Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris

Biography

In 1900, Le Corbusier trained as a painter, engraver and goldsmith at the École d'Art in his birthplace. From 1904 he began studying architecture there. Between 1907 and 1911 he traveled through Europe. During this time he was employed in well-known construction offices in different cities. In 1914 he succeeded in developing a skeletal system made of reinforced concrete called "Domino", which was intended for use in multi-story buildings. In 1917 the painter and architect settled in Paris. The following year, Le Corbusier created his first oil painting. This was followed by further pictures in which he painted his preferred motif, the structured still life, such as in the works "Vertical Guitar" or "Still Life with a Stack of Plates". In 1919 he published the magazine "L'Esprit Nouveau". In it he published his avant-garde architectural concepts. For the first time during this time he marked his contributions with the pseudonym "Le Corbusier". In the same year he published his "Manifesto of Purism", in which he propagated elementary, geometric shapes. Le Corbusier's "Radiant City", an urban planning concept for a city with three million inhabitants, was published in 1922. The outstanding and groundbreaking features were the separate traffic routes for cars and pedestrians as well as large residential units in combination with retail and commercial businesses. He also designed these architectural concepts in basic geometric shapes. The reaction among experts to Le Corbusier's designs was divided. Le Corbusier devoted himself to painting until 1922. His images are technical objects that he created in a mixture of cubist, neo-plasticist and dadaist styles. After that he only occasionally returned to painting. His work also included furniture designs and groundbreaking theoretical writings. In 1923, Le Corbusier's work was published under the title "Vers une Architecture" as a collection of his specialist writings. In this, the master builder sees architecture as "a clever, correct and wonderful play of united bodies in the light". He used both functionalist and artistic elements in his architecture. In the same year he took part in a Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar. He had contacts with fellow architects Walter Gropius and Bruno Taut. In 1927, Le Corbusier was involved in the construction of the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart with some designs. The following year he was one of the co-founders of the "Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne", or CIAM for short. Le Corbusier became a sought-after urban planner who worked worldwide from 1929 onwards. He designed important buildings everywhere, such as the Salvation Army night shelter in Paris, which was completed between 1929 and 1933. Or he planned the Swiss House of the Cité universitaire in Paris, which was built from 1930 to 1932. In 1930, Le Corbusier married Yvonne Gallis. From 1936 to 1945 he delivered the design for the Ministry of Education in Rio de Janeiro. The provocatively new thing about it was the use of sun protection elements as a facade design. With this, Le Corbusier set groundbreaking accents in design according to functional specifications. As a supporter of the French Vichy government, the architect returned to Paris in 1943. There he founded the "Association of Designers for Architectural Renewal". The aim of this institution was to help with reconstruction together with young architects after the end of the Second World War. From 1946 onwards, Le Corbusier built in a style that approached sculptural forms. The Unité d'habitation in Marseille is an example of this. Between 1950 and 1954, the pilgrimage church of Notre-Dame-du-Haut in Ronchamps was built according to his plans. From 1961 to 1964, the building he planned for the Carpenter Center for Visual Art at Harvard University in Cambridge was completed. Le Corbusier died on August 27, 1965 near Cap Martin in France.