Le Corbusier

Architect, urban planner, visual artist, designer, and writer. As celebrated in his lifetime as Albert Einstein, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris (1887–1965) – better known as Le Corbusier – was nevertheless a very different figure from what we now call a “starchitect.”

Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a Swiss town in the Jura region near the French border, Le Corbusier’s life and work consistently blended Swiss rigor with a distinctly Mediterranean spirit. This duality stemmed from his Romandy cultural background, his admiration for classical and Renaissance art and architecture, and his long familiarity with Paris and southern France, where he spent much of his professional career.
This interplay of influences explains why defining Le Corbusier simply as “a master of rationalism” fails to capture the complexity of his personality. It emerges clearly in his postwar works and in many of his paintings.
His oeuvre combines what we now call “modernity” – including the technological revolution of the early 20th century – with a deep reverence for art history, evident in the Modulor’s debt to Vitruvius and Leonardo da Vinci.

Even his chosen nickname, Le Corbusier (sometimes shortened to Corbu or L‑C), reveals something of his character. Derived from corbeau (raven) in reference to his gangly, hook‑nosed appearance, the name was adopted in the 1920s as a signature for his writings and paintings.
It carried a touch of irony that few would expect from the stereotypically serious Swiss architect. Indeed, it is hard to imagine many contemporary starchitects allowing themselves to be photographed painting in the nude or spending leisurely afternoons with unpretentious bartenders and fishermen in the south of France.

Today, buildings designed by Le Corbusier are open to the public across France, Switzerland, Germany, the United States, Argentina, India, and Japan.

Cover photo: Gisèle Freund, “Le Corbusier, Paris” (1961) © Centre Pompidou, Guy Carrad © Estate Gisèle Freund/IMEC Images; from the exhibition “Le Corbusier. The Measure of Man”, Centre Pompidou, Paris, April 29- August 3, 2015; courtesy of Centre Pompidou.