Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier and his colleagues produced various types of design drawings for architectural projects. The aim of drawings of this kind is to visualize the architectural idea in each case. They form a bridge between the idea and its practical implementation. In this way, the architectural idea can be made visible to clients. It is customary to use ground plans and elevations for this purpose due to their detailed and technical character. From the 1920s onwards, Le Corbusier would use another type of design drawing – the so-called “axonometric” representation.

This design from 1926 for the Maison Cook in Boulogne-sur-Seine displays an axonometry of this kind: to a certain extent, it combines ground plan and elevation, that is the view of a building shown strictly from above and the view showing it frontally from one side. Now it is possible to see several sides at the same time. As a result, the building is not just perceived as a collection of surfaces, but also as a volume with inherent spatial qualities.

Le Corbusier usually used axonometry to allow a building to be experienced from the outside. Axonometry reveals the dimensions and the proportions with regard to the outside area in particular. However, complex spatial structures and the aesthetic qualities of a building – such as coloured walls – are made visible in this way too. In the axonometry for the Maison Cook, the depiction allows the eye to look into the second and third floors of the building: the transition to the top floor and the rooftop terrace via the light-yellow staircase is made easy to comprehend. But the design does not provide a view of the first floor.