Who is Le Corbusier? About Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier (real name Charles-Édouard Jeanneret) was born on October 6, 1887, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a small mountain town in Switzerland, to a watchmaker father and a piano teacher mother.

After graduating from a local art school, he traveled around Europe, trained in an architect's studio, returned to his hometown, and then moved to Paris in 1917.

While working as a Purist painter, he founded an architectural firm with his second cousin Pierre Jeanneret at the age of 35. He gradually became known through his essays on new-age architecture and art in the magazine L'Esprit Nouveau, and his proposal of the "Five Points of a New Architecture" (1926). His architectural works include the creation of bright, clean, and functional living spaces, such as the La Roche-Jeanneret Villa and the Villa Savoye Villa.

In the 1930s, he led the world in architecture as a proponent of the International Congress of Contemporary Architecture (CIAM), proposing numerous urban planning proposals. His architectural works included apartment buildings such as the Immeuvre Clarté and the Apartments at Nangeseret-et-Coli, which made extensive use of steel and glass, as well as small houses made of wood and stone, such as the House of Madame Mandreau and the House at Les Mathes (The Sextant House).

After World War II, he introduced his own measuring system, the Modulor, and used this system in the design of the Unité d'Habitation, an apartment building, religious buildings such as the Chapel of Ronchamp and the Convent of La Tourette, and urban planning and large public buildings in Chandigarh, India.

Several Japanese architects, including Kunio Maekawa, Junzo Sakakura, and Takamasa Yoshizaka, worked under him, and their works were successively introduced in magazines etc. The basic design of the National Museum of Western Art (Ueno), completed in 1959, was also by Le Corbusier.

In addition to his remarkable achievements in the field of architecture, he also produced numerous paintings, prints, sculptures, tapestries, and more. Many commonalities in form and color can be found between his fine art and architectural works, suggesting a close relationship between the two. It can be said that he was an artist who utilized all manner of expression and aimed to create a comprehensive art form.

Le Corbusier passed away in 1965, but his achievements as one of the most representative architects of the 20th century have continued to be highly acclaimed. Large-scale exhibitions were held around the world to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1987 and the 120th anniversary in 2007, and in 2016, 17 properties in seven countries were registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.