Le Corbusier edited by Willy Boesiger with 115 photographs, 326 plans and sketches T&H C2 Thames and Hudson LondonAny copy of this book issued as a paperback is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on ‘@ subsequent purchaser. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published in Great Britain in 1972 by Thames and Hudson Ltd, London © 1972 Artemis Verlag und Verlag fiir Architektur, Zurich Printed in Switzerland ISBN 0 500 181330 clothbound 0500 20127 7 paperboundTable of Contents - . 7 Preface 8 PART 1 9 Fallet house, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1907 Stotzer house, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1908 Jacquemet house, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1908 Jeanneret house, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1912 Favre-Jacot house, Le Locle, 1912 Schwob house, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1916 Scala cinema, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1916 Dom-ino house, 1914 * Poiret house, 1916 Monol houses, 1919 Citrohan house, first version, 1920 rohan house, second version, 1922 Besnos house, Vaucresson, 1922 A contemporary city for 3 million inhabitants, 1921-22 Blocks of villas (Immeubles-villas), 1922 Esprit Nouveau pavilion, Paris, 1925 Artists’ studios Amédée Ozenfant house, Paris, 1922-23 « Ternisien house, Boulogne-sur-Seine, 1926 Weekend house at Rambouillet, 1924 Plans for La Roche-Jeanneret houses, Auteuil, Paris, 1922 (cf. p. 32) House for Le Corbusier's parents, Vevey, 1924—25 Frugés housing estate, Pessac, near Bordeaux, 1924-26 Loucheur houses, 1929 Houses for the Weissenhofsiedlung, Stuttgart, 1927 Four house forms Regulating lines (tracés réguiateurs) La Roche-Jeanneret houses, Auteuil, Paris, 1923 (cf. p. 23) Cook house, Boulogne-sur-Seine, 1926 Meyer house, Paris, 1925 Stein house, Garches, 1926-27 Villa Savoye, Poissy, 1929 ® Villa at Carthage, 1928 ‘Clarté’ apartment house, Geneva, 1930-32 Salvation Army hostel, Paris, 1929-33 Palace of the League of Nations, Geneva, 1927 Centrosoyus building, Moscow, 1929-33 Palace of the Soviets, Moscow, 1931 Swiss students’ hostel, Cité Universitaire, Paris, 1930-32 Rentenanstalt building, Zurich, 1933 10 1 13 14 16 20 21 22 23 72 74 76 7 78 Durand housing, Oued Ouchaia, Algiers, 1933 Apartment block, Algiers, 1933 Apartments, rue Nungesser-et-Coli, Paris, 1933 Three holiday houses Ministry of Education and Public Health, Rio de Janeiro, 1936—45 Stadium and national sports centre, Bois de Vincennes, Paris, 1936-37 Monument to Vaillant-Couturier, Villejuif, Paris, 1937 The five paints of the new architecture@ PART 2 Murondins housing, 1940 Prefabricated schoo! buildings for refugees, 1940 80 Prefabricated houses, 1940 92 97 100 101 104 108 112 116 120 124 126 130 132 136 140 Foreman's house, 1940 Peyrissac house, near Cherchel, Algeria, 1942 The Modulor, 1945 = Duval factory, Saint-Dié, 1946 United Nations headquarters, New York, 1947 ; Dr Currutchet’s House, La Plata, Argentina, 1947 ‘ Le Corbusier's holiday hut, Cap Martin, 1950 ‘La Trouinade’, La Sainte-Baume, 1948 “Rog! and ‘Rob’ Housing, Cap Martin, 1949 Fueter house, Lake Constance, 1950 Jaoul houses, Neuilly, Paris, 1952-54 Mrs Manorama Sarabhai’s house, Ahmedabad, India, 1954 Shodan house, Ahmedabad, india, 1956 Millowners’ Association, Ahmedabad, India, 1954 Chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp, 1950-55 Monastery of Sainte-Marie-de-la-Tourette, Eveux, near Lyons, 1956-59 > Philips Pavilion, World's Fair, Brussels, 1957-58 Brazilian students’ hostel, Cité Universitaire, Paris, 1956—59 Hotel and cultural centre, Paris, 1961 Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1961 Olivetti computer centre, Rho-Milan, 1962 Congress Hall, Strasbourg, 1964144 148 163 154 156 158 160 161 162 164 165 166 168 170 171 172 173 174 M76 183 184 186 French Embassy, Brasilia, 1964 Hospital, Venice, 1964-65 PART 3 Notes for a lecture delivered in Miland, 1954 Plans for Paris, 1922-46 « Plan for Algiers, project A, 1930 Plan for the Quartier de la Marine, Algiers, 1938 Plans (1929) for Montevideo, Uruguay; So Paulo, Brazil; and Buenos Aires, Argentina (cf. p. 173) Plans for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1929-36 MACIA plan for Barcelona, 1933 Plans for Geneva and Stockholm, 1933 Plan for Antwerp, 1933 Plan for Nemours, Algeria, 1934 Town-planning studies for New York, 1935 Plan for Saint-Dié, 1945 Plans for La Rochelle-Pallice and Saint- Gaudens, 1945-46 Plan for Bogota, Colombia, 1950 Cartesian skyscraper, 1935 Plan for Berlin, 1958 Sketch for plan of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1929 (cf. p. 161) The Unités d'habitation = Unité d'habitation, Marseilles, 1946-52 4 Unité d'habitation, Rezé-les-Nantes, 1952-55 2 Unités d'habitation at Briey-en-Forét, 1957; Meaux, 1956; and Charlottenburg (W. Berlin), 1956 @ Unité d'habitation, Youth Centre and church, Firminy-Vert, 1960-65 192 194 196 198 200 204 208 210 211 212 213 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 224 232 233 234 236 240 244 254 Chandigarh @ Master plan for Chandigarh @ Sukhna lake, Chandigarh The Secretariat, Chandigarh The Legislative Assembly, Chandigarh The High Court, Chandigarh The Governor's palace, Chandigarh Monument of the Open Hand, Chandi Yacht Club, Lake Sukhna, Chandigarh Central business area, Chandigarh Cultural centre, Chandigarh: Museum Art Gallery, and School of Art World museum (‘Mundaneum’), Geneva, 1929 ‘Museum of Endless Growth’, 1939 (cf. p. 219) Museum of Contemporary Art, Paris, 1! Museum of Endless Growth, Philippevi Algeria, 1939 j Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux, Exposit Internationale, Paris, 1936-37 French pavilion for San Francisco or Liége, 1939 Museum, Ahmedabad, India, 1954—57 Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 1957. Exhibition pavilion, Porte Maillot, Pari 1950 International Art Centre, Erlenbach, 1 Ahrenberg exhibition pavilion, near Stockholm, 1962 Centre Le Corbusier, Zurich, 1964 Museum of the 20th century, Nanterre, _ Paris, 1965 Biography and list of projects Sources of illustrationsPreface This pocket edition is based on the previously published Complete Works in eight ‘olumes, and summarizes Le Corbusier's oeuvre in the form of texts, plans, sketches, nd ph raphs of models and completed buildings, the whole being supplemented ak aphy and chronological list of projects. The book consists of three parts: - sketches, projects and buildings, 1905-1939 P 2-—projects and buildings, 1940-1964 - Pe t3—'La Fin d'un Monde ... Délivrance’, consisting of Le Corbusier's town- planning schemes, the Unités d'habitation, the master plan and principal buildings of Chandigarh, and museums. As early as 1960, when the single-volume condensed edition of the Complete Works was in preparation, the architect had expressed a wish-that there should be an inexpensive pocketbook edition covering his life’s work. His own publications had always appeared in this handy form, and he felt particularly that ‘one must consider the younger generation who do not have the means to buy expensive books, and | am making my appeal especially to them’. W. B., 1972lies ey1906-16 First buildings These buildings were not included in the 3. Jacquemet house, 8 Chemin de Pouillerel, volumes of the GEuvre compléte, and La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1908. The construction remained virtually unknown until they were work was supervised by the architect illustrated in December 1963, in an article in Chapallaz, Le Corbusier being in Vienna Werk magazine. Le Corbusier was, however, 4. Jeanneret house, 12 Chemin de Pouillerel, sufficiently proud of the Schwob house, the La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1912. This house, facades of which were composed by means of built for his father, was designed after Le la geometrical system of proportioning (tracés Corbusier had travelled to Austria and régulateurs),to include it in his first book Vers Germany, and come under the influence of lune architecture (1923). Of his first house he Josef Hoffmann and Peter Behrens |wrote: ‘Between the ages of 18 and 19 | worked 5. Favre-Jacot house, rue de la Montagne, Le lout the design of the house with the utmost Locle (12 km. from La Chaux-de-Fonds), care, drawing out a vast number of details. The 1912 house is certainly ugly, but it is free from the 6. Cinema Scala, 32 rue de la Serre, La commonplace ideas of architects of the Chaux-de-Fonds, 1916 eriogs 7,8. Schwob house, 167, rue du Doubs, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1916. 1. Fallet house, 1 Chemin de Pouillerel, La The street and main garden elevations are Chaux-de-Fonds. Plans dated 1906, shown, the latter with its tracés régulateurs. building completed 1907 This was the.first of Le Corbusier's 2. Stotzer house, 6 Chemin de Pouillerel, La buildings to be given a flat roof, though he Chaux-de-Fonds, 1908. The plans of this had intended one on his father’s house. The and the Fallet house are almost identical sculptural panels are by Perrin.1914 Dom-ino house, project The:framework was intended for low-cost anattempt to suggest what the aesthetic of nerete construction might be. Sketch of the weekend house at Rambouillet Isometric projection of the house at Auteuil Living room Third-floor plan, roof terrace Second-floor plan, bedrooms and library First-floor plan, living and dining room Ground-floor plan, garage and servants’ room1924-25 House on Lake Geneva, 21 route Lavaux, Corseaux-Vevey, Switzerland This house, for Le Corbusier's parents, was 1 Gesigned contrary to the normal procedure. They decided first that they would like it at the east end of the lake, but only after Le Corbusier had evolved a detailed plan to suit their needs (they were, for instance, to haveno 3. Servants) did they look for a suitable site, + Sketch plans of house and garden show circulation patterns 2. Exterior views, photographed before t Grass on the roof and the vegetation in garden ran riot . Sketch made by Le Corbusier of his ma on 10 September 1951, her 91st birth Living room1924-26 Frugas housing estate, Pessac, near Bordeaux The Pessac project originated in 1920 with ten houses built at Lage, near Pessac, for the father of Henry Frugts, the ‘artiste multivalent’, Who was later to commission 200 houses at Pessac. In the event only a quarter were sctually built, but though completed in 1926, three years of bureaucratic wrangling ensured that they were not occupied for another three years. Since then many have been slowly Converted into traditional houses — pitched foofs have been put on, the strip windows blocked in, the open ground floors walled in, and decorative features added. The vigorous Polychrome decoration applied by Le Corbusier, Painted panels of brown, blue, yellow and jade ‘SFeen, was the result of Frugds’ insistence that Some sort of decoration be provided 4 alalee1. The houses were made up of standard modules, which were not intended to inhibit variety and change — as, indeed, they have not 2. Axonometric projection of the whole estate 3. Houses at Pessac today; — ‘you know’, Le Corbusier said, ‘life is always right, it is the architect who is wrong’ 4, Houses at Pessac in 19271948 La Trouinade, La Sainte Baume, project Edouard Trouin owned a million square metres of rocky, infertile land around La Sainte Baume, which he was determined to develop as an entirety, to preserve its splendour. Le Corbusier proposed a church, cut in the rock, two hotels and a housing cluster, the ‘permanent city’. For this he suggested low, Catalonian vaults, a vernacular form that had long appealed to him, and which he had used often before, starting in 1916 with the Poiret house, and in 1919 with the Monol house project. 1, South facade of the housing cluster — the ‘permanent city’, as it was called 2. Cross-section through a house 3. First-floor plan——— oo — 4 249 ‘Rog! and ‘Rob’ housing, Cap Martin, project =r hese designs were done more or less at the zame time as those for La Sainte Baume, they = Avolve similar techniques of construction and were intended as adaptations of the flediterranean vernacular, harmonizing 2s far ass possible with the traditional landscape- 1. First sketches for ‘Roa’, September 1949 2. The developed scheme, December 1949, showing a hotel complex below the hill-top town of Roquebrune . ert ee"Roa! housing, Cap Martin Elevation of the second Rog’ project, below 1. Pa the steel framed vesig the town of Roquebrune ed on standard Is 226 x 226 x2 house types }Ouse built up with i1950 Fueter house, Lake Constance, project Prof. Fueter, of the university of Zurich, Suggested the mathematical modulations that Le Corbusier used on the Swiss student hostel in Paris (p. 60). 1, Cross-section 2. Ground-floor plan 3. North elevation1952—54 Jaoul houses, 81 rue de Longchamp, Neuilly, Paris These two houses (A, for the parents, and B, for the son and his wife) introduced Le Corbusier's Mediterranean vernacular style into the fashionable suburbs of Paris. He intended that the simplicity of seaside living, with its minimal furniture requirements, should be adhered to as far as possible. Living room, house AJaoul houses, Neuilly ice 1. Plans of ground, first and second floors. 2. Living room, house A, showing the House A (below): 1, entrance hall; 2, dining finished Catalonian vaulting and the te 9 room; 3, living room; 4, kitchen; 5, bedroom; finished brickwork used both inside ant 6, bathroom. House B (above): 2, entrance hall; 3, living room; 4, kitchen; 5, bedroom; 6, bathroom; 7, garden courts; 8, service yard. The garages are in the basement1. Cross-section through vaulting 2. Entrance to house B1955 Mrs Manorama Sarabhai’s house, Ahmedabad, India The house was sited and designed to catch the winds in summer, but to be penetrated by the sun in winter. The structure, rough brick walls Supporting concrete beams and, above, tiled Catalonian vaults, involved a Mediterranean vernacular, but Le Corbusier considered it suitable to India and adapted it without qualm. View to the garden from the entrance porticoerpo - South elevation . Longitudinal section . The south front seen across the cooling pool (originally proposed as a large swimming-bath)= [Pree Here) Sarabhai house, Ahmedabad 1. Site plan 2. Ground-floor plan: Mrs Sarabhai’s suite: 1, living room; 2, library; 3, study: 4-8, verandas. Her son's suite: 9, bedroom: 10, studio; 11, kitchen; 12-16, verandas. Service areas: 17, kitchen; 18, pantry; 19-20, servants’ rooms; 21, y 22-23, sir-conditioning plants; 24, caretaker 1063. First-floor plan: 1, Mrs Sarabhai's bedroom; 2, her son's bedroom; 3-6, verandas; 7, air-conditioning ducts; 8, open terrace; 9, closed terrace; 10, water channels; 11, water slide; 12, open terrace; 13, stair to roof |. Grassed roof above single- storey section of house1956 Shodhan house, Ahmedabad, India The house was commissioned in 1951 by Mr Hutheesing, secretary of the Millowners’ Association, who had exacting and precise requirements that it was planned to meet. But when the drawings were complete and construction about to begin, he sold them to Mr Shodhan, who owned another site on which the house was forthwith built. The eer, South-west elevation structure is of exposed reinforced concrete, the shuttering for the walls and vertical su being of timber, that for the ceilings of metal sheeting. The ceilings and a few other selected areas were to have been brightly painted. 1. Ground-floor plan: 1, entrance; 2, hall; 3, coats; 4, we; 5, ramp; 6, stair to cellar; 7, living room; 8, dining room; 9, veranda; — 10, servery; 11, kitchen; 12, pantry; =| 13, servants’ rooms; 14, bathroom; « 15, garage 2, First-floor plan: 1, spare room; and bathroom; 3, study; 4, v , dressing 5, ramp 3. Second-floor pian: 1, bedroom; 2, bathroom; 3, bedroom; 4, veranda; 5, void; 6, gallery; 7, ramp 4. Third-floor plan: 1, veranda; 2, void; : 3, gallery . 5. Fourth-floor plan: 1, veranda; 2, water-tank; 3, void i‘Shodhan house, 1. Second-fioor Ahmedabad veranda, rising to the roof 2. South-east elevation 3. Living room1954 Millowners’ Association, Ahmedabad, India As the headquarters of one of the most prominent of Indian cotton millowners’ associations, the building was required to be both an administrative centre and a meeting and ceremonial centre. It serves as a sort of club, and the social ritual of its members is Strongly expressed in the design. But no less important were considerations of climate control and the honest expression of materials. The east and west facades, of rough-shuttered exposed concrete are made up of sun-breakers (brise-soleil), carefully designed to shield the interior; the north and south sides, almost unbroken, are of rough brickwork. The interior arrangements take full advantage of prevailing winds. 1, Site plan: 1, driv 3, service entran 5, temporary par! ramp; 8, office entrance; 9, restaurant; 10, roof garden; 11, garden Cross-section (east-west): 1, cellar; 2, office; 3, committee room; 4, library; 5, meeting room; 6, curved roof First-floor plan: 1, ramp; 2, entrance hall; 3, enquiries; 4, president's office; 5, vice- president; 6, secretaries; 7, waiting area; 8, sub-committee room; 9, committee room: 10, offices; 11, we's Ground-floor plan: 1, entry; 2, telephonist, 3, general office; 4, we's; 5, canteen; 6, kitchen 5. Third-floor plan: 1, void to meeting room; 2, void to floor below , Meeting room; 2, cloaks; 2, pedestrian entrance; # 112JF el SSS | | is |Millowners’ Association, Ahmedabad 1. View from third-floor level, looking east 3. East facade from the river, in which there over the river is always some activity, provided either by people, animals or birds 2. West facade and approach ramp1956-59 Brazilian students’ hosts I, Avenue de la Porte Gentilly, Cité Universitaire, Paris 13e The first sketch for the building was made by Licio Costa, but Le Corbusier became his collaborator, working out the final design, which was supervised by his office. The rough finishes and crude forms of the building are in strong contrast to the nearby Swiss students’ hostel, dating from 1930. Typical floor plan: 15, single room; Shs _L-@ 1Ehits 16, double room; a efies : 17, music room; \ 18, kitchen; 19, we's; 20, common room; : mee SN ae 21, study; 22, lift Ground-floor plan: 1, entrance; 2, hall; 3, snack bar; 4, caretaker's flat; 5, reception desk; 6, we's; 7, meeting room; 8, games room; 9, changing rooms; 10, lift; 11, dean’s flat: 12, dean’s office; 13, secretary; 14,View from the south2. Sketch for west elevation 6. Sketch for east elevation 3. View from the west 7. East fagade 4. Sketch for a student's room =) Brazilian students’ hostel || 1. Hall on ground floor 5. Student's room Tar i mi