Digital Guide

C 2     The Geometry of Progress

The Architecture of the 1920s

Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret opened an architecture firm in Paris in 1927. Together, they designed and realized a series of villas and building complexes. Their work is unembellished, characterized by a language of cubic forms and an unconventional interior layout that creates an experience of spaces “flowing” into one another.

In 1927, Le Corbusier published the Five Points toward a New Architecture: 1. Supports that raise the building from the ground, making it possible for the footprint to serve other purposes. 2. Flat roofs that can be used for gardens. 3. A freely designed ground plan and the flexible division of interior spaces, which is only possible with the use of columns. 4. Bands of horizontal windows instead of individual windows to ensure maximum light. 5. The free design of the façade, which is independent of the building’s load-bearing structure.

Le Corbusier engaged in dialogue with other pioneers of modernist architecture, including Theo van Doesburg of the Dutch De Stijl movement, the Russian Constructivist Moissei Ginsburg, Walter Gropius of the Bauhaus, and Mies van der Rohe of the Deutscher Werkbund. To a certain extent, their architectural concepts overlapped with those of Le Corbusier. Due to his abilities to communicate his ideas to a broad public, however, Le Corbusier’s architecture was quickly perceived as the unique embodiment of the dawn of modernism.

1 Perspective View of the Quartiers Modernes Frugès in Pessac

The Quartier Frugès is a housing project by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, built between 1924 and 1926 in Pessac, a suburb of Bordeaux. It was their first attempt to realise a larger housing development. The industrialist Henri Frugès commissioned Quartier Frugès to create affordable, standardised worker housing. The project was originally supposed to include over a hundred houses of various types and colours, but only half were built. After completion, the housing units stood empty for several years due to Henri Frugès’ bankruptcy and because they were not connected to the waterworks. Later, residents made structural modifications to adapt the houses and apartments to their needs and taste for more traditional building styles.

2 Axonometry of the Maison Cook

At the beginning of the 20th century, axonometric drawings became a preferred mode for representing modern architecture. Until then, architecture was mainly drawn in the form of floor plans, cross-sections, perspective drawings, and elevations. Axonometry allows the sides and the interior spaces of the building to be shown simultaneously. The representation is independent of a visible perspective and seems to float freely in space. This technique was popular, among others, with the Dutch De Stijl movement, which influenced Le Corbusier.

3 Model of Dom-Ino

The Dom-Ino House was a concept for a structure that Le Corbusier designed between 1914 and 1915 in collaboration with the engineer Max Dubois. It was intended to be used in the reconstruction period after World War I to build many houses quickly and cheaply. The name is a play on words: it combines ‘domus’ (Latin for house) and ‘innovation’ while also referring to the game of dominoes.

Le Corbusier envisioned that the housing units could be lined up like dominoes, creating mass-produced row houses. Concrete pillars carry the building’s load, so the interior walls can be freely placed and the design adapted to the residents’ needs. Today, similar construction methods are used worldwide, as they allow for the quick and cost-effective construction of housing.

4 Facade of the Maison-Atelier Ozenfant with "tracés régulateurs"

To design façades, Le Corbusier used geometric guidelines, which he called "regulating lines." These lines helped him create asymmetrical yet harmonious and balanced facades. He also used this technique, which comes from classical theory on proportion, to structure the picture plane in his Purist paintings. This design shows the facade of the house and studio that Le Corbusier built for his friend, the artist Amédée Ozenfant, with whom he developed Purism.

5 Lettre to Madame Meyer

Le Corbusier created this design to convey his concept for a client’s house. Using a series of drawings, he guided her through the building. The design resembles a comic strip or a film. It illustrates Le Corbusier’s concept of a promenade architecturale, or an ‘architectural promenade.’ This term describes the idea that architecture consists of a variety of spatial experiences. The emphasis is no longer on the façade but instead the interior and the spatial experience that unfolds as one moves through the building.

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