Le Corbusier: The most revered and reviled architect of the 20th century • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] [Music] the threver of modernist architecture. Franco Swiss master Lucier laid the foundations for a new epoch [Music] inspiring some of the world’s most renowned architects from Frank Garry Tad Ando and Oscar Neimire [Music] but disdain from others who saw his vision for urban living as soulless. [Music] on a 60th anniversary of his death. What made Lobusier one of the most admired and detested architects of the 20th century? In Jose, Western France, we find a building unlike any of its neighbors. [Music] I’ve been living at the Misor since February 1956, and this is the fourth apartment that I’ve lived in. [Music] My very first childhood memory was the light thanks to the generous picture windows so dear to Liz. Vison Raj is the second of the five social housing projects Luc would design over the course of his career consisting of 294 apartments originally designed to house 1,500 residents. [Music] I came to the miz ra like most of the first residents completely by chance. My father worked for the postal service. The post office reserved 30 apartments. For us, living here was such a step forward compared to living in the city center. Family, friends, classmates really didn’t understand how we could live in this building. They thought we were strange people. Visias to this day has 55% social housing with a communal rooftop, a nursery, a weekly market, and even a thrift shop for residents with a corridors instead being called streets. We are a vertical village with all its components. For example, all generations, all social classes and nowadays a multicultural society. There was always help if there was a problem, if someone needed looking after were the ones living closest to what Lukar bier had envisioned for his housing units. Born char in 1887, Lobuse grew up in the watchmaking city of in Switzerland, but he would one day be adopted by France as one of its most important cultural figures. [Music] Constructor Jaclio is an architect and expert on Lobuse. I was 18 and I walked into a bookshop. I saw a photo of the convent of Lto and I completely fell in love with this strange project. That’s truly what made me decide to go into architecture. His award-winning meditan project in Marseilles was inspired by the Franco Swiss Masters modernist aesthetic. The architect works first and foremost for the common good before even aesthetics or design. This tptic of city, housing, and architecture is inseparable. Busier’s entire body of work is especially exemplary in the landscape of 20th century architecture. Leva Seavoa outside of Paris is one of Lucier’s most iconic works, but it almost didn’t make it past the blueprint. He had hoped to become an artist. His university professor had other ideas. The legend says that a teacher once told the future Lurusier, “Painting is not for you. You’ll be an architect.” and Lurier said, “But that’s not at all what I wanted to do. I completely disagree.” But he obeyed and we know what came of that. [Music] His ambition would take him from the Swiss countryside to the French capital of Paris. He decided to move to Paris because he felt that in Paris there was a strong academic tradition, especially regarding usmen architecture. What he wanted was to shake all that up because Paris was the center of the artistic avengard. He was completely opposed to what he called corridor streets and slums. Neighborhoods like the Mar were to him the worst horrors because he had a hygienist mindset. So there had to be wide roads, open air and sunlight entering buildings. His dream was to destroy and rebuild large parts of Paris as he outlined in his plaza design project. [Music] Lobuse’s plan did not break ground, but a collaboration of cubist artist Amedon would lead them to create the avantg magazine leuvo. He used lucallier as a pseudonym for the articles he contributed. It will become the blueprint for his revolutionary 1923 book towards an architecture. [Music] He drew parallels between the beauty of the machines of his time and the beauty of the parthonon which was extremely shocking. The book lays out local busier’s design principles, the five points of modern architecture. There are the pilateses or pillars clearly visible at the Villa Seavoir, the roof terrace, the free plan, the free facade, and the final element clearly visible at Villa Seavoir is the long horizontal windows. The end of World War II and the destruction of cities around Europe was a chance for Lobuse to put these theories into practice such as in the French port city of Mass. An architect is born to build and if humans destroy, thank goodness architects are there to rebuild. Not only buildings, but also the morale of populations deprived of their homes. He was one of the architects commissioned to work on reconstruction sites. [Music] The construction of the city, it was as if a UFO had landed on the street. That’s why it was nicknamed Laames Dufa or the mad house. In this building, the worked for the common good through the idea of social housing. The debit or is the only UNESCO heritage site in Marseilles attracting around 70,000 visitors a year. [Music] Unlike his other housing projects, the city has a restaurant, a hotel to name but a few. In 2024, Chanel used a rooftop for its cruise collection show. It became a social media hit, boosting the number of tourists coming to Marseilles and visit Rajas. I studied art history. I learned about Leobusier and it was a wish for me uh for a long time to come here and now today is the day. You can visit it in a fairly subtle way without distorting the place and that let you take part in Lucier’s vision for this social housing project and that’s great. Lobuse received the Legion of Honor City. It marked a turning point in his career. He went from being an outsider to France’s most prominent architect. His fame would take him to Brazil, inspiring renowned architects Oscar Neimire and Lucio Costa in the designing of a new Brazilia. And his largest and most ambitious project, the city of Chandigar in India. But his legacy will be called into question in 2015 on the 50th anniversary of his death. As a monumental retrospective of his work was set to open at the Pompadu Center, three books were published showcasing Lobuse’s darker side. He was a militant fascist. It was as simple as that. That’s why I wrote this book because I could not keep it to myself. He was a man who was active for 20 years in groups whose ideology was very clear. It was hidden. documents were destroyed. The authors claim that Lucier moved in fascist circles with links to France’s World War II collaborationist Vichi regime. They also claimed that personal letters to his mother included anti-semitic comments and sketches. Lucier’s political views are still up for debate a decade on political convictions. Deep down Lucier didn’t have any. It’s kind of a thing that was blown out of proportion from quotes taken out of context and of course from his time in Vichi. He was friends with fascist thinkers but also with communists. [Music] Lobier died in 1965. The world of architecture had changed in the legacy of Lobier. Maybe what we should hope for is that architecture rediscovers the question of the city, the question of housing and of course the question of architecture as a public good. With work scattered across 12 countries, Lucier, the reluctant architect, came to leave an indelible and divisive mark on the world. [Music]

This week, France in Focus is shining a spotlight on the father of modernist architecture, on the 60th anniversary of his death. Franco-Swiss master Le Corbusier laid the foundations for a new epoch, with his revolutionary 1923 book “Towards an Architecture” acting as a blueprint for architects to this day.
##Architecture ##Modernism ##LeCorbusier

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14 comments

  4. The father of modern architecture… where they build building that the inhabitants hate to live and work in. It’s the beginning of architecture for architects.

  6. Thanks to this guy, architecture became an autistic art, for architects, distant or simply indifferent to its surroundings, historical context, etc.

  9. I really wonder was Le Corbusier aware that the complex external ornamentation of buildings was making it way too expensive to build given the stonecutting tools of the day, especially in terms of increasing labor costs. It's still a fairly expensive process for that ornamentation, but modern construction tools may have cut the cost substantially and allowed for a new generation of buildings in inspired by the pre-World War II designs.

  14. I simply walked through Cité Radieuse in Marseille in the late 80s. It was a magical experience. The massive pilotis, the interior streets, and the playful roofscape. It’s a one of a kind building.

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