Corbusier Research Articles

Le Corbusier’s Solar Shading Strategy for Tropical Environment: A Sustainable Approach

In warm and tropical climates, excess solar gain may result in high cooling energy consumption. Shadingis a simple method to block the sun before it can get into the building. The ‘brise-soleil’, or ‘sun-breaker’solution refers to a permanent sun shading technique, like the simple patterned concrete walls popularized byLe Corbusier. Le Corbusier in his design of buildings in tropical climate wanted to make a ‘pact with nature’unlike his earlier works of the cold climates where he was to ‘combat the nature’. Le Corbusier’s solar shadingstrategy in Unit De Habitation and Capitol complex in Chandigarh are pioneering example for his approachtowards dealing with the harsh tropical climate. This paper tries to rediscover the climate consciousness ofthe master architect in terms of Brise Soleil as his solar shading strategy for the tropical environment. Themethodology adopted in the research is through qualitative analysis. In this paper an attempt has been madeto analyse Brise soleil as a solar shading strategy with reference to the tropical architecture of Le Corbusier.The application of Brise Soleil in Le Corbusier’s tropical works such as Ministry of education in Rio de Janeiro,Unité d’ Habitation in Marseilles and Capitol Complex in Chandigarh has been studied. The relevance ofshading in today’s context with reference to climatic control and energy conservation and sustainability hasalso been discussed. Incorporation of Brise Soleil as a solar shading technique in buildings will certainlyreduce our dependency on artificial means for thermal comfort and minimize the environmental problems dueto excessive consumption of energy and will evolve a built form, which will be more climate responsive andmore sustainable.

The Discourse on the Integration of Art and Architecture in the Mid-20th Century and its Contemporary Reflections

This paper draws attention to continuities and transformations within the discourse on the integration of art and architecture. The first part examines the modern synthesis of the arts through the works of Sigfried Giedion, Nikolaus Pevsner, Le Corbusier, Paul Damaz, André Bloc, Fernand Léger, and Asger Jorn. The second part investigates the links between this […]

Modernism and the Gender Trouble: Techno-Utopia and Gender Politics in the 20th Century Design

Among prominent figures in the architectural field of the twentieth century, Le Corbusier was undoubtedly the most renowned. His key writing Vers Une Architecture (Towards a New Architecture) was received with praise and has been regarded as the manifesto of modern and contemporary architecture ever since. His projects have become symbols of the end of the old regime and the possibility for a new democratic society. However, his revolutionary mission apparently diminishes gender issues. Although there is extensive research about Le Corbusier’s works, only a few investigated the gender aspects of his works or incorporated his artistic works into the analysis. Among several studies on politics of gender in modernist architecture, what is still lacking is the analysis of Le Corbusier’s works that are not architectural. This paper aims at examining the relationship between Le Corbusier’s architectural as well as his artistic works and gender politics through the lens of Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theory and feminist theories. The paper focuses on the modernist aesthetic, technology, and gender politics in spatial arrangements and designs, especially in the domestic sphere, that are discussed mainly in Le Corbusier’s Towards a New Architecture and his poetry collection Poem of the Right Angle. An analysis of spatial representations in both works reveals how the architect’s obsession with purist functionalism and the glorification of technology propagate the conventional concept of femininity and reduces female subjects to a unit of domestic labor. On the other hand, the paper contrasts the work of Le Corbusier with that of Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky to demonstrate how the very same aesthetics can be a design that favours women when it is appropriated by female professionals who think about equality both in terms of class and gender.

Use of Daylight in Houses and Villas from Modern Architectural Buildings

Architects need to consider daylight as an important element in their designs, which are shaped by location, climate, and directions, no matter what type of building. In order for the functions to be realized in the spaces in the building to be realized in comfortable conditions, the illumination levels specified in the standards must be provided. Issues such as the dimensions of the openings that will allow direct or indirect sunlight to be designed on the outer surface of the space, and the determination of the dimensions of the windows and doors to be used are discussed in architecture. The geography, climate, and topography of the building should be examined in terms of daylight. The direction in which the building is located should be chosen according to human comfort as much as possible. In the designs, the texture of the surfaces and the amount of daylight taken into the space by reflecting or refracting from these surfaces should be calculated. In this study, while examining the effects of daylight on residential design, well-known architects of the recent period who used daylight as an architectural element in their designs were examined. Architects such as Le Corbusier, Steven Holl, and Tadao Ando, who incorporated daylight into their work, succeeded in transforming the indoor environment into an architectural space with daylight. In this way, they have achieved different and original results in their building designs. Since the architects who are the subject of this study use daylight as a design principle, it has been seen that the houses-villas belonging to these architects have reached more original designs thanks to the use of daylight. For this reason, it has been observed that these types of residences-villas are preferred more by the users.

Ernest Weissmann’s Architectural and Planning Practices

Architect Ernest Weissmann (1903-1985) dedicated his career to improving the living conditions of the deprived population - before and immediately after World War II in Europe and the United States and, starting from the 1950s and owing to senior positions he held at the United Nations Department of Social Affairs [UN DESA], also in underdeveloped countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The means by which he tried to achieve it were type projects flexible enough to respond to each individual case, education, teamwork, and self-help approach. The latter was thought to strengthen the local communities, their experts, resources, and production. Relying on the research on Weissmann’s pre-UN DESA career, this paper argues that Weissmann formulated most of his ideas, in particular self-help, and the above-mentioned methods, and put them into practice and an international perspective, before 1951 thanks, to his collaboration with Le Corbusier, the School of Public Health in Zagreb, the International Congress of Modern Architecture [CIAM], New York-based Structural Study Associates [SSA] group, Board of Warfare, and United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration [UNRRA].

Landscape Projection and Its Technological Use in Conceptualising Places and Architecture

The manipulation of landscape and the technological use of its views can be a strategy for place-making and a way of creating architecture and making it original. The methods used for this can be different, for example, by mechanically revealing and obscuring views, optical or film projection, directing the viewer to specific frames, using mirrors, etc. This approach is alternative and somewhat in opposition to the natural incorporation of the object into the landscape. In modernism, different architectural views of the surroundings were tested and used differently. These experiences are now transposed to contemporary architectural objects thanks to technological developments and the scenographic shaping of space. The article refers to the sources of transferring landscape views in popular dioramas and the effects of the development of photography, cinematography, and IT media. It describes the possible consequences of perceiving such a created landscape and more general—the world. An example of such a means of expression being fully and consciously taken is the now-defunct Charles de Beistegui Paris apartment. It was designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in 1929–1931. The apartment was selected for analysing as a case study and confronted with contemporary realisations that use various creative techniques involving the landscape.

Photographs of Silos: On the Contingency of a Modern Photographic Canon

This article re-examines the dissemination of the photographs and their subsequent reproduction of the now-canonical grain elevators and published in the early 20th century. For example, Walter Gropius used them as illustrations for his article in the 1913 Werkbund yearbook, while Le Corbusier included them in Vers une architecture. While the idea of a canon made up of buildings is widely accepted within architecture discourse, this article identifies and stresses the role of photographic canons as a means of further challenging these constructions. The article focuses on the moment when the reproductions of these photographs became canonical and on the mechanisms that such a construct implied. The photo reproductions were objects of trade and exchange, mobilised in relation to photographic media and different platforms for dissemination. On the one hand, this informed their reading as architectural and thus singular objects; on the other, the different materialisations of photo reproductions testify to their nature as commodities and objects of trade, and therefore to the consolidation of their canonical status.

Линейная тактика

Статья посвящена особенностям и истокам градостроительной теории Николая Милютина. Написанная задолго до завершения им формального образования книга «Соцгород» обрела в известной степени культовый статус среди планировщиков и архитекторов XX века, однако реальная степень его вклада в практику строительства новых городов, а также влияние на последующие разработки остается к настоящему времени не до конца проясненной. Сам Милютин неплохо ориентировался в градостроительной мысли своего времени благодаря не только общению с Ле Корбюзье, но и книгам, в первую очередь на французском языке. Если Владимир Семенов был в России и СССР проводником английской градостроительной мысли, то Милютин – французской и испанской.

город как система потоков

Практика создания линейных городов насчитывает десятки столетий, но теоретическое осмысление этого феномена в основном пришлось на первые десятилетия ХХ века. Советский архитектор Н. Милютин не только создал последовательное научное обоснование линейного города, но и воплотил свои идеи в структурах нескольких городов. В те же сроки Ле Корбюзье реализовал свои градостроительные проекты в Алжире и Бразилии, а вслед за ним множество зодчих по всему миру обратились к концепции линейного города.
 Мы публикуем подборку материалов, обсуждающих понятие города с точки зрения транспортных, человеческих, информационных потоков, протекающих сквозь его ткань. Теоретический аспект концепции линейности все еще далек от завершенного вида и требует развития.
 Ярким примером соединения теории и практики линейного города является концепция Байкальского луча. Ее автор Вячеслав Воронежский – однокурсник Ильи Лежавы, одного из лидеров группы НЭР. Дерзкий полет мысли молодых архитекторов-шестидесятников не потерял актуальности и сегодня. Отголоски влияния НЭР присутствуют в идеях Зимнего города и их воплощениях в проектах Иркутских кварталов и Байкальска. Идеи линейности в масштабах города, региона, страны, целого континента продолжают жить и воплощаться в конкретных проектах.

Intelligibility and cellularity in the villas of Palladio and Le Corbusier: examining Rowe's observations

PurposeIn the 1947 article, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, Colin Rowe famously compared the spatial and geometric properties of buildings by two architects: Palladio and Le Corbusier. Many of Rowe's observations in this article have since been extensively debated but not rigorously tested. This paper examines Rowe's proposition that Palladio's villa plans possess greater intelligibility and cellularity than Le Corbusier's villa plans.Design/methodology/approachTwo established computational techniques, axial line analysis and isovist analysis, are adopted in this paper to quantify and compare the properties of intelligibility and cellularity in the four villas that Rowe used to construct his argument: Malcontenta, Rotunda, Stein, and Savoye.FindingsWhile acknowledging methodological limitations, the results of this paper do not support Rowe's claims, but they do lead to a unique quantitative examination of spatial configurations and properties of four famous villa plans.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to quantitatively examine Rowe's claims that Palladian villas possess greater intelligibility and cellularity than Le Corbusier's villas.

Analysis of Professor Lu Yujun's Design Thinking of Architecture and Urban Planning

中國文化大學建築及都市設計學系創系主任盧毓駿教授，奠定系所朝向建築兼具都市規劃的發展方針；也規劃設計中國文化大學、交通大學等諸多館樓，以及科學教育館等多棟著名建築。時值1960-1970年代「中華文化復興運動」，盧教授的古典中式建築外觀，包覆著西方現代建築設計手法，成為當代建築之典範，更為中國文化大學塑造典雅的特色校園。本文運用生平歷史事件及著作文獻，採用文獻回顧法，歸納出盧教授建築及都市規劃之思潮源流、建築設計思維。綜理盧毓駿教授的論述與作品，可歸納：以天人合一的中國傳統思想為基礎，從都市幾何規劃逐步發展到有機論述；來自CIAM及柯比意（Le Corbusier）的設計思想概念；強調在地特色與基地調查的重要，在都市設計思維中尤其重視防災救災避難等防空規劃功能。其建築及都市規劃設計思維，逐步實現在中國文化大學與交通大學新竹博愛校區的校園規劃。Professor Lu Yujun, the founding director of the Department of architecture and urban design of Chinese Culture University, laid the development policy of the Department towards architecture and urban planning. He also designed many buildings such as Science Education Center, Chinese Culture University, and Chiao Tung University. During the 'Chinese culture renaissance movement' in the 1960s-1970s, Professor Lu adopted the appearance of classical Chinese architecture and covered with western modern architectural design techniques, becoming a model of contemporary architecture and shaping an elegant characteristic campus for Chinese Culture University. This paper summarizes the ideological source and architectural design thinking of Professor Lu's architecture and urban planning by using his life, historical events and literature review. The comprehensive discussion of Professor Lu Yujun can be summarized as follows: Based on Chinese traditional thought, it has gradually developed from urban geometric planning to organic discussion; Design ideas and concepts from CIAM and Le Corbusier; Emphasize the importance of local characteristics and base investigation, and pay special attention to air defense planning functions such as disaster prevention. His architectural and urban planning and design thinking is realized in his works.

Review: Balkrishna Doshi: Writings on Architecture and Identity and One Continuous Line: Art, Architecture and Urbanism of Aditya Prakash

Review: <i>Balkrishna Doshi: Writings on Architecture and Identity</i> and <i>One Continuous Line: Art, Architecture and Urbanism of Aditya Prakash</i>

Review: Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony

Review: <i>Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony</i>

Ensoñaciones de pared ciega. Lo blanco como idea

History has loaded color white with meanings. Among them, purity and lightness stand out as values frequently associated with the effects of its use in architecture, which have become a true commonplace. Starting from the particular use that Le Corbusier made of white in his theorization of a new architecture devoid of the ties of the past, the article points to a more contemporary understanding of the abstract qualities that white contains, not so much as a color but as an idea. ‘White’ is therefore presented as a trigger for a way of thinking, that runs across philosophy, plastic arts and architecture to this days, but linked to the monochrome, flatness and its frontality, more than to the chromatic literalness of its superficial application. In this way, the repetitive textures of the blind surfaces that cover architecture today are proposed as the latest manifestation of this procedure that focuses on enhancing the effects of indifference and unity, blocking any possible interpretation of the interior. White as a concept no longer embodies the purest, but the purely opaque.

Philosophy from the Bottom of the Well: The Creative Potential of Misunderstanding Metaphorical Anecdotes

Philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s book Das Lachen der Thrakerin (1987, The Laughter of the Thracian Woman) addresses the various iterations of a single Aesop’s Fable. In the anecdote, a stargazing philosopher stumbles into a well and a maid laughs at his absentmindedness. Blumenberg suggests the various reinterpretations of the anecdote over the millennia reveal each epoch’s attitude towards philosophical endeavour. The work becomes a metanarrative when the laughter directed at diligent scholars is extended to Blumenberg and his readers. For architects, speculating about that laughter offers insights into the indeterminacy of architectural meaning. To demonstrate, this paper deconstructs two anecdotes from architectural discourse to contribute an alternate and nuanced perspective of the relationship between architecture and philosophy. The first anecdote regards a border-crossing from Le Corbusier’s writing, and the second is an epiphany from Charles Jencks. Lastly, this paper considers the creative returns potentially generated for architects through ambiguity and misunderstanding.

Paris and the Parasite: Noise, Health, and Politics in the Media City by Macs Smith

Reviewed by: Paris and the Parasite: Noise, Health, and Politics in the Media City by Macs Smith Keith Moser Smith, Macs. Paris and the Parasite: Noise, Health, and Politics in the Media City. MIT, 2021. ISBN 978-0262045544. Pp. 296. In this insightful exploration of Paris as a mediatic space in which information incessantly flows in all directions through a plethora of divergent vectors, Smith exposes the ugly underbelly of the hegemonic forces undergirding the dominant social order in the city of lights. Building upon Serres's multifaceted theory of the parasite, Smith reveals how even the architectural structure of Paris evolved to expel unwanted biological, mediatic, and social parasites. Smith effortlessly weaves transdisciplinary connections between literature, philosophy, film, critical theory, media studies, architecture, cultural studies, environmental ethics, and popular culture to decry how those who have been labeled parasites by the integrated political and social elite have been effectively banished from the center of Paris and relegated to the impoverished banlieues where their undesirable noise cannot be heard. In addition to probing the efficacy and paradoxes of counterhegemonic strategies that disenfranchised and marginalized Parisians have conceived, including street art and the extreme sport of parkour, in an effort to resist oppression, Smith turns to Derrida's theories of hospitality in order to invite the reader to imagine how Paris and other postmodern metropolises could become more welcoming spaces in the future. Although Smith's interdisciplinary approach is compelling throughout the book, the passages in which he underscores the role of architecture and urban planning in the creation of a stifling anti-parasitic glass ceiling are especially thought-provoking. From a historical perspective, Smith pinpoints the "aftermath of the cholera epidemic" in the middle of the nineteenth century as the beginning of the concerted efforts of public officials working in tandem with architects to expel "invasive non-human pathogens" from the streets of Paris (28). Architects like Le Corbusier were soon called upon to deal with another kind of perceived menace: the social parasite. Smith explains how Le Corbusier was instrumental in the conception of a private space "where one can be sealed off from the parasites of the city" (36). Architecture became a hegemonic tool for shielding affluent Parisians from the parasitic noise emitted by those at the bottom of the social ladder. However, this approach to urban planning, intentionally designed to ensure that people had very little contact with each other, created isolation chambers "where anonymity reigns" (48). Delving into the theories of Guy Debord, Smith demonstrates how these attempts to eliminate the parasite atomized Parisian society. Nonetheless, Smith finds a glimmer of hope in Serres's hypothesis that the parasite can never be removed from the informational channels entirely. Specifically, Smith outlines how street artists like Blek le rat and Invader have (re-)appropriated the very walls or borders that were conceived to exclude them. Even if street art has now been commercialized to a certain extent, the counter-hegemonic discourse and culture jamming of social parasites cannot be [End Page 234] eradicated altogether. Without painting too rosy a picture of counter-hegemonic liberation techniques, Smith reveals that social parasites will continue to find ways to have their voices heard in Paris and all around the world. [End Page 235] Keith Moser Mississippi State University Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

Classics of Polish Design. Polish avant-garde Bauhaus style furniture from the interwar period

Classics of Polish Design. Polish avant-garde Bauhaus style furniture from the interwar period presents a review of the best Polish furniture designs from the 1920s and 1930s. In spite of the inspirations with historicism popular in the interwar period and the references to folk culture (e.g., the "Ład" Artists' Cooperative), Polish designers also drew inspiration from the works of the following artists: Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Mies van der Rohe and Mart Stam, who designed avant-garde furniture made of metal pipes. The paper presents little known works of Polish artists from the groups "Praesens", "Atelier wnętrz i architektury" (The Atelier of Interiors and Architecture), "Studium wnętrz i sprzętu" (Studio of Interiors and Equipment), as well as furniture designs referring to the Bauhaus style for private and public interiors (including designs for transatlantics or the President's Castle in Wisła), among others, manufactured by the Thonet-Mundus company. The paper continues the series devoted to the "Classics of Polish Design", presenting the results of research on Polish furniture, carried out within the framework of dissertations in the Department of Wood Technology in the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW).

Analysis of the Energy Efficiency of Le Corbusier’s Dwellings: The Cité Frugès, an Opportunity to Reuse Garden Cities Designed for Healthy and Working Life

This paper looks at the energy efficiency of the Cité Frugès in Pessac, designed in 1924 by Le Corbusier. Many of the innovations introduced by the Modern movement, such as flat roofs, large windows and solar protection elements, are still evident in the way architecture is carried out today. Most of these contributions were implemented in the Cité Frugès. The aim is to evaluate the architectural design criteria that most influenced the energy performance of Le Corbusier’s works, and to analyse the improvement that could be achieved by energy rehabilitation. The methodology used consisted of a systematised study of the five dwellings designed by Le Corbusier. For the modelling and calculation of their energy performance the “Líder–Calener unified tool” was used for evaluation, under the standards of compliance with European regulations for nearly zero energy consumption buildings. Energy parameters, such as thermal transmittance, solar gains and overall annual energy demand, were tested. The results obtained provide information on energy performance and allow for the analysis of possible energy refurbishment alternatives. The analysis of the results makes it possible to identify and qualitatively and quantitatively assess the limitations of the most relevant architectural and construction aspects in relation to energy efficiency and to draw up an energy map of the Cité Frugès in Pessac.

Architecture and planning in Pakistan – then and now

ABSTRACT Architectural and planning education and practice have undergone significant changes since the 1960s and 70s, particularly in Developing Countries. This includes the adoption of an anti-poor vocabulary and the marginalisation of the state’s role in providing low-cost housing for low-income groups and ultimately resulted in a change in the goals of planning. However, placing the blame solely on the growth/adoption of neoliberalism would be reductionist since architects like Le Corbusier were promoting their ideas of modernist communities well before the former emerged onto the scene. The paper outlines the ways in which this change has impacted society and suggests that the values of equity and justice be promoted through architectural and planning education and practice so as to create a more sensitive and pro-poor society.

Le Corbusier’s Ineffable Space and Synchronism: From Architecture as Clear Syntax to Architecture as Succession of Events

This article examines Le Corbusier’s architectural design processes, paying special attention to his concept of “ineffable space”. Le Corbusier related “ineffable space” to mathematics, arguing that both mathematics and the phenomenon of “ineffable space” provoke an effect of “concordance”. He also argued that when the establishment of relations is “precise” and “overwhelming”, architectural artefacts are capable of “provoking physiological sensations”. For Le Corbusier, the sentiment of satisfaction and enjoyment that an architectural artefact can provoke is related to a perception of harmony. This article analyzes the reasons for which Le Corbusier insisted on the necessity to discover or invent “clear syntax” through architectural composition. He believed that the power of architectural artefacts lies in their “clear syntax”. Particular emphasis is placed on the relationship of Le Corbusier’s theories of space with those of Henri Bergson and the De Stijl movement. At the core of the reflections that are developed here are Le Corbusier’s “patient search” (“recherche patiente”) and the vital role of the act of drawing for the process of inscribing images in memory. For Le Corbusier, drawing embodied the acts of observing, discovering, inventing and creating. This article also relates Le Corbusier’s interest in proportions and his conception of the Modulor to post-war Italian neo-humanistic approaches in architecture. It intends to render explicit how Le Corbusier’s definition of architecture was reshaped, shedding light on the shift from defining architecture as clear syntax to defining architecture as the succession of events.