Biography

1887–1906 La Chaux-de-Fonds

Le Corbusier, born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret on October 6, 1887, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, grows up in a Protestant family. The watch industry defines his social milieu. Le Corbusier’s father, Georges-Edouard Jeanneret, is a watch enameller, and his mother, Marie-Charlotte-Amélie Perret, is a pianist and music teacher. In 1900, he begins his training in the applied arts at the Ecole d’Art in La Chaux-de-Fonds. His teacher is the artist Charles L’Eplattenier (1874–1946). L’Eplattenier facilitates Jeanneret’s first building commission, the Villa Fallet in La Chaux-de-Fonds, which he builds from 1905 to 1907, together with René Chapallaz (1881–1976).

1907–1911 Study Trips through Europe

Between 1907 and 1911, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret undertakes several journeys to study the cultural history of the Mediterranean and the Balkans. From 1908 to 1909, he stays in Vienna. Afterward, he moves to Paris for a short time and works for Auguste Perret (1874–1954), a French pioneer of reinforced concrete construction. During a trip to Germany in 1910, he works briefly for Peter Behrens (1968–1940). He publishes his impressions of Germany's arts and crafts in his first book.

1912–1917 Early Architectural Career

After his travels, Le Corbusier returns to his hometown of La Chaux-de-Fonds. There he teaches in the Nouvelle Section of the École d’Arts, founded by Charles L’Eplattenier, until 1914. He establishes a practice in 1912 and begins to realize his own projects. During this period, he designs several villas, including the Villa Jeanneret-Perret (1911–1912) for his parents. In 1917, he leaves La Chaux-de-Fonds for good and settles in Paris, partly out of disappointment with Switzerland's neutrality during the First World War.

1918–1922 Entrance to the Parisian Avant-Garde

In 1918, Jeanneret meets the well-connected Parisian painter Amédée Ozenfant (1886–1966). Together, the two friends develop Purism. In 1920, Jeanneret uses the pseudonym Le Corbusier the first time in the journal L’Esprit Nouveau, while continuing to work as an artist under the name Jeanneret. In 1922, he meets his future wife, the model Yvonne Gallis (1892–1957). The same year, Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret (1896–1967) establish an architecture firm. In 1924, the firm moves into a space at 35 Rue de Sèvres.

1923–1928 Architecture and Urban Planning

In 1923, Le Corbusier publishes the influential manifesto Vers une architecture (Towards a New Architecture), which sets forth his architectural theories and principles. His projects include the Villa “Le Lac” (1923–1924), a building for his parents on Lake Geneva, and the Frugès workers’ housing development in southern France. In 1925, he presents the radical Plan Voisin, which proposes demolishing central Paris neighborhoods and replacing them with high-rise buildings. In 1928, he begins to plan the Villa Savoye in Poissy, which later becomes an icon of modern architecture.

1929–1938 A Central Figure of Modernism

At the end of the 1920s, Le Corbusier is one of the main champions of modernist architecture. He builds the Tsentrosoyuz (or Centrosoyuz) Building in Moscow (1928–1935), the Cité de Refuge for the Salvation Army in Paris (1929–1933), and the Immeuble Clarté in Geneva (1930–1932), among others. His architecture firm is so successful that it must turn down commissions for the first time. In 1929, at the age of only 42, Le Corbusier publishes the first volume of his catalogue raisonné. In 1930, he receives French citizenship and marries Yvonne Gallis. The global economic crisis that begins in 1929 leads to the cancellation of several building projects, prompting Le Corbusier to focus on his travels and artistic endeavors. In 1938, Le Corbusier has an exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich.

1939–1945 The Second World War

When the Second World War breaks out, Le Corbusier offers his services to the French state. After Nazi Germany occupies most of France, he moves to the unoccupied zone in the south and seeks out contacts with the Vichy government but is unable to secure any commissions. Pierre Jeanneret joins the Résistance and ceases to work with Le Corbusier. Due to a lack of projects, in the early 1940s Le Corbusier concentrates on making art and writing books. Disappointed, he turns his back on Vichy in 1942 and moves back to Paris. From then on, he focuses on reconstruction projects for the post-war period.

1945–1951 The Postwar Period

In 1945, Le Corbusier has the opportunity to design the Unité d’habitation in Marseille, a pioneering residential building that embodies his ideas on modern architecture and collective living. During this period, he also works on plans for reconstruction projects in the cities of La Rochelle and Saint-Dié. His exhibition activity picks up again and he creates sculptures for the first time.

1952–1960 International Success

Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret reestablish contact with one another. In 1951, Le Corbusier is invited by the Indian government to design Chandigarh, the new capital of the state of Punjab. Pierre Jeanneret plays a major role in carrying out Le Corbusier’s vision, taking charge of the detailed planning and construction of the buildings. With his design for the pilgrimage church Notre-Dame-du-Haut in Ronchamp (1950–1955), Le Corbusier breaks with his earlier rationalist principles and instead focuses on organic forms. A little later, Le Corbusier completes La Tourette, a Dominican monastery near Lyon (1956–1960).

1960–1965: Final Years

In the final years of his life, Le Corbusier loses professional and psychological stamina. Nevertheless, he continues to work on various building projects and plans on a smaller scale. He tends to the publication of texts on his work and founds the Fondation Le Corbusier to maintain his legacy. In summer 1965, while at his French vacation house in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, he dies during a swim in the Mediterranean Sea.