 8 storeys. •The long line of rhythmic sun breakers is relieved by introducing varied heights and projections, together with a roof containing towers, funnels, pavilions and a cafeteria jutting out like an art object placed on a pedestal•. In the hands of Corbusier, this basically repetitive framework has been shaped into a work of art. •Built during 1953-59, it is shaped like an eight - storey concrete slab, with its distinctive brise-soleil ( louvered screen ) of deeply sculptured two-storey porticos in the centre, housing the offices of ministers.• The cafeteria rests atop the terrace like an art object, giving a spectacular view of the city .

high court

•Access to the upper floors is through a ramp sheltered by a portico.

•The gradual climb reveals the vast expanse and the coloured concrete volumes of the bldg.

•The rooms are shielded by the sun breakers from inside.

assembly hall

Door designed and painted by Corbusier.

•The most majestic entrance to the assembly is reflected in a large pool of water.

•The main entrance is fitted with a door made of enamel steel ,a gift from France to Punjab on which many of Corbusier’s motifs are depicted.

•The circular auditorium is crowned by a frustum which is said to depict the horn of a cow.

UNITE D’HABITATION

ARCHITECT: LE CORBUSIERLOCATION: MARSEILLES, FRANCEYEAR OFCONSTRUCTION: 1946-1952BUILDING TYPE: MULTIFAMILY HOUSINGCONSTRUCTION MATERIAL: CONCRETE

•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.• structurally it is simple: a rectilinear ferroconcrete grid, into which are slotted pre cast 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.”

•Inside, corridors run through the centre of the long axis of every third floor of the building, with each apartment lying on two levels, and stretching from one side of the building to the other, with a balcony.•In the block's planning, the architect drew on his studies of early Soviet Communal houses such as the Narkomfin Building.•Appropriately, unlike many of the inferior system-built blocks it inspired, which lack the original's generous proportions, communal facilities and parkland setting, the Unité is popular with its residents and is now mainly occupied by middle-class professionals.•The building is constructed in béton brut (rough-cast concrete), as the hoped-for steel frame proved too expensive in light of post-War shortages.•The replacement material influenced the Brutalist movement, and the building inspired several housing complexes including the Alton West estate in Roehampton, London and Park Hill in Sheffield.

•The Unité d'Habitation , literally, "Housing Unity" or "Housing Unit) is the name of a modernist residential housing design principle developed by Le Corbusier (with the collaboration of painter-architect NadirAfonso).•Probably his most famous work, it proved enormously influential and is often cited as the initial inspiration of the Brutalist architectural style and philosophy.•The Marseille building comprises 337 apartments arranged over twelve stories, all suspended on large piloti. •The building also incorporates shops, sporting, medical and educational facilities, and a hotel.•The flat roof is designed as a communal terrace with sculptural ventilation stacks and a swimming pool.

PLAN, SECTIONS & ELEVATION OF UNITE D’HABITATION

FURNITURE DESIGN BY LE CORBUSIER

Le Corbusier began experimenting with furniture design in 1928 after inviting the architect, Charlotte Perriand, to join his studio. His cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, also collaborated on many of the designs.

AN ASSIGNMENT BY:

M.JYOTHIRMAYEE KRANTHI

P.PRIYADARSHINIM.REVATHIK.SUMATHIP.SURYAPRABHA