Corbusian Monumentality: The Legacy of the Konak from Vernacular System to Modernist Monument

Abstract

Commentators on the work of Le Corbusier have alternately admired his functionalist and standardizing approach to monumentality and accused him of overly conforming to academic and classical understandings of the monument. This article takes a different approach to understanding Le Corbusier’s monuments by exploring his transformation of vernacular architectural systems into visual experiences. Specifically, we trace a lineage between Le Corbusier’s fascination with the Ottoman house type known as the konak and the implementation of the elements of his seminal manifesto “The Five Points of a New Architecture” (1929) within the Villa Savoye. We examine the context of Le Corbusier’s encounters with the konak and build a case for it as a systemic influence on Le Corbusier’s work of the 1920s. Through comparing the Villa Savoye and its Ottoman precedent, we then examine Le Corbusier’s monumentalization of the konak: the conversion of a system arising out of local concerns into a modernist monument.