Even Le Corbusier made mistakes.

Le Corbusier was a controversial personality. He helped to create the idea of the “hero of architecture”. In 2017 and 2018, his works were considered outstanding contributions to the modern movement, therefore, UNESCO set aside funds for preservation of some of his works. This is no small matter in Architectural history. Some Architecture comes and goes, and no one ever speaks up for it, it is just destroyed and replaced with something shiny and new. It is a prestigious list of those who have received funds. These are the landmarks of mankind.

Le Corbusier was born, Charles Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1966). He was inspired by the Greek temples, the Acropolis and the Parthenon in Athens. He wanted to understand how the Acropolis was developed and how it interacted with nature. Even in his early 20’s he was thinking about the concept of “parataxis” which is likened to a deck of cards being thrown on a table in random placement forming a composition with no apparent center.

He takes inspiration from the Chartreuse of Ema in Florence, Italy (1341). He seems to be obsessed with the monk’s living spaces or cells. He finds that the public spaces are predominant and that the private parts are small and minimal. This old way of thinking gets adapted into his own theory of architectural design known as “Existence minimum”. In the Chartreuse of Ema, they had small private courtyard spaces which were attractive to Le Corbusier.

In 1922 Le Corbusier creates the Immeubles Villas incorporating the smallest amount of square footage for a single person or a family. It was meant to be modest yet feasible and livable. It was not at all like living in a coffin. Today we have a similar fascination with tiny homes for economic savings and environmental footprint restriction. He believed a life could be lived comfortably without excess.

The Immeubles Villas were stacked up on top of each other to create the perfect space for the modern family. Inside each unit was a tiny hanging garden. He was trying to bring nature inside of the building in order to tame it. Further the terrace is carved out of the volume creating a living room with natural sunlight. Genius!

In Poissy, France in 1928-1931 Le Corbusier built Villa Savoye for Pierre and Eugenie Savoye. This is the building of Le Corbusier that I best remember him for. It represents him well because it displays his 5 points of Architecture:

1. Pilotis (pillars)

2. Free plan (open floor plan)

3. Free façade (no objects attached to façade)

4. Ribbon window (rectangular ribbon of window along mid portion of façade)

5. Roof Garden

Yes, Villa Savoye was a masterpiece, and Le Corbusier really was a master architect, but I contend he made at least one big mistake in his career. In 1947-1952 he built Unite d’habitation de Marseille. While he did use many state -of -the-art technologies, genius knowledge, and brilliant ideas, they just were not practical and did not come to fruition.

His idea was to use pre-fabrication of all building materials which would make the materials expensive but the labor inexpensive. At the time that was a great idea. Existence-minimum was also the goal of this project. This was to be a grand scale self-sustaining building with huge pilasters instead of pilotis. It would be a neighborhood unto itself containing a café, a dry cleaner, a post-office, a pharmacy, and a shopping center. There was a school for infants and a gymnasium as well as two pools for the kids. The purpose of the rooftop was to be a communal area making up for the unusable space on the ground.

Nowadays, we have mixed purpose neighborhoods with homes and businesses. Or sometimes we have Tres chic villages with shops underneath the apartment houses. But they are very pricey and elite.

Unite d'habitation de Marseille was an example of a utopia that failed to come true. It was meant to be a feasible way to house many families efficiently and responsibly. The problem is always: UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES. The community could not support its own economy. That was a grave and foolish oversight. Who would work in these stores? Who could afford to shop there if there was never enough cash flow to keep these stores open.

All in all, this was not a success for Le Corbusier, but he did not stop there. This is the lesson for all architects, for all dreamers, for all students, even geniuses can make mistakes with the most thought provoking and original ideas. Many seeds of thought were planted from this very failed project that shaped our present today. And our more recent endeavors have been successful. Further, Le Corbusier did not stop creating and designing. And as I mentioned some of his important work still stands today.