Corbusier Research Articles

Development of Functionalist Principles in Architectural Heritage of Le Corbusier. Villa Savoy in Poissy

The article is devoted to one of the most famous residential building projects executed by the French architect Ch.-E. Jeanneret-Gree (Le Corbusier) in the traditions of functionalism. Villa Savoy in Poissy (1928–931) is milestone work in his activity. Upon its completion, Jeanneret-Gree joined the group of outstanding architects, who had the opportunity to freely experiment with the variety of architectural styles (modernism, brutalism, etc.). The paper presents the analysis of the main architectural and design concepts of Jeanneret-Gree, embedded in the general and floor plans, facades, and interiors of this unusual villa.

The Evolving Theme of Health-Promoting Urban Form: Applying the Macrolot Concept for Easy Access to Open Public Green Spaces

Making cities health-promoting places is an evolving theme. Numerous studies confirm the health-promoting qualities of contact with nature and problems resulting from the deprivation of access to public green spaces. Easy access to safe and inclusive public green spaces is still one of the long-lasting problems of urbanized areas around the globe. It is one of the sustainable development goals, SDGs, proposed by the UN: 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Point 11.7 By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities. The major question is how to implement this goal in practice and design cities to provide easy access to safe and inclusive public green spaces. One of the important concepts for sustainable urban development is the urban block, Macrolot, coined by Christian de Portzamparc, which led to the new urban morphology of eco-neighborhoods in France. It combines the traditional, walkable urban grid with the Le Corbusier vision for a healthy modernist city offering daylight, fresh air, and greenery for everyone. Among the advantages of this particular urban morphology are the increased presence of green spaces and possibilities for placemaking. Studying the effects of the urban form of the Macrolot is of great significance for sustainable urban development. In this study, five neighborhoods—three eco-neighborhoods from France designed according to the open urban block, Macrolot urban morphology, ZAC Massena, ZAC Trapeze, and ZAC Clichy-Batignolles, and two award-winning developments from Poland, Riverview and Ostoja Wilanów—were chosen as case studies. The application of the Macrolot concept to sustainable urban planning and design and the possibilities for operationalization of the SDG—11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable—are discussed. This study offers valuable evidence to inform urban planning and design.

Logic, Perception, and Beauty—An Outline of the Modern Proportion-Based Approach in Architecture

The present study contributes to the discourse on the environmental paradigm in architecture, recognizing beauty as essential alongside community and sustainability. It examines the modern proportion-based approach within the realm of formal aesthetics, which views proportional relationships as essential for architectural form and aims to develop methods to manipulate these relationships to achieve desired aesthetic outcomes. The main objective of this study is to characterize the modern approach as a current distinct from classical theories. The research seeks to explore the unique rationales behind a systematic approach to architectural proportions and to discern how these rationales distinguish the modern approach from its classical predecessor. The research encompasses theories from the mid-19th century to the present day. Through content and comparative analysis, this study explores theories by key figures such as A. Thiersch, H.P. Berlage, Le Corbusier, H. van der Laan, J. Żórawski, J. Hale, and P. Märkli. This study reveals the modern proportional approach as a unique current that adapts classical ideas to modern sensibilities, shifting from classical cosmological symbolism to a focus on logical consistency, visual perception, and artistic expression. It maintains a dual relationship with tradition, preserving past methods while introducing new interpretations of their aesthetic function. Despite its modest impact on contemporary practice, the proportional approach is significant, emphasizing the visual quality of the built environment and pursuing timeless design principles that transcend fleeting trends, focusing on enduring aesthetic values.

Is transparent approach suitable for museums?----Take Kroller Muller Museum as an example

This paper embarks on a detailed exploration of the integration of glass as a pivotal architectural element within museum structures, with a specific focus on the renowned Kroller Muller Museum as a prominent case study. The Kroller Muller Museum stands as a beacon of a transformative shift in museum architecture, boldly veering away from conventional reinforced concrete edifices to embrace a contemporary architectural approach predominantly anchored in glass. The deliberate use of glass in its design symbolizes an alignment with the tenets of modernity, reflecting the museums evolution in harmony with societal progress and contemporary architectural trends. In line with the philosophy of renowned architect Le Corbusier, who emphasized the necessity of architectural adaptation to cater to evolving societal needs, this study argues that maintaining synchrony with the contemporary era is vital not just for museums but also for the broader realm of architecture and urban planning. Drawing from these principles, this research critically scrutinizes whether the prevalent shift towards transparency, particularly in the form of glass integration, truly aligns with the specific and nuanced requirements of museums within their contextual milieu. By thoroughly analyzing this aspect, the research is to offer beneficial perspectives on the efficiency and suitability of incorporating glass elements in modern museum architecture.

Paradise Lost. From Eutopia to Atopia

At the origin of every architectural and city project, there is a nostalgia for Paradise or the aspiration to build this wonderfulplace we have lost. Visions, architecture and city projects are necessarily prophetic images in search of a happy life onEarth. Every proposal for the city, every project, and every plan is a Utopia, an ideal place which aspires to become Eutopia.However, given the many visions and proposals, we can ask ourselves whether these Utopias have fulfilled their promiseto achieve a good place or are dystopias. In light of this unknown factor, this paper intends to reflect on some visions andproposals of the city. Some of them constitute the foundations of urban planning – like Howar’s Garden City, Wright’sBroadacre City, Le Corbusier’s Radiant City, the functional city of CIAM – others, elaborated by Erwin Anton Gutkind, IannisXenakis, Constantinos Doxiadis, Takis Zenetos, originated from different assumptions, deluding themselves that they aresolving the problems of the contemporary city or represent its last frontier, such as the Smart City.

Visual Analysis of Picturesque Urban Landscape Case of Sultanahmet, Istanbul

The integration of photography into architecture was a pivotal point in the journey of architectural representation,photography proved itself useful for the betterment of architecture early on, as well as establish itself as a necessarytool in the realm of architecture, from the early interactions of Le Corbusier and photography to the emergence ofearly architectural photographers such as Ackerman J.S., Shulman J, this thesis explores the evolution of architecturalphotography and draws parallels between architecture, photography and urban design specifically addressingperception. The main study this paper was extracted from looked into the inquiry of knowing "What are the keypicturesque locations/structures in Sultanahmet, Fatih – Istanbul, and how can their spatial distribution, and culturalsignificance be characterized and mapped for urban design and development?" as well as the secondary objective, ofwhich this paper focuses on, is to “Investigate the role of perception in urban environments and how photographyserves as a tool for capturing and conveying the perception of Sultanahmet's picturesque structures/locations”. Thestudy achieved these objectives by utilizing methodologies such as geo-tagged photography, sequential photography,social media metadata extraction, GIS mapping, spatial analysis, and visual analysis focusing on the historically richand culturally significant study area.

INFLUENCE OF MODERNISM ON POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

The modern architecture, which was conceived as a reaction to the chaos and eclecticism of the earlier 19th century was taking its shape in the late 19th century and earlier 20th century. The exact timeline in which the modern movement in architecture started in the world cannot be described with precision. But ‘Modern architecture’ had its origin in the developments of the late 18th century with major thrust on the idea of progress. This movement of modern architecture in India started quite late in the first half of 20th century. Its development in India started with the isolated efforts of some foreign architects’ works. But the movement gained momentum only after the arrival of foreign trained Indian architects with imbibed policy of modernism in their mind. Final thrust to this movement was given by the political patronage bestowed upon the idea of modernism by the then Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, when he invited Swiss born French architect Le Corbusier to design the state capital city of Chandigarh. This paper delves upon the Influence of Modern architecture of these foreign architects built in India on the Post independence Indian architecture.

Drawing to Conclusions: Sketching the Modulated Subject of Le Corbusier

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Walter Gropius, history of the IV CIAM Congress, the Charter of Athens and some of its results

The history of the emergence of the idea of multi-story housing construction is described, starting with the project of the experimental settlement of Spandau-Haselhorst by Walter Gropius and the subsequent report of Gropius to the third CIAM congress. The conditions under which the IV CIAM Congress met are shown - the world economic crisis, the strengthening of authoritarianism in the world, the absence of German, American and Soviet architects, as well as opponents of Le Corbusier in other delegations. The history of the IV Congress and the appearance, ten years after it, of two versions of the Athens Charter are described. The differences between José Luis Sert's version and Le Corbusier's version are presented, as well as some results of its implementation. The implementation of ideas, both different from the Athens Charter and its followers, in Great Britain and the place that the construction of multi-storey housing eventually took in the country is described. An example of construction regulation in Germany is given, which makes the construction of multi-story housing economically unprofitable.

From sign to inscription

This paper extends the author's work on inscriptions as a new theory of contemporary architecture. Using the concept of unary trait from Lacanian theory, the paper analyses two works of architecture. First, from the late 1970s, Peter Eisenman's project for the Cannaregio district of Venice is read as borrowing the form of the grid from Le Corbusier, enacting Lacan's unary trait. Eisenman's treatment of the grid is interpreted as evidence of poststructuralist thinking in architecture. Second, Atelier Deshaus's Riverside Passage in Shanghai is read as using the demolished fragments and existing retaining wall of a former coal storage wharf as architectural symptom. The architects' treatment of the wall and remnants from the demolition is, again, interpreted as evidence of poststructuralist thinking in recent architecture.

Observații filosofice despre arhitectura religioasă și arta sacră

This article tackles the aesthetic implications of religious architecture, somehow outshined by dominant metaphysical undertakings of the sacred space. The first part of this study deals with the interpretation of the principles of religious architecture explained by Vitruvius and their impact on the German and Scottish Enlightenment. The second part sheds light on the Kantian approach of the religious space through the aesthetic category of the sublime in its two paradigms – mathematical and dynamical – closely observing to what extent they support Kant’s intention to project religion within the limits of reason. From here, the research tracks the inheritance of these traditions reflected by Hegel’s Lectures of Aesthetics, for whom the architecture is embedded in the so-called symbolic art, one of the three major components of the system of arts. In the end, we will see how modern philosophy leaves a last trace of interest on religious architecture and the phenomenon of living in some Heideggerian writings, but without any aesthetic intention. We will check what the possibility of a theological program of religious architecture still means at the end of modernity, relying on some notes of Le Corbusier, and how we can recover a traditional model of religious architecture, which can explain the aesthetic experience beyond the metaphysical one, in the Eastern Orthodox Romanian mental space.

Optimizing dimensions in furniture design: A literature review

Wooden furniture design necessitates the integration of both technological requirements and aesthetic considerations. To guide designers in achieving this balance, this article explores how established design principles, such as proportions and preferred numerical sequences, can inform decision-making for both technological and aesthetic aspects. The goal is to demonstrate how these principles can be integrated with modern CAD tools. In reviewing the scientific literature, this study compiled and compared mathematical and non-mathematical models that support dimensional decision-making. These models included ancient canons (Egyptian, Greek, and Roman) alongside those of Leonardo da Vinci, Palladio, Dürer, Le Corbusier, Zeising, McCallum, and Brock. Additionally, the article examines numeral systems used in modern technology, such as Renard’s series and convenient numbers. It is proposed that designers should experiment with geometric design templates to achieve balanced proportions. All geometric design principles contribute to aesthetics, creativity and effectiveness in design. The literature identifies two groups of dimensional design templates: organic, inspired by the human body or the Fibonacci sequence, and inorganic, based on numerical order. It’s impossible to pinpoint a single “optimal algorithm” to support dimensional decisions in design. Specific geometric design principles serve as valuable tools, not the ultimate answer.

Classroom architecture and the gaze. Beyond the Panopticon

ABSTRACT This article begins by considering the radical changes that occurred in architecture throughout the twentieth century due to the influence of Le Corbusier and the ensuing movement of modernism. Though the building of schools was embroiled in this architectural movement, the classrooms within them remained broadly the same as they had been in the previous century, something that might pose a limit to the forms of education that take place within. Classrooms are then explored in the article in terms of their design and symbolic functions, both of which pertain to questions concerned with light, seeing, and the gaze. The article then introduces two key concepts that are useful for considering the gaze, Foucault’s Panopticon and Lacan’s psychoanalysis, to engage with the classroom architecture. Finally, the article proposes a rethinking of classroom architecture to encourage new forms of learning to take place.

Purism in creative activity of Jeanneret-Gree (Le Corbusier)

The paper is devoted to purism (Latin purus − "pure, strict"), the second creative direction in the design and social activity of S.-E. Jeanneret-Gree (Le Corbusier, 1887−1965), the outstanding French architect. It is one of the most popular trends in modern painting and architecture in the early 20th century.The paper considers this style in detail. The most striking elements of French purism were firstly tested in the design of the villa belonged to Raul Albert La Roche (1925−1928), a Swiss businessman and collector of paintings.

Between Parametricism and Pragmatism Concept Design Problematics in Zaha Hadid Architects’ Digital Projects

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the challenges in Zaha Hadid Architects' parametrical projects, focusing on recent digital technologies in the realms of "Architecture" and "Urban planning." Recently, Zaha Hadid Architects “urban-scale" project has awarded the title of "Parametric-urbanism" introduced a new urban design term to the world. This research delves into the design and implementation issues encountered in the Istanbul Kartal-Pendik Master Plan, parametric design which planned non-realistic, and fluiding plots and parcels not dependent on the city maps. 20<sup>th</sup> century early urban planning doctrines of C. Sitte and some French urbanists known as pragmatists, and realistic. The study expected to contribute design discourse with new approach parametric projects via French pragmatists problem solving methods. A comparative method is used to analyze the late 20th century parametric theories, and urbanism ideologies of 20th century; CIAM, Le Corbusier and French urbanists’ “realistic” and “problem-solving” methods. Zaha Hadid Architects’ “urban-scale” projects created via abstractions of parametric repetitive forms considered problematic. Some inconsistencies are observed in design and implementation process secondary parametric urban elements; road, axis, plot, parcel, block design and dimensions. Also, the urban scale parametric projects can be problematic in complicated, old, historical cities like Rome, Paris, Istanbul.

Anthony Vidler in Reverse

Abstract This essay in memory of Anthony Vidler explores the ways in which his obsessive mode of thinking and writing was primarily historiographic and ultimately autobiographical as it reversed itself towards the future. Vidler was not a historian who wrote but a writer who over time produced the effect of being a historian. He was a scholar in reverse, a trained architect and insightful architectural critic fixated on the ongoing legacy, from Plato to the latest digital zealots, of utopian dreams of an idealized architecture that would incubate an equitable society and the dystopian effects of the always unsuccessful attempts to realize those dreams. Vidler portrayed architecture and the social life it supposedly serves as permanently suspended between utopia and dystopia. Colin Rowe, his first tutor at Cambridge University in 1960, triggered this life-long obsession by pointing to Emil Kaufmann's writing about the precocious modernity of enlightenment architects, especially the ideal city imagined in the late 18th century by Claude-Nicolaus Ledoux, symptomatically the only architect referred to by the utopian socialist Charles Fourier. Vidler never let go of Ledoux, continuously reshaping him and an endless chain of architects from the 20th and 21st centuries, starting with Tony Garnier and Le Corbusier. Kaufmann and Rowe haunt all the work, as does Walter Benjamin, whose inversion of history likewise turned on the relationship between Fourier's philosophy and a specific architectural typology.

Modernist Relations France-England: Le Corbusier, Clive Entwistle and exhibition projects

In the context of the Modern Movement and influenced by Le Corbusier's design principles, this text explores the significance of the Swiss master's exhibition pavilion and fair projects. These projects, distinct from conventional architectural timelines, serve as evidence of the ideas shaping the project process, reflecting a compression of time and manifestos in physical form. Focusing on collaborations with English architect Clive Entwistle for exhibitions in England, particularly the 1939 Ideal Home Exhibition, the article delves into Le Corbusier's innovative designs, including a Ville Radieuse housing unit, a prefabricated house, and a luxury house. The text highlights Le Corbusier's strategic use of exhibition architecture as a platform to communicate his principles and theories, showcasing his work as a "laboratory" of projects. The article emphasizes the intertextuality of Le Corbusier's work, where ideas transcend projects, contexts, and meanings, fostering a dynamic relationship between theoretical reflections and practical experiences in pavilion and exhibition designs.

Between "Silhouette d'une ville" and "Patriotisme": Analyzing those Conceptions in “La Construction des Villes” through the Lens of Georges de Montenach’s “Pour le visage aimé de la patrie"

This paper delves into Charles-Édouard Jeanneret’s inaugural urban study La Construction des Villes, exploring his pursuit of fostering citizens’ ‘local patriotism’. While Jeanneret, also known as young Le Corbusier, emphasises the importance of physical urban forms in generating this sentiment, the specific mechanism behind the emergence of local patriotism remains unclear in the manuscript. Our objective is to clarify the uniqueness and historical context of Jeanneret’s thoughts on local patriotism by examining its ideological background, particularly the foundation for creating this sentiment. The key concept, the ‘silhouette of a city’, borrowed from Georges de Montenach, lacks specific examples or forms in Jeanneret’s work. Jeanneret argues that visual clarity and its beauty form the basis for local patriotism. This abstraction, excluding the specificity of the place and translating symbolism into visual clarity, foreshadows Le Corbusier’s later modernist ideas. Unlike previous interpretations of inhabitants’ visual experiences, aligned with pre-modern German-speaking spatial theory, Jeanneret’s description of the silhouette of a city externalises the viewing subject, applying a limited scope of the landscape aligning with contemporary French-speaking discussions. The resulting collective consciousness, shared by external observers perceiving a clear silhouette of a city, is conceptualized as local patriotism.

Le Corbusier’s Secret Architectural Language

This essay analyzes Le Corbusier’s most important architecture and uncovers in them a previously untranslated private and personal language with extended narratives. It offers a fresh look at a number of specific compositions by finding deep resonances in his sketches, writings, private correspondence, and others’ recorded memories. The main representational devices used in these compositions are faces and phalluses; however, geometric objects and other representative elements comprise their own lexicon and are interwoven throughout. These compositions follow themes of wit, virility, revenge, self-memorialization, and grief. It appears that LC intentionally paired the profound and the puerile in certain works of architecture, which may have made them complete for him. This may have been directly modeled on the writing of François Rabelais, whom he deeply admired. One central and oft-repeated self-portrait construct advanced here is the “two-eye diagram”, which LC created to explain how the matter-spirit dialectic played a fundamental role in portraying himself and expressing his world view and creative process.

JUST “A FOLLOWER WITH NO VISIBLE CHARACTERISTICS”? EXAMPLES OF ERNESTS ŠTĀLBERGS’ MODERNISM IN THE CONTEXT OF WESTERN ARCHITECTURE

The view of modernist architecture as a “unified mass” without regional traits or specific developmental trends has sometimes become symptomatic and is threatening to monuments of this style even today. This article aims to introduce the most significant conclusions obtained from the analysis of the architect Ernests Štālbergs’ creative legacy in the context of Western modernist architecture, identifying the means used to localise the style. Formal and stylistically comparative methods were applied for this purpose. Štālbergs’ modernist works reveal three lines of influences – from the German architect Erich Mendelsohn, the French architect Le Corbusier and the Nordic modernism. This does not mean direct appropriations of composition but rather impulses and inspirations. Štālbergs attempted to adapt modernism to local conditions, as he paid attention to the context of surrounding environment and regional traditions. However, he was more interested not in national but in regional identity, thus fitting in a wider cultural space.