Corbusier essay

LE CORBUSIER Juliana Lopes de Andrade Year 2 — Architecture

London, 24 April 2015

A brief excuse Light is, according to the physics, the visible electromagnetic radiation perceived by the form of colours, and a kind of energy that makes it possible to see the things.

Utopia is a term used to refer an imaginary place, state of mind and things where everything is perfect, especially in social, political, and moral aspects.

The connection between these elements mentioned above, which seem to have no apparent relationship, begins precisely when we try to understand the work of most revered, and sometimes reviled, architect of twentieth century, Le Corbusier.

Reasons to talk about Corbusier abound. With more than thirty built works in several continents, Le Corbusier is among the most influential names of modern architecture, particularly its urban planning work. He was among the first to anticipate the influence of the automobile in the development of cities and their urban theories are considered canons since from their publications. He was and still is such an inspiration for architects all over the world.

(Darling, 2000) However, the intentions to call him here go further the resume of his unquestionably influence in the Modern Movement, but also present how these simple two simple elements, Light and Utopia, influenced and guided his work over the years. Besides, point how important his doings and his vision for a new perfect world were for the emergent countries, mainly the Brazilian architecture.

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A brand new world Born and bred in Chaux-de-Fond, not only an important centre of watchmaking, (Gideon, 1978, p. 538.) but also the stage for action of Hugenotes, Albigensians, and great historic names such as Russeau, Bakunin, and Lenin; Charles-Édouard Jeannet grew up in a city related to the Utopia ideals. Moved by this thought, which he used to call l’espirit nouveau, he began to present himself as Le Corbusier; a pseudonym that carried his eternal search for the truth, and immortalized him in the history of architecture.

“Le Corbusier made a completely new alternative world, that is tortuously rich and truth as the real world, with all its coherences, except conventional references.” (Jencks, 1972, p. 153).

As in classical utopias, Corbusier aims for the displacement of the reality, and the search for no longer a new country, but an entire future world. As he said in Après le Ccubisme “Our time is better than the Pericles’ to realize the ideal of perfection” (Jencks, 1972, p. 99) This idea of perfection can be easily find in three different Corbusiers. The first one, Art Nouveau (1907-31), the second one, the purist (1928-46) and the last one, brutalist (1930-60).

Corbusier first works were pure pieces of arts and crafts; where he adapted naturalist traditions to his architecture. But, through time, he defends two main thoughts. There were a hygienist Corbusier, who advocated a white light architecture where everything should be bathed in light. In parallel, the vernacular Corbusier who adopted a more poetic position on the use of light in architecture; also working the use of shadow.

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Purism and the Interpretation of classic Besides his desire for a world with no conventional references, Corbusier set out on his way to the birthplace of classical architecture looking for inspiration. Every new element should become a spiritual aid for his modern work. (Gideon, 1978, p. 539).

When visiting Athens, Rome, and the eastern Asia, he learned new nuances of light and shadows. Ancient societies advocated a more peaceful use of light, to create joyful and/ or peaceful environments. They saw the walls, not as mere protection from the outside, or locks, but reflective surfaces and light control, thought rationally. These people inspired him to design not only buildings, but to be an architect who designs the light.

This thought must have been adopted in all aspects and later works of his career. In the new planned cities, Corbusier would use his technical rationality to control the light and air, bringing thermal comfort and luminous homes with more airy, fresh and vegetated spaces.

After his journey, he was ready to lay down his proposal for the new kind of architecture and cities.

All this desire for purism and clean spaces reached the point by the publication of Vers une Architecture, where he immortalizes his ideals about designing the forms and lights. “Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light.� For him, the house, the industry and even the temples would be nothing less than combined surfaces who would give place for day-by-day activities.

In addition, since we are talking about utopia, no more utopian than to believe that daily activities can be controlled as a mechanical system. So, moved by the rationalism, futuristic ideals and the purity of form, he infuriated the world when create his most famous metaphor, comparing the house to the machine, and as a machine, its functions should be regulated by precise norms.

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Le Corbusier, Modulor.

Formalized in the project of Villa Savoye, Corbusier set the Five Points that should conduct the new architecture: building on pilotis, roof garden, plan free of the structure, free facade horizontal window.

Villa Savoye was the apogee of his formalist ideals, and a “sophisticated blend of Corbusier’s machine aesthetic and his interest in a more abstract classical and poetic use of form”. (Darling, 2000).

Corbusier became also a window thinker. The windows for him should not serve only as holes that allowed contact with the outside, but have their sizes and shapes defined by their function. A large glass wall for a fully transparent room, a tiny window that allowed the assessment of a point in the landscape, the horizontal window tape illuminating an entire room were part of his architectural issues.

In practice, his works were taken by openings, glazed facades, windows and balconies. Life should be directly related to plenty light and clearness. But it was not only the natural light that shone in the eyes of Corbusier, artificial light has also been widely studied and applied in their buildings. Lamps used to illuminate the best corners, light beams to enhance a ramp, reflectors, and sconces. The construction should be clear to the eye.

Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, Poissy. 1931

Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, Poissy.

1931. Light Scheme.

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A radiant city For him, the skies were another decisive element: the way the city see the sky was something essential to improve the lightening qualities. Not only that, but also the climate of a place, its latitude, angle relative to the sun, among other factors were essential to architectural design. Corbusier appropriated not only space, but also the light it offered.

After his voyage for the Land of Timid, the way he describes the United States, Corbusier develops his first essays about urban design. In the Ville Contemporaine, a scheme for a modern new city, he analyses the existent chaotic, unorganized and puzzled city.

With 24 glass towers, he evokes that “the skyscraper is a light irradiator”. Different from the Parisian dark and tidy offices, the new work spaces must rise in the sky, aiming for wind and light.

In the height of his utopic ideals arises the proposal of La Ville Radieuse. Corbusier, was in favour of ‘tabula rasa’, an opportunity to begin again, clean the city of factors taken to him as anti-health, and that did not contain anything from the rural life, nor of urban life, to create a neat city, dawn, light, thirsty for light and air; a "radiant" city.

With defined spaces, green belts and use of steel and concrete, Corbusier took his futurist technology ideal to the top. His new city could allow a health and organized high density living. “Modern Life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house an the city.” The ideals of the Ville Radieuse were later published in the Athens Charter.

Le Corbusier, Villa Radieuse, 1931.

Le Corbusier, Villa Radieuse, 1931. Plan.

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Light and poetry There was then a turnaround in his career. The purist, rational Corbusier, of white houses gleaming in the sun, became, with the melancholy of the war, a more dramatic architect. His light was now more tenuous, "glowed" less. Corbusier came to design the shadows instead of designing the lights. In addition, many of their former work suffered by excess windows, which generated an excess of light, and also overheating; exemplified by the acid comment of his wife, Yvonne Gallis “all this light is killing me, it drives me crazy� (Jencks, 1937, p. 99). His appropriation of light began to advance in such a controlled way, when he started to play with corners, forms, wholes.

Even being a great defender of the rational architecture, determined by the irreducible white light, Corbusier starts to ironically invest in a shadow ambient. The absence of light, and the bright control by gaps and cracks could create distinct introspective spaces.

Le Corbusier gradually abandoned his purist modernist ideals to adopt a style that relates better to the nature and show a more abstract form of his architecture perception. It was at the end of the twenties, with summerhouses projects that he began to invest in the vernacular. Inspirited by the idea of landscape: the field and the natural environment; but always in monumental and titanic proportions. Under Brutalist influences and frustrations with the industrial reality, he goes through a break with his ideas, and finally starts to differentiate construction techniques from architecture.

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In his new Corbusier style began to use contrasting materials in their midst of construction; a real affront ideas that modern architecture should be based only on smooth surfaces and well articulated structures. This architecture would be the true representation of art for art and total negation of synthetic materials and mechanized processes. His works began to demonstrate a certain hostility toward the outside world, but at the same time exhibited a much more tactile reality and less utopian than that advocated by traditional modern architecture.

When adopting the vernacular, Corbusier uses a surrealist sense, making “the remoteness of the site itself became the rationale for the mode of building” (Frampton, 1997). In some cases, such as Matthew's house, the choice for a vernacular line was the lack of resources and poor access to the site, but many times the adoption of style was a thoughtful choice, since this enriched the architectural form.

Even in works that seemed not address the vernacular character, Corbusier still managed to express their brutalist building methods; as in Marseille Housing Units; based on which the superstructure is completely wooden bases shown. The building also took up the idea of shelter, housing unit as man's individuality of primordia.

Le Corbusier, Unité d’habitation, Marseilles. Section.

Le Corbusier, Unité d’habitation, Marseilles. Interior.

Le Corbusier, Unité d’habitation, Marseilles. Light Scheme.

Le Corbusier, Unité d’habitation, Marseilles.

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But it was the work of Ronchamp, which obtained the excellence of his thoughts light. The architect shows the sacred from introspective and solemn forms on a majestic scale of the building; uniting with the landscape that was inserted. The choice of the form however were not just aesthetic intentions, but also aimed to enhance the acoustics and the best functional use of the temple. The adoption of the concrete structural shell was later adopted more often, since Corbusier sought to create a new sign of the sacred of the new century.

Strategic gaps at the edges allow entry lights to reflect diffusely in the environments. The chapel is oriented so that the light continuously enter throughout the day, furthermore, the sun's movement enables changing its intensity. The glasses also create multi colors reflections on the walls of the chapel. The sum of all these elements is responsible for characterizing the environment as a meditation, prayer and contemplation space. In addition, the stone slabs that make up the church are asymmetric and allow each elevation to be completely different from the other.

So Corbusier in his work allows to draw attention by contrast, to take a different position. His work is bright and dark, light and shadow, antithetical, contradictory, which goes far beyond the differentiation of full and empty. The adoption of the new style by the architect was not only his choice, but was the result of a failed season, a time of economic and social crisis, where there was no room to keep their initial ideas and much less for technological innovations.

Le Corbusier, Ronchamp Chapel, near Belfort, 1950-55.

Le Corbusier, Ronchamp Chapel, near Belfort, 1950-55.

Interior.

Le Corbusier, Ronchamp Chapel, near Belfort, 1950-55. Interior.

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Le Corbusier, Ronchamp Chapel, near Belfort, 1950-55.

Light scheme.

Conquest of America Corbusier travelled all over the world to find new arguments for his architecture. His interests in urban planning and his great social conscience made him to put an eye on the emergent countries, when he developed the adaptability of the architecture to the climate and the need for affordable housing. However, it was in Brazil where he found the field to deploy his most fertile beliefs.

In 1934, when the then Brazilian president, Getulio Vargas named Capanema as the Minister of Education and Health, a contest was set for the building of the new Ministry. After failed attempts, and projects of various architects who the minister disliked; Lucio Costa was called for the work.

The project of Lucio Costa and his group has struggled to incorporate the rational precepts of Le Corbusier, with the use of pilotis defining the support structure and releasing the ground for landscaping integration of internal and internal spaces, sunshades use in the sunniest facades, glass walls, free plan, rooftop gardens and use of natural ventilation and lighting.

However, how Lucio was a passionate man and great admirer of Corbusier work, and he knew that it was the first opportunity in the America to make a large, a public building, according to these new modern ideas; he requested the approval of Corbusier himself to finish the building. “He came in Zeppelin, that silver thing, beautiful, silent; passed quietly. It was my first contact with Le Corbusier.� (Costa, 2005)

As the sign of new era, Corbusier returned to Brazil in 1936, from the skies in his silver machine, as the great all-powerful mediator for the youngest architects. Thus, during the next five weeks he commanded the Brazilian group formed by Lucio Costa, Eduardo Reidy, Carlos LeĂŁo, Jorge Moreira, Ernani Vasconcelos and the inexperienced pupil of Costa, Oscar Niemeyer.

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The building was a mark in the Brazilian architecture, since it represented a break with the current eclecticism to produce an innovative structure sanctioned by the government. Which would later inspire a series of new buildings, such as Pampulha, Ibirapuera Complex and even a new capital for the country.

Because of the hot weather, the great concrete facades would not be acceptable in the new building, since the sun would overheat the walls. Therefore, one more time the way the light involved the ambient seems to be an important topic in Corbusier architecture, when he created the ‘brises solei’ as a solution. When placed along the facade they avoid sunlight, serve as thermal protection and keep the walls in the shade.

Lucio Costa and team., Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro, 1936. Brisessolei.

“Some of the most significant and successful innovations in architecture take shape, in an impressive scale, in a subtropical Portuguesespeaking country that North Americans often overlook.” (Mock, 1934)

Lucio Costa and team., Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro, 1936.

Le Corbusier, Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro.

Sketch.

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Lucio Costa and team., Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro, 1936. Light scheme.

Niemeyer and Corbusier Elements and architectural solutions came from the effort of this generation of architects, who worked in the Ministry building, but one man stand out in the project: Oscar Niemeyer.

Le Corbusier with his innovative and functional ideas was a major influence on the work of Niemeyer. Among the many contributions of Le Corbusier for the architect are the ‘five points’. In his first individual project, “Obra do Berço” built in 1937, Niemeyer recover the lessons he learned with Corbusier, pilotis, free plan and façade, the roof garden, and the brises solei; now used in the vertical for the first time.

Niemeyer gain worldwide fame after being invited to design the buildings for the new capital of Brazil, along with Lucio Costa, who designed the pilot plan for the city. Le Corbusier came to be consulted on a possible participation in the construction of the city and answered by saying that the project should be a Brazilian creation.

From the influence of the Swiss master, Niemeyer developed his own utopic way of thinking the architecture, when launched his humane and sensuous modernism. He brought the ethereal ideal to the construction site.

As well as Corbusier, Niemeyer was a speculator of forms and believed the architecture could regulate the ways of living. With the use of curves, pure elements, and freedom of pre-existent references, he put in his work the elegant Latin spirit.

Niemeyer and Corbusier could have the chance to work together again in the Headquarters of the United Nations, which resumed many characteristics from the Ministry building. In addition, it was from some meetings between Le Corbusier and Niemeyer that emerged a mutual influence between the two architects: "We had his influence (Le Corbusier), but in his last works, he had the influence of our work" (Life is a Blow, movie).

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Oscar Niemeyer, Obra do Berço, Rio de Janeiro, 1937.

Oscar Niemeyer, Senado, Brasilia, 1950 -60.

Oscar Niemeyer and le Corbusier, Headquartes for the United Nations, New York City, 1952.

Brasilia x Chandigarh In the end of his life, Corbusier could have the chance to work in his own capital, a city in India called Chandigarh. The city summed up the work of his life, he regained some principles from La Ville Radieuse in a less elitist and more social form; brought back the brises-solei, the shell-like structures, and entered the vernacular form started in the Ronchamp Cathedral.

Chandigarh and Brasilia are similar for adopting the precepts of the Athens Charter: segregation of activities in specialized areas, organization of residential areas in neighbourhood units, pedestrian traffic segregated from the vehicles and the garden city. Both cities show building idealized over platforms what evokes the character of monumentality. They abandon the idea of identical forms repeated along the urban area (as happened in Ville Radieuse), and bring unique and distinct volumes connected between in the great urban stage. Corbusier could celebrate the creation of a new microclimate governed by elements such as form, light and weather.

Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia, 1950-60.

Le Corbusier, Chandigarh, 1950-60.

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Conclusion Finally, it is concluded that besides the changes is his style during his lifetime, these two elements (light and utopia) have always guided Corbusier work, and inspired younger architects with his ideal of a possible future of perfect geographies, where the coexistence of human beings becomes something pleasant and liveable from every point of view, in contrast with the gloom and hassles brought by the world.

He was first a visionary in search of a new truth for architecture. A truth sometimes metaphysics, other times lyrical, but certainly not always scientific.

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COSTA, Lucio. Interview for Vitruvius. Giovanna Ortiz de Oliveira. 2005 DARLING, Elizabeth. Le Corbusier. London, Carlton Books, 2000.

GIDEON, Sigfrid. Espacio, tempo y architetura. Madrid, Dossat, 1978.

HARRIS, Elizabeth Davis. Le Corbusier - Riscos brasileiros. São Paulo, Nobel, 1987.

JENCKS, Charles. Kings of infinite space. Frank Lloyd Wright and Michael Graves. New York, Academy EditionsSt. Martin’s Press, 1983.

KENNETH, Frampton. Le Corbusier. London, Thames and Thudson Ltd, 2001.

KENNETH, Frampton. Modern Architecture: a critical history. Third Edition, London, Thames and Thudson Ltd, 1992.

MOCK, E. B. “Building for Tomorrow”, Travei, 81:26, jun. 1943.

MONTANER. Josep Maria. Despues del Movimiento Moderno: arquitectura de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1995.

SZABO, Ladislão Pedro. Visões de luz – O pensamento de arquitetos modernistas sobre o uso da luz na Arquitetura. Article for Master Degree. Universidade Mackenzie, 1995. ______ “Brazilian Architecture: Living and Building below the Equator, Pencil Points, 24:54, Jan. 1943. ______ “Oscar Niemeyer, Life is a Blow”. Documentary / 2007, Directed by Fabiano Maciel.

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