Le Corbusier was an architect famously revered for his modern building designs. Despite the fact that he lived in an era wherein horse-drawn carriages, gaslights, and restrictive society norms, he already envisioned a future in which architecture and art can break separately from its traditionalist origins. Le Corbusier was the second son of Georges-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris a Swiss watch engraver with his wife, Marie-Charlotte-Amelie Perret whose father was also a craftsman. They married in 1883 and after three years, Marie gave birth to their eldest son named Albert in February 6 1886 (Flint xvii; Weber 22). Le Corbusier was born in October 6, 1887 as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris (Flint x) and much of his childhood was spent in northwestern part of the Swiss county in a small village called La Chaux-de-Fonds (Flint xv, xvii; Weber 22).
His family called him as ‘Doudou’ (Flint xvii); even in his teenage years, young Doudou earned the respect of his schoolmaster in Ecole d’ Art Charles L'Eplattenier who was the first admirer of his works (Flint xviii, Weber 33). It was not difficult for L’Eplattenier to notice his pupil’s talent in art. Doudou excelled in painting and sketching. Most of his works were done using watercolors as a medium yet he masterfully combined brown and green to portray the beautiful natural scenery of Swiss forests. His teacher explained that what makes Le Corbusier's work truly astounding was due to his excellent observation of the all the things in the environment. His skill enabled him to produce still-life copies of real things; Le Corbusier primarily focused on identifying the patterns of the objects before sketching them and this made some of his work look more abstract yet the images can be discernible by the eye (Flint xviii). His style marked the rebellious phase of art and its struggle to break free from traditionalist towards the modern-contemporary styles. His hometown was the place of his first architectural works (Flint xv). L'Eplattenier recognized Doudou’s talent and advised the latter to become an architect under two conditions: enroll as an apprentice and leave home to explore the world (Flint xix). It was also because L'Eplattenier that Doudou recognized the works of notable architects such as Owen Jones; in fact his master purposely placed them in the school library so that his pupils could study them. Doudou immersed himself in Jones’ The Grammar of Ornament (1856) explaining the importance of structural symmetry in obtaining successful art. Jones’ philosophy of making art a science became the credo of Doudou’s career in architecture (Weber 34). In 1905, Doudou designed his first building named Villa Fallet (see fig. 1), a structure reserved for the Ecole d’ Art. Even without the qualifications, the design was approved and the construction for the building started in 1906 and the whole process took almost twenty-four months to complete. The house still stands within the village of La Chaux-de-Fonds (Weber 36). After thirty-three years, he used ‘Le Corbusier’ as his professional name in the 1920 based from his great-grandfather’s surname ‘Lecorbesier’ as well from the surname of Adrienne Lecouvreur, a famous French actress at that time (Flint x, xi, xvii). During his lifetime, he traveled from Europe, the Americas, and in the Orient. In fact, Celik, a Turkish scholar who studied much of Le Corbusier’s work claimed that the architect had made notes in 1911 to document his voyages in the Middle East. Hence, some of his architectures reflected the styles of the Ottomans. Among the notable structures with Islamic influences were as follows: “Villa Jeanneret-Perret (1912; see fig. 2), Villa Favre-Jacot (1912), and Villa Schwob (1916)” which Celik described as spacious, with large central halls and small adjoining halls, and unadorned walls (59). On the other hand, Le Corbusier’s artwork was in a way, a rebellion towards the traditional art of Europe. In the book Towards a New Architecture, Le Corbusier revered all architecture styles and structures which followed a scientific technique in order to build them. He purposely highlighted the importance of using geometry in terms of building construction in a sense that the architecture will be able to achieve the harmony and satisfy the audiences’ eyes by simply looking at the structure and admiring the complementing shapes of the structure. He proposed that all architects must have a good mathematical knowledge to execute these things (Le Corbusier 2). Le Corbusier was a modern man, and it was because of this mindset that he rejected the traditional styles prevalent during the Baroque period and strongly reiterated that: “The styles of Louis XIV, XV, XVI or Gothic are to architecture what a feather is on a woman’s head; it is sometimes pretty, though not always, and never anything more” (Le Corbusier 25).
Le Corbusier’s strong opposition against the decadence of the Baroque style was mainly due to the influence of the French philosopher Jean Jacques-Rosseau. According to Passanti, also a scholar of Le Corbusier’s work, the architect preferred his styles to be known as less decadent and more natural compared to his predecessors. Rosseau’s argued that a simple and universal solution becomes realistic and natural in a sense that in architecture, making simple designs and solutions will help ease the overcrowding of designs which somehow distorts the artist’s intended image of the structure. In other words, by limiting the design based on what is needed and omitting those which are not relevant, the structure can be appreciated in its truest form. Passanti also noted that Le Corbusier’s journals were filled with detailed sketches of the past architectures of the Greeks and the Romans such as the Parthenon (438-439).
Le Corbusier’s architectural style was based on geometrical patterns. His works fits into the Roaring Twenties a period characterized by radical changes in human rights, politics, and society reforms. The majority of his buildings were suited to the new tastes of the people as well as the ballooning population. His buildings often supported by pilotis or columns became popular and noted as a modernist design. Unlike the architectural styles of the previous century, the buildings he built neither possess the decadence of many designs cramped together. Instead, his buildings showcased the purity of the classical architectures which do not have excessive ornaments on them.
<<Fig. 1: “Villa Fallet, circa 1905 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.” (Fondationlecorbusier.fr, n.d; Web; 21 Feb. 2016).
>>Fig. 2: Villa Jeanneret-Perret, circa 1912 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. (Fondationlecorbusier.fr, n.d; Web; 21 Feb. 2016).
<<Fig. 3: Hotel et palais des congress, circa 1961 in Paris, France. (Fondationlecorbusier.fr, n.d; Web; 21 Feb. 2016).
WORKS CITED
Celik, Zeynep. “Le Corbusier, Orientalism, Colonialism.” Assemblage 17 (1992): 58-77. Web. JSTOR. 21 Feb. 2016.
Flint, Anthony. Modern Man: The Life of Le Corbusier Architect of Tomorrow. Boston/New York: New Harvest/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. Web. Google Book. Le Corbusier. “Hotel et palais des congress.” 1961. Fondationlecorbusier.fr, n.d; Web; 21 Feb. 2016.
Le Corbusier. “Villa Fallet.” 1905. Fondationlecorbusier.fr, n.d; Web; 21 Feb. 2016.
Le Corbusier. “Villa Jeanneret-Perret.” 1912. Fondationlecorbusier.fr, n.d; Web; 21 Feb. 2016.
Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. 1927. London: Butterworth Architecture, 1989. Web. Google Book.
Passanti, Francesco. “The Vernacular, Modernism, and Le Corbusier.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 56.4 (1997): 438-451. Web. JSTOR. 21 Feb. 2016.
Weber, Nicholas Fox. Le Corbusier: A Life. New York/Toronto: Random House, 2008. Web. Google Book.
