E le Corbusier. Le Corbusier. Works of monumental art

LE CORBUSIER(Le Corbusier) (1887-1965), French architect, architectural theorist, artist, designer. Le Corbusier (real name Charles Edouard Jeanneret) was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland on October 6, 1887. He studied architecture with J. Hofmann in Vienna (1907), O. Perret in Paris (1908-1910), P. Behrens in Berlin (1910-1911). In 1922, with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, he founded an architectural studio in Paris; they continued to work together until 1940. In 1920, Le Corbusier and the poet P. Derme created the avant-garde polemical magazine Esprit Nouveau (published in 1920-1925), from the pages of which the ideas of functionalism were promoted. In the books “On Architecture” (1923), “Urbanism” (1925) and in a number of articles published in “Esprit Nouveau”, Le Corbusier formulated his famous Five Principles of Modern Architecture (building on free-standing supports, free composition of the facade, ribbon windows , flat roof with garden terrace, open interior layout). These principles were embodied in the creation of the Villa Savoy in Poissy near Paris (1929), and then a hostel for Swiss students on a university campus in Paris (1930-1932).

Le Corbusier owned several utopian urban planning projects that provided for the organization of urban life in several vertical tiers, a regular city plan divided into multifunctional zones, strictly ordered through architecture and thus likened to the work of a machine (the Voisin plan for Paris and plans for the new devices of Buenos Aires, Algeria, Antwerp, etc.). One of these projects involved the reconstruction of Moscow according to a regular plan, but absolutely without taking into account its historical buildings and landscape features. In Russia, according to the design of Le Corbusier, the Tsentrosoyuz building was built on Myasnitskaya Street (1928-1933, with the participation of the architect N.D. Kolli). He also owns one of the projects of the Palace of Soviets. Le Corbusier's buildings of the 1930s and early 1940s include the Salvation Army Center in Paris (1932-1933) and the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro (1937-1943, together with a number of other architects).

In the 1940s, Le Corbusier developed a system of harmonic quantities based on the proportions of the human body, which was to become the starting point of architectural design; it was called "modulor". In 1948-1952, he built a “living unit” in Marseille - a 17-story building with bright colors, equipped with sun cutters, which was supposed to be able to function autonomously, but this idea was not realized. Subsequently, he created the Notre-Dame-du-Haut chapel in Ronchamp (1950-1953); city ​​master plan and administrative buildings in Chandigarh, capital of the Indian state of Punjab (1950-1957); National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo (1957-1959); Harvard University Arts Center in Cambridge in the USA (1964); hospital in Venice (1965).

Le Corbusier owns about 50 monographs and articles. The most famous of his works are “Toward Architecture” (“Vers une architecture”, 1923); "Urbanism" (Urbanisme, 1925); “When the cathedrals were white” (Quand les cathedrales etaient blanches, 1937); "Three Human Establishments" (Les Trois Etablissements humains, 1945). In 1918, together with Ozanfant, he became one of the founders of the purist movement in painting.

In the Museum. Pushkin opens a large exhibition dedicated to the pioneer of modern architecture - Le Corbusier. “Afisha” remembered the main buildings of the classic and found out what is happening to them now.

At the Pushkin Museum named after. Pushkin brings graphics, paintings, designs and models of the most important architect of the 20th century - Le Corbusier. Born in Switzerland in 1887, he became an adept of modernist architecture in the workshop of Peter Behrens, where he worked alongside the other founding fathers of modernism, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. Having moved to Paris in 1919, then under his real name - Jeanneret - he began working at the Society for the Application of Reinforced Concrete, making friends with Braque and Picasso, and then publishing the provocative architectural magazine L'Esprit Nouveau - "The New Spirit" ", in which he attacked bourgeois architecture that did not meet the requirements of the time. In 1925, he already showed a project for the reconstruction of the center of Paris - “Plan Voisin” - according to which it was necessary to demolish 240 hectares of the old city for the sake of skyscrapers and wide avenues. The plan shocked the architectural old guard and delighted modernist architects around the world—and has done so with more or less every architect's project since.

Residential building in Weissenhof

Built in 1927 as an example of new housing, now operates as a museum

The Weissenhof district in Stuttgart, Germany, was built as an exhibition of exemplary new housing - in addition to Le Corbusier's house, there are houses built by Mies van der Rohe, Peter Behrens and others. Corbusier's house is built of brick and covered with plaster on top. This is the very first building in which his famous five architectural ideas were used: ribbon windows, a roof garden, thin columns on the ground floor that give the building a floating appearance, an open layout inside and a facade that does not bear any weight - all the weight is borne by the supports located inside the building (which, in particular, makes it possible to make ribbon windows). Now the house has been restored and its original interiors have been restored: for example, a living room with movable partitions and a bedroom with folding beds, which during the daytime were supposed to be put away in a kind of concrete cabinet.

Villa Savoy in Poissy

Built in 1928-1931 for the industrialist Pierre Savoy, is one of the national monuments of France and functions as a museum

Villa Savoy, a country villa in Poissy, 33 km from Paris, is a canonical example of the use of the five principles formulated by Corbusier. The house originally stood proudly and alone in the middle of a large lawn - the ideal of modernist purism, a private home for a rich and happy man of the new era. But the fate of the villa and its owners was tragic: during the Nazi occupation it was occupied by German troops, then by American troops. When leaving, the Germans poured cement into the sewer, and the Americans shot at its windows for fun. After the war, the ruined and widowed Madame Savoy moved to live on a neighboring farm, and used the villa as a barn, growing potatoes around it. Gradually, Poissy turned from a village into a suburb of Paris: local authorities almost demolished the villa to build a school in its place. It was only after Corbusier died in 1965 and was buried with great pomp as a hero of France that the villa was given the status of a national monument. By that time, its roof had collapsed and the view of it was blocked by the school building that had been built nearby. But then it was properly restored (work was carried out from 1965 to 1997). Today it is again surrounded by a perfect lawn, it sparkles with whiteness, and nothing blocks the view of it.

The building of the Central Union of Consumer Societies in Moscow

Built in 1930-1936, today the building houses Rosstat

For Moscow, this project was revolutionary: Corbusier planned a new type of institution for a new life in a new country. In the spirit of the times, the house looks more like a factory or some kind of transforming machine than an office. What immediately catches your eye is the meeting room, which is separated into a separate volume and hangs over the main entrance, supported only by thin columns characteristic of Corbusier. Inside, instead of stairs, there are ramps along which employees descend as if on a conveyor belt. The glazing covering most of the building was part of a complex air conditioning system. But the windows never worked properly, causing many problems for the employees - it was stuffy in the summer and cold in the winter. Now you can get into the building if you agree on a visit with security: this is a state institution, and there is a permit regime.

UN Headquarters in New York

A complex of buildings erected in 1947 - 1951 group of architects, which included Le Corbusier. Today, only the Secretariat and the UN General Assembly Hall are located here.

After the end of the war, New York literally begged the UN to build a building here, they gave the land for construction free of charge - at that moment it was a great honor for the city. The headquarters, symbolizing the ideals of the democratic post-war West, were built in an area where previously there were only slaughterhouses and a pencil factory. A whole council of architects was convened for the design; Corbusier developed the architecture of the main entrance - a curving hangar-like roof. Wallace Harrison, who oversaw the project, carried out a synthesis of the proposed ideas - and, they say, Corbusier left America seriously offended that his decisions had been subjected to not too delicate revisions. Corbusier’s role in the project is difficult to isolate - his name was not even on the final list of architects; it is generally accepted that his ideas “strongly influenced the overall appearance of the building.” By the 1990s, the aging headquarters, with all its once innovative designs, had become a burden on New York City. The Reagan government's tax policies plunged the UN into "chronic poverty," and it became increasingly difficult to spend money on maintaining the monument. In 1999, the situation worsened: heating and air conditioning cost $10 million a year, largely due to 5,400 windows that were designed when energy was much cheaper. And when Donald Trump was going to build a new skyscraper right next to his headquarters, Mayor Giuliani refused to interfere in the situation: in New York in the 1990s, the symbol of democracy no longer brought profit, even symbolic. But ultimately, the decision to reconstruct was made in 2010: it will cost 2 billion and should be completed by 2013.

Chandigarh city in India

A city in Northern India, partly planned by Le Corbusier, built from 1951 to 1960s

Corbusier's first urban planning ideas were well known for their radicalism; the "City of 3 Million Inhabitants" project - strict geometry, large avenues, skyscrapers surrounded by greenery - a real modernist paradise. When the opportunity arose to plan a real city, and in an open field at the foot of the Himalayas, Corbusier resorted to a more complex structure. The city is divided into sectors, each with its own function: residential, industrial, university and so on. The main buildings - the Secretariat, the Supreme Court and the Assembly Hall - are located in the least visited part of the city, now the area around them is always quite deserted, while other parts of the city are bustling with life. They form the cyclopean concrete core of the city: the Secretariat is a huge building 10 floors high, next door is the Supreme Court with an umbrella roof, which is designed for the Indian heat, followed by torrential rains. Corbusier and his brother Pierre Jeanneret designed not only streets and houses, but even furniture, since in the city built on bare ground there were no furniture stores - collectors now buy the remains of this furniture at government auctions and resell them for big money at Christie’s.

“Marseille Bloc” or Unité d’Habitation

Apartment building built in 1952

A simple concrete parallelepiped with a facade divided into small modules by loggias is raised above the ground on columns and resembles a giant sideboard. The building has 12 floors and can accommodate 1,500 people. Residential cells here are designed in several different types - from small ones for bachelors to large ones for large families. Initially, premises for cafes and shops and a roof garden were designed; now one of the floors is occupied by Hotel Le Corbusier. The building is maintained in a tolerable condition, but it cannot be called ideal. Hotel guests complain that the toilets and bathrooms are poorly maintained, the folding beds are broken, and although some apartments still have the original kitchens designed by Corbusier's collaborator Charlotte Perriand, they cannot be used. And living in the smallest cells - they are no larger than a ship's cabin - is not very pleasant. But this spartan layout was dictated by the post-war housing shortage. The hotel has a restaurant called “The Architect's Belly”.

Textile Mill Owners Association building in Ahmedabad

Public Building (1954)

Besides Chandigarh, where he came at the invitation of Jawaharlal Nehru, Corbusier built in another Indian city - Ahmedabad. The Ahmedabad projects include the building of the Association of Weaving Factory Owners - a corporation that existed since the end of the 19th century and was very influential at that time, which was the basis of the economic prosperity of the city. The facade of the house is divided into deep cells, the walls of which are set at an angle and provide excellent shade - it seems that this building is always cool, it is an open, ventilated structure made of rough concrete (beton brut), which Corbusier loved so much at this stage of his work. Trees grow right inside the concrete grid, and there is a concrete ramp leading to the main entrance. The main hall cuts the building in half, occupying three vertical cells. The building itself has only a few offices, but a lot of open spaces designed for receptions and meetings. And in contrast to the outer box of the building, with its regular forms, inside Corbusier used curved, plastic lines - for example, in the smooth curving walls of the main hall. It is said that weaving mills have largely disappeared from Ahmedabad, but the Association still remains in the building.

Chapel in Ronchamp

Church (1955)

In the white chapel, rising on a hill, you will no longer find the crystal clear forms of Corbusier’s early period: here his style becomes much more expressionist, some even detect the influence of the surrealists in the forms of the chapel. Windows of different sizes, freely scattered across the façade, provide unusual lighting effects inside. Thick walls, rounded volumes, a heavy roof that makes the building look like a deformed mushroom - one can feel the influence of pictorial experiments - this period in Corbusier’s work is called “new plasticism”. The chapel quietly functioned for its intended purpose, simultaneously attracting up to 100 thousand tourists a year until recently, when it was decided to build a monastery next door for the sisters of the Order of St. Clare. It was designed by Renzo Piano, and now 16 elderly nuns live there in cells made of glass and concrete, painted orange on the inside.

Monastery of La Tourette in Lyon

Built by order of the Lyon Dominicans between 1957 and 1960 for years. Since its construction it has functioned as a monastery

The monastery complex, made of rough gray concrete, was built by Corbusier, who, by the way, considered himself a Protestant heretic, in the forest near Lyon and in plan roughly resembles a traditional monastery complex with a square cloister courtyard in the middle - but, of course, redesigned in the characteristic style of the architect. The monastery is located on the slope of a hill, so its buildings also seem to go down the mountain. Here again a play is used with light, which breaks through holes made in the thickness of the concrete. The monastery is designed for 100 brothers who live, pray, study and work here to this day, while expressing dissatisfaction with the large number of tourists - the abbot is always fighting with tourists, trying to limit the number and time of visits. The brothers did not manage to completely get rid of tourists, but they still survived the cultural center that existed on the territory of the monastery.

National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo

The first public gallery of Western art and Le Corbusier's only building in Japan (1958-1959)

The opening of this museum was supposed to mark the restoration of diplomatic ties between France and Japan after the Second World War - it housed the collection of Matsukata (a rich man who made a fortune in military shipbuilding during the First World War and at the same time bought up a lot of first-class modernism in Paris), which was returned to the Japanese by the French government. The museum is a huge closed concrete parallelepiped, as usual with Corbusier, as if standing on only thin columns. There are also internal ramps, a flat roof garden and an entrance via a staircase leading from the street directly to the building's only huge window, carved into the concrete at second floor level. In 1979 and 1997, two additional wings were added to the museum - but they did not particularly affect the overall appearance of the building.

Le Corbusier- French architect of Swiss origin, who was also a designer, artist, writer and publicist. He is a pioneer of modernism, a representative of international style architecture, and embodied the ideas of functionalism in architecture. The buildings designed by him are located all over the world: in Europe, America, India, Japan.

In an effort to make life easier for residents of overcrowded cities, Le Corbusier was actively involved in urban planning and was one of the founders of the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM).

Biography

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris was born on October 6, 1887 in the Swiss town of La Chaux-de-Fonds into the family of a watchmaker and enamel maker.

Since childhood, young Charles was attracted to the fine arts and he entered the School of Arts in Chaux-de-Fonds on the course of Charles Leplatenier, his architecture teacher was René Chapallat, who greatly influenced his early work. From the moment he entered school, he began to independently engage in jewelry making, creating enamels and engraving monograms on watch covers.

In his youth, he tried to leave the provincial atmosphere of his hometown and traveled around Europe. In September 1907 he made his first trip to Italy, then via Budapest to Vienna, where he stayed for four months and met Gustav Klimt and Joseph Hoffmann. Then in 1908 he travels to Paris, where he finds work in the office of Auguste Perret, a French pioneer in the field of reinforced concrete. All these trips influenced him and he began to develop his own architectural style. Between October 1910 and March 1911 he worked near Berlin for the famous architect Peter Behrens, where he may have met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. At that time, he visited a nursing home and its monastery in the Ema Valley, and this greatly affected his position in life. From now on, he began to believe that all people should have the opportunity to live quietly and calmly, like monks in their monastery.

Later, in 1911, he traveled to the Balkans and visited Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, returning with approximately 80 notebooks full of sketches of what he had seen, in particular the Parthenon. He will then praise its forms in his book “Towards Architecture”.

During the First World War, Le Corbusier taught at his home school of art in Switzerland and returned to Paris only when the war was over. During these four years in Switzerland he worked in the field of theoretical architecture, using modern techniques. Among others was the Dom-ino House project, a model proposing an open plan consisting of concrete slabs supported by a minimal number of reinforced concrete columns at the edges. This design became the basis for most of his buildings for the next 10 years.

He soon began his own architectural practice, together with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret. This cooperation lasted until the 1950s, with a break during the Second World War.

In 1918, Le Corbusier met the cubist artist Amédée Ozanfant, in whom he found a kindred spirit. Ozanfan encouraged him to paint and they began to collaborate. Dismissing Cubism as irrational and “romantic,” they published their manifesto, After Cubism, and founded a new artistic movement, Purism. Ozanfant and Le Corbusier founded the magazine L "Esprit nouveau (New Spirit).

In the first issue of the magazine in 1920, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret took the pseudonym Le Corbusier (a slightly modified surname of his grandfather), under the auspices of the idea that everyone could create a new self.

In the period from 1918 to 1922, Le Corbusier did not build buildings, focusing entirely on the theory of purism and painting. And in 1922, he and his cousin Pierre opened an architectural studio in Paris. In the 1920s, Le Corbusier designed several villas that brought him fame. Almost all of them are located in the vicinity of Paris. All of them are buildings in the modernist style. They started talking about Corbusier, the new aesthetics of the villas excited the minds of the European public. The most notable works are Villa La Rocha/Jeanneret (1924), Villa Stein in Garches (now Vaucreson, 1927), Villa Savoy in Poissy (1929). All of them are distinguished by simple geometric shapes, white smooth facades, horizontal windows, and the use of a reinforced concrete frame. In these buildings, Corbusier applied his architect's code - "Five starting points of architecture."

In 1925, Corbusier and Pierre presented the "Plan Voisin", a proposal for the reconstruction of Paris. The plan called for the demolition of about 240 hectares of old buildings and the construction in their place of eighteen identical skyscrapers of 50 floors. In this and subsequent plans, Le Corbusier proposed new planning methods that would improve the comfort of living in cities, create green areas and a network of transport routes in them.

In 1940, Le Corbusier closed his Paris workshop and moved to a farm in the Pyrenees. At this time, he was engaged in theoretical developments, in particular the Modulor proportion system, which he then actively used in buildings.

After the end of World War II, restoration work began in France and Le Corbusier participated in it at the invitation of the authorities. In particular, he carried out plans for the reconstruction of the cities of Saint-Dieu (1945) and La Rochelle (1946), which became a new original contribution to urban planning.

For Saint-Dieu, Le Corbusier designed the building of the Claude et Duval manufactory (1946-1951) - a four-story block with production and office premises, with continuous glazed facades. During the construction of the Duval manufactory, so-called “sun cutters” (fr. brise-soleil) were used - special hanging structures invented by Corbusier that protect the glazed facade from direct sunlight. Subsequently, “sun cutters” became a kind of trademark of Corbusier’s buildings, where they simultaneously perform both a service and a decorative role.

In 1947, construction began on the famous “Marseille Housing Unit” - an apartment building with complete infrastructure located inside one building.

In 1950, Corbusier began implementing his most ambitious project - the new capital of the state of Punjab, the city of Chandigarh. Corbusier developed the administrative center, residential areas with infrastructure, schools, and hotels. The city was built over approximately 10 years. Corbusier himself directly designed the Capitol, the administrative center of the city. These are the buildings of the Secretariat, the Palace of Justice and the Assembly. Each of them is distinguished by a bright characteristic image, powerful monumentality and represents a new word in the architecture of that time.

In the 50s and 60s, Le Corbusier already enjoyed a recognized reputation as an architectural genius. He was inundated with orders, his name resounded throughout the world. During this time, he built several structures that cemented his title as Europe's number one avant-garde architect. These are the Ronchamp Chapel in France (1955), the Brazilian Pavilion on the campus in Paris, the complex of the La Tourette monastery (1957-1960), the building of the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo (1959).

One of Corbusier's last major works was the cultural center of Harvard University, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (1959-1962), built in the United States.

In 1928, Corbusier took part in the competition for the construction of the People's Commissariat for Legislative Industry building (House of the Centrosoyuz) in Moscow. It was subsequently built according to his design. The Centrosoyuz building was a completely new example for Europe of a modern business building solution. Construction was carried out under the direction of architect Nikolai Kolli.

In 1928, 1929, and the early thirties, the architect often came to Moscow in connection with construction. Here he met with Soviet cultural figures, in particular Meyerhold and Eisenstein, and admired the creative atmosphere that reigned in the country at that time. He was especially impressed by the achievements of the Soviet architectural avant-garde - the Vesnin brothers, Moses Ginzburg, Konstantin Melnikov. Later, Le Corbusier participated in the international competition for the building of the Palace of Soviets for Moscow (1931), for which he made an extremely bold, innovative project.

"Five Starting Points of Architecture"

Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture were published in L'Esprit Nouveau in the twenties. In these seemingly simple rules, Corbusier tried to formulate his concept of modern architecture. Here is their free paraphrase:

Support pillars. The house is raised above the ground on reinforced concrete pillars, which frees up space under the living quarters for a garden or car parking.

Flat roof terraces. Instead of the traditional sloping roof with an attic underneath, Corbusier proposed a flat roof-terrace, on which a small garden could be planted or a place to relax.

Free layout. Since the walls are no longer load-bearing (due to the use of a reinforced concrete frame), the interior space is completely freed from them. As a result, interior layout can be organized with much greater efficiency.

Ribbon windows. Thanks to the frame structure of the building and, therefore, the absence of load-bearing walls, windows can be made of almost any size and configuration, incl. stretch them freely with a ribbon along the entire facade, from corner to corner.

Free facade. The supports are installed outside the plane of the facade, inside the house (literally from Corbusier: freely located indoors). External walls can be made of any material - light, fragile or transparent, and take any shape.

Modulor

Modulor is a system of proportions developed by Le Corbusier. He described it as “a set of harmonious proportions, commensurate with the human scale, universally applicable to architecture and mechanics.”

Post in honor of Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier, an architect, artist, author of urban planning theories, and a symbol of modernism in 20th-century architecture, was born on October 6, 1887.

Le Corbusier created his first architectural project at the age of 17 under the guidance of an experienced teacher. It was a residential building for Louis Fallet, a member of the board of the School of Art, where Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (real name Le Corbusier) studied decorative and applied arts. Next in the series: and more about

Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris) and his creations

Le Corbusier, like many of his colleagues, became widely known for his projects of private villas. In the 20s, he built several buildings in a modernist style, new and defiant for his time - Villa La Roche/Jeanneret, Villa Stein in Garches, Villa Savoy in Poissy. They began to talk about Le Corbusier as a representative of the architectural avant-garde, because he used fundamentally new techniques in design. The distinctive features of his projects were white smooth facades, simple geometric shapes, floating volumes, horizontal glazing, and reinforced concrete structures.

In 1925, Le Corbusier built a pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris under the familiar name “Esprit Nouveau” as a kind of manifesto of the architectural avant-garde. The French pavilion was in many ways similar to the USSR pavilion, designed by our compatriot Konstantin Melnikov.

Le Corbusier began large orders in the early 30s. At the same time, he participates in a competition for the construction of the Central Union building in Moscow and visits the USSR. After World War II, the architect emerged as an urban planner and created plans for the reconstruction of the French cities of San Dié and Rochal. It is here that Le Corbusier consistently pursues his famous idea of ​​the “Radiant City,” which is still discussed by urbanists and partially finds its application in megacities. In his Radiant City, everything is perfect: symmetry in the layout, many parks and green areas, a developed transport system and convenient zoning. The architect proposed building up residential areas with apartment buildings no higher than 50 meters and housing up to 2,000 people in them. These ideas were partially embodied in the famous Marseille Unit, and then in the architect’s largest project - the planning of the city of Chandigarh in India.

1. Villa La Rocha/Jeanneret in Paris

In 1923, the architect built a semi-detached house for banker Raoul La Roche and his older brother Albert Jeanneret. In this project, for the first time, the main features of the architect’s original style appeared, by which we recognize his work: white color, large vertical planes, prismatic shapes. Nowadays, the Le Corbusier Foundation operates in the building of Villa La Rocha.

2. Villa Savoye in Poissy

More recently, Villa Savoy and the Moscow Melnikov House became twin monuments as part of the Russian-French Year of Cultural Tourism 2016–2017. They are both deservedly symbols of modernism in architecture. In the project of the Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier embodied all his innovative ideas, which are also called the “five starting points of architecture”: piles instead of the usual foundation, white smooth facades, horizontal strip glazing, a flat roof on which a garden can be built, free layout of the premises.

3. Centrosoyuz building in Moscow

Fortunately for us, a building was also built in Moscow based on Le Corbusier’s design. Tsentrosoyuz was built from 1928 to 1935, and during this time the architect came to Moscow more than once, where he met the main figures of the Soviet avant-garde - the Vesnin brothers, Konstantin Melnikov, Moses Ginzburg. Tsentrosoyuz is a completely non-typical office building and an example of architectural modernism. For Russian construction practice, the use of reinforced concrete structures was a completely new experience. With the help of advanced building techniques, Le Corbusier was able to apply his favorite open-plan principle, as well as provide an internal air-conditioning system to create a comfortable working environment. Endless staircases and ramps form the unique interior appearance of the building. On October 15, 2015, a monument to Le Corbusier was unveiled in front of the facade of the building on Myasnitskaya Street.

4. Chapel at Ronchamp

The architect received the order to build the chapel in Ronchamp in 1950. Here he creates an amazing architectural form of the building, unlike its previous geometrically correct volumes. Le Corbusier, inspired by natural images, made the roof look like a crab shell or a sea shell. The interior of the chapel is illuminated by multi-colored reflections from the stained glass windows in the southern wall of the building.

In this project, the architect realized his dream of a “garden city”. Post-war Marseille was in dire need of living space, and Le Corbusier was able to fit 337 apartments into a reinforced concrete frame, while creating comfortable living conditions. The house was raised on powerful supports, inside of which communication pipes were placed. The living space was divided into several levels, connected by “aerial streets”. On one of the streets, general supply services and a hotel were organized, and the top floor acquired a gym and a kindergarten.

In the cladding of a building, Le Corbusier was the first to use “raw” concrete (béton brut), which he then used in the construction of the Palace of the Assembly in Chandigarh.

6. Monastery of La Tourette in Lyon

The secluded monastery is made entirely in the style characteristic of Le Corbusier. The building is built in the shape of a rectangle with a courtyard divided by covered galleries. The ascetic appearance of the monastery is combined with amazing functionality, borrowed by the architect from the projects of apartment buildings.

The monastery space contains cells for 100 monks, a church, a public area with refectories, a library and meeting rooms. As in his other projects, the architect certainly dilutes the gray color with colored spots. Here he paints the chapel attached to the church in blue, red and yellow.

7. Chandigarh Indian City Project

For Le Corbusier, Chandigarh was the first exceptional opportunity to build a completely new city. As a result, it turned out that he got the breakdown of the ensemble plan and the construction of the Capitol buildings - the political center of the city. The construction of the remaining facilities was entrusted to British and Indian architects. One of the most important projects created by Le Corbusier in Chandigarh is the Palace of the Assembly. It is recognized as the most original and holistic in functional terms. The architect placed several volumes into the huge internal hall - the Upper Chamber hall with a glazed top in the form of a pyramid and a meeting room in the shape of a hyperboloid. Externally, the building stands out for its fancy facade with a curved portico facing the Capitol.

Giving the urban jungle unprecedented forms, Le Corbusier changed the face of cities, embodying in his aerial structures the dynamism of the modern lifestyle and man's desire for harmony with himself and the world around him.

Biography of Le Corbusier

The real name of the legendary Le Corbusier is Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris. He was born on October 6, 1887 in the Swiss city of La Chaux-de-Fonds (canton of Neuchâtel) into a family whose many generations were engaged in the craft of watchmakers and enamellers. At the age of 13, he was enrolled in a local arts and crafts school.

At the age of 15, he already independently decorated watch cases with elegant engravings and painted dials with enamel. And at the age of 18 he wanted to try himself in larger forms. And under the guidance of a professional architect, he designed a residential building for the engraver Louis Falle, who was on the board of the School of Art.

This student work became a turning point. Jeanneret appreciated the prospects of transition from the plane, with which his numerous enamel ancestors dealt, to volume, which provided the artist with special creative freedom. He spent six months in Vienna, communicating with representatives of the Viennese Secession (an association of Viennese artists of the period 1890-1910), one of the founders of which was Gustav Klimt. He attracted the attention of Joseph Hofmann, the architectural leader of Viennese Art Nouveau. Hofmann invited Jeanneret to work in his workshop. However, he gratefully refused. For him, Viennese Art Nouveau was already a classic; new horizons attracted him.

For two years, Jeanneret trained in Paris at the architectural bureau of the Perret brothers, who used recently introduced reinforced concrete as the main material. Then he worked in Berlin for Peter Behrens, one of the founders of industrial architecture.

On the eve of the First World War, Jeanneret returned to his hometown and opened an architectural studio. Completed several orders. His main achievement of that time was the conceptual House-Ino made of large-sized prefabricated elements reminiscent of dominoes. It was a completely new word in urban planning, a breakthrough not only in form, but also in technology.

Paris must be destroyed

In 1917, Jeanneret moved to Paris and got a job as a consulting architect in "Society of Reinforced Concrete" Max Dubois. Among the projects he independently completed during that period, industrial facilities predominated: a slaughterhouse, a weapons arsenal, a power plant, a water tower, and garages. At the same time, he founded and headed a factory for the production of large-block reinforced concrete structures.

In Paris, artistic life was in full swing. Jeanneret met Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger. He became interested in painting and participated in group exhibitions of cubists. Started a philosophical and artistic magazine L'Esprit Nouveau ("New Spirit"), in which he published a number of theoretical articles, in particular the “Five Starting Points of Modern Architecture” that caused a lot of noise. He signed articles under the pseudonym Le Corbusier. And soon he made this name his personal brand.

In 1922, he opened an architectural bureau on the Rue Sèvres, inviting his cousin Pierre Jeanneret as a partner. It was here that Le Corbusier implemented most of his epoch-making projects.

He started with expensive villas in a modernist style. For Paris at that time, this was quite radical. His name appeared in newspaper headlines with the epithets “leader of modern architecture” and “avant-garde of European scale.”

In 1925, Le Corbusier unveiled a project for the city of the future - the so-called “ Voisin's plan" An avant-garde of European proportions proposed demolishing the entire center of Paris with an area of ​​240 hectares and erecting 18 identical 50-story office skyscrapers on the vacated territory. And between them are low-rise horizontal structures that performed infrastructure functions. Only 5% of the territory was subject to development, the rest was allocated for transport arteries, parks and pedestrian areas. This structure, Le Corbusier argued, is most consistent with human nature. The discussion of the sensational plan was stormy. It is quite understandable that the majority of Parisians rejected him with indignation.

An avant-garde artist on a European scale proposed demolishing the entire center of Paris with an area of ​​240 hectares and building 18 identical ones on the freed territory.
50-story office skyscrapers.

However, the architect was not discouraged. He continued to develop the concept of a "green city" with advanced infrastructure. This is how urban planning projects for the radical redevelopment of Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Antwerp were born. It is clear that this was pure science, an urban planning abstraction, a message to posterity - not a single project operated in financial, organizational, or social categories. Some things did come to fruition. True, on a greatly reduced scale. By order of the industrialist Henri Fruget, in the suburbs of Bordeaux, according to the design of Le Corbusier, the town of “Modern Houses of Furget” was built from fifty two- and three-story houses of four types. This is how the concept of serial construction from standard panels was realized. The cost turned out to be record low, and quite comfortable apartments were inexpensive.

And in 1925, two geniuses met at the Paris Exhibition - Le Corbusier and Konstantin Melnikov. Each one built their own national pavilion. By the way, both architects participated in the competition for the best design of the Palace of the Soviets, which was supposed to be built on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Savior, but which was never built. However, one project by Le Corbusier was nevertheless implemented in Moscow. This building Centrosoyuz on Myasnitskaya Street, which now houses Rosstat.

Architecture by Le Corbusier

In the 1930s, Le Corbusier toured the United States and Latin American countries, giving lectures and participating in major architectural projects. He is one of the initiators of congresses of modern architecture. He publishes books that immediately become bestsellers. Talented youth flock to his workshop, and many emerge from its walls as masters.

Le Corbusier enriches architecture with innovative solutions both technologically and aesthetically. Here are just a few of them: support columns under the first floor of the building, sun protection blinds (solar cutters), continuous glazing. Le Corbusier founded Assembly of Builders solving research problems. One of her developments is the modulor, a system of harmonic proportions of the human body and its home, an architectural analogue of the golden ratio.

After the war, Le Corbusier began reconstructing the cities of Saint-Dieu and La Rochelle, which were badly damaged due to the fighting. It implements “living units” calculated based on the modulator. At the same time, he actively applies the ideas of a “green city” in his urban planning decisions.

The concept of “living units” is brought to perfection in the “Marseille Block”, a multi-apartment residential building on pillars. Standard two-level apartments are united around public spaces - a cafeteria, library, grocery store, post office, hairdresser. The building turns into a whole city with its own infrastructure. And outside there are loggias, which have become an integral element of resort hotels today. The exterior decoration is made in bright colors. Similar houses were built in Nantes-Reze (1955), Bry-en-Forêt (1961), Firminy (1968), and West Berlin (1957).

Green City

In 1950, the architect’s cherished dream came true: he was commissioned to design a new city being built from scratch. The fact is that when Pakistan separated from India, the Indian part of the state of Punjab lost its capital - Lahore went to the Pakistanis. And the Indian government turned to the famous Frenchman with a request to design the new capital of the state - Chandigarh.

Le Corbusier was helped by three people: the Englishmen Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, as well as his cousin Pierre Jeanneret. In addition, a group of nine Indian architects led by M.N. also worked with him. Sharma.

The city, which was built, as they say, in an open field for more than 10 years, has become for connoisseurs of constructivism the same place of pilgrimage as the Taj Mahal. Chandigarh, located at the foot of the Himalayas between two rivers, consists of 47 sectors of a fixed area - 800 by 1200 meters. Each sector is autonomous, it is a kind of town with its own infrastructure.

My search, like my feelings, is aimed at what constitutes the main value of life - poetry. Poetry is in the heart of man, and that is why man is able to comprehend the treasures hidden in nature.

But there are zones that perform citywide functions. In addition to the administrative center, these include, in particular, the largest pink park in Asia. More than 1,600 varieties of roses are grown here.

The city is surrounded by a 16-kilometer-wide green zone. According to Le Corbusier's plan, this ring should prevent buildings from spreading beyond the city limits. Oddly enough, the city has not yet grown.

Le Corbusier personally designed the main buildings of Chandigarh - the Palace of Justice, the Assembly, the Capitol, as well as a museum, an art gallery, an art school and a yacht club. All of them are distinguished by an external finish called béton brut (“raw concrete”). This decision marked the beginning of a new architectural movement - brutalism, which became widespread worldwide in the 1950-1970s.

During Le Corbusier's lifetime, 30 urban sectors were built. Now there are 57 of them. The population of Chandigarh exceeds one million people. Thanks to the rational planning laid down by Le Corbusier, even today the city has neither the overcrowding typical of Asian cities nor the transport problems that are inescapable, for example, in Moscow. So much for “Plan Voisin.”

I'm going to people

Le Corbusier's work throughout his life was not static; he often changed his style, responding to the demands of the time. But the main thing in his architectural extravaganza has always been man. But the most important thing for a person is poetry. “I go to a person, to people, to understand the meaning of my profession as an architect and builder,” said Le Corbusier. - My search, like my feelings, is aimed at what constitutes the main value of life - poetry. Poetry is in the heart of man, and that is why he is able to comprehend the treasures hidden in nature."

In the 1950-1960s, Le Corbusier paid special attention to the plasticity of surfaces, compositions that interact with the environment, and the contrasting combination of materials of different textures. He boldly experimented with vertical structure, seeking to abolish the rigid division of the building into floors. All this was reflected in the projects of that time: the chapel in Ronchamp, the Brazilian pavilion on the campus in Paris, the La Tourette monastery, the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, etc.

The great architect died tragically on August 27, 1965, drowning, presumably due to a heart attack, while swimming off Cape Roquebrune on the Mediterranean Sea, where he lived in his summer house. Farewell to him took place in the Louvre; the main director of the funeral service was the French Minister of Culture, writer Andre Malraux.

In 1967, in Zurich, according to Le Corbusier’s drawings, the “Le Corbusier Center” was built, which became a wonderful monument to the brilliant Frenchman. His creations and creative heritage are included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.