The Architectural Lesson of Cubism Diamond; David Into The Great Abyss, 13, LSU, Louisiana, 1996 Le Corbusier;

Ronchamp

 Copyright1996,LouisianaStateUniversity,SchoolofArchitecture. Thisdocumentisforresearchpurposesonly. Allrightsreservedfortheauthor.Nopartofthisdocumentistobereproducedwithoutthe expressedwrittenconsentoftheLSUSchoolofArchitecture.

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LQUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECI

THE ARCHITECTURAL LESSON OF CUBISM

David Diamond

"...the words 'modern architecture' refer to a strategy about building which erupted circa 1922-23, and its characteristic physical gestures are exceptionally easy to surmise. At the level of physique it displayed a visible technophile enthusiasm and a visible descent from the discoveries/inventions of Braque and Picasso" Colin Rowel

non-literal, along the lines of Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky's establishing of two categories of transparency: literal and phenomenal. I will then demonstrate how, in his design for the Pavillion de L'Esprit N o ~ v e a u Le ,~ Corbusier followed a pattern set by Juan Gris, by translating painterly techniques to architectural design. I will conclude with an analysis of his Chapel at Ronchamp. In 1918, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret adopted the name Le Corbusier. He used Le Corbusier for all his subsequent architectural projects. In the context of this essay, I will use the name Jeanneret when referring to his work as a Purist painter and to his collaboration with Amedee Ozenfant on Nouveau, and Le the journal L'Es~rit Corbusier when referring to his architectural projects. Cubism: Analytical & Synthetic

PREFACE
Why must architects understand Cubism?
A briar pipe [Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture (New York, 1984) 269.1

Just as perspective theory and technique remain vital for visual and spatial artists since the Renaissance, so Cubism has remained vital since the time when the modern movement passed from its heroic to its post-modern phase. while many of the political, social and philosophical issues surrounding the early modem movement seem obsolete, the Cubist paradigm for visual perception and representation is not. The physical.characteristics of modern architecture rely on the compositional innovations of Cubism. But as Cubism refers to both an artistic movement involving many participants and to a style, it is necessary to be precise about exactly what aspects of Cubist painting influence exactly what aspects of modem architecture. I will argue that there were specific techniques of representation that were developed and practiced by Juan Gris, and that Le Corbusier, who was familiar with Gris' work, understood and transposed those same techniques to architectural design. I will establish two categories of representation in painting and in architecture: literal and

A few definitionswill help to clarify what follows. Cubism refers to the artistic production of a group of painters, sculptors and poets, mostly working in Paris between 1908 and 1920. The first World War interrupted artistic activity, and marked a shift in stylistic emphasis. The pre-war phase is generally referred to as Analytical Cubism and the post-war phase as Synthetic Cubism.
Analytical Cubism refers to a process of analysis, or the painterly examination of the elements of still-life, portrait or landscape subjects. This analysis is recorded in the finished works. These works, mostly by Braque and Picasso, are characterized by a contrast between representational incidents and the geometric frameworks that both fragment and support those

NATK)NAl CONFERENCE ON M E BEGINNING DESGN S T U D E N T

be said to be contingent upon his experiences with Cubism and Purism. For Le Corbusier and Juan Gris, transposition or translation was the essence of creative activity. Juan Gris' "translations" (Verre etjoumaland Le violon) would be incomplete if all traces of the originals were hidden. His many statements about not breaking away from the Louvre and about the methods of the old masters are clues to an enlightened audience. His references to lngres are not merely arcane personal fetishes; they contribute to the constellation of meanings that reside in his work. For Le Corbusier, the Parthenon, the Pantheon, Certosa, and perhaps Palazzo Davanzati, contribute to the constellation of social and plastic meanings in the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau. The Certosa's pattern of interlocked dwellings and gardens is reinterpreted as a scaffold for the Immeubles-Villas. The furniture of the monk's cell at the Certosa and the stair balcony from Palazzo Davanzati are representational figures deployed within structural and compositional frameworks. Where most modem architects would have made a figure of the structural frame, Le Corbusier conceals the frame, revealing its presence only at key moments, when it is employed to bind together figurative elements.

lows the outline of Le Corbusier's diagram signifying both the day / night cycle, and the collaborative activity of the architect/poet and the engineer (figure 28). Le Corbusier, attaching particular significance to this diagram, used it as a cover illustrationfor a number of publications immediately preceding his work on Ronchamp. This same form is part of one of Le Corbusier's painted recollections of watching a young woman at prayer in a cathedral during a storm (figure 29). Le Corbusier writes:

"1 was impressed by the natural concentration of the simple ritual expressed in the gesture of her hands with fingers interwoven, the low table with candles and the broad forms of her chest and head frankly staring at the invisible object of her faith." j6
Le Corbusier used this diagram as Juan Gris had used the silhouettes of the bather and odalisque. The diagram is used as a loose scaffolding upon which Le Corbusier assembles key figurative elements in his design for Ronchamp. This system of geometric scaffold and figurative event1' is a transformation of the former figure / structure dialectic into one involving spatial and temporal zones. For Christian theology, the diagram of day and night may represent birth and rebirth, fall and redemption, or crucifixion and resurrection: all central themes to Catholic liturgy. The day 1 night diagram may also represent the primeval elements of nature, objects of awe and pagan ritual. The diagram may even represent a synthesis of dialectical forces, linking cosmic and terrestrial events and serving to situate a particular locus within the cosmology of absolute concepts - the four cardinal directions, the horizons, and the path of the sun. At Ronchamp, site of current Christian worship and ancient pagan ritual, Le Corbusier assembled various elements within the church which mark the sun's path, almost as a solar clock. The north facing chapel is illuminated throughout the day by constant and even light, reflected against the north-

27. Le Corbusier, Plan - Chapel a t ' Ronchamp [Le Gorbusier. Roncharno: :' Oeuvre de Notre-Damedu Haut (Germany, 1975) 102.1

Synthesis:

28. Le Corbusier'sdiagram symbolizingthe sun's path and the collaborative activities of the architct and engineer. [Carlo Palauolo and Riccardo Vio, In the Footsteos of Le Corbusier (New York,1991) 195.1

The Chapel at Ronchamp

In the Pavillion de L' Esprit Nouveau and in most of his subsequent projects, Le Corbusier's work expressed a dialectic between rational structure and lyrical figuration. In his chapels at Ronchamp and Firminy Vert, Le Corbusier finally broke with the model of Analytical Cubism by departingfrom the understanding of grid as foil for figurative events. At Ronchamp, there are few regular elements (figure 27). Remnants of an underlying structural grid are completely concealed in the fabric of the built work. While there is a cross inscribed in the pavement, its transverse does not square the main axis. The raised dais, however, fol-

29. Le Corbusier, Woman with Candle,1946 [Richard Ingersoll, A Marriaae of Contours (New York, 1990) 30.1

, -

y + J , '

\ . . -

3-

x. 4

Olagrarn ' A '

Diagram " B "

30. Sun path diagram [by author]

Diagram 'D '

34. Le Corbusier, The signs -drawn for his design for Chandigarh [Le Corbusier, & Corbusier Ouevre Comolete 1946 - 1952 (Zurich Switzerland. 1953) 153.1

31. Le Corbusier, Chapel at Ronchamp interior view of south wall [Le Corbusier, Ronchamo: Oeuvre de Notre-Dame du Haut (Germany, 1975) 30.1

32. Le Corbusier, Chapelat Ronchamp [Le Oeuvre de NotreCorbusier, Roncham~: D a m e l (Germany, 1975) 62.1

ern sky (figure 3 0 ) . Marking thresholds of day and night, the east and west facing chapels are illuminated briefly during the rise and setting of the sun. The south wall, thick, battered, and pierced with pyramidal openings, both shields the interior from raking mid-day light and marks the day-light hours with constantly changing patterns of light on the chapel's 1 ) . The sinuous curve interior (figure 3 of the roof line, seen from the north west, seems to trace the sine curve of the sun's path mapped against the 2 ) . This form rehorizon (figure 3 sembles a diagram which is one in a series that Le Corbusier published as the signs which symbolize the basis of his philosophy. These diagrams were designedfor the great esplanade 4 ) . 1 8 They in Chandigarh (figure 3

prominently feature four versions of the sun's path. Diagram "A" is the sinecurve symbolizing the sun's path mapped across the horizon. It appears in many projects, both as an element in ornamental doors and tapestries, and as. a building section at the Heid, Weber Pavilion (figure 33) and elsewhere. Diagram "B" maps the arcs of summer and winter sun paths, as seen from a fixed point on earth. This diagram is used as the section for Le Corbusier's church at Firminy (figur~ 35). Diagram "C" symbolizes day and night, and also symbolizes the interwoven hands of architect and engineer. This is diagram is reflected in the struc6 ; ture of the Philips Pavilion (figure 3 from the 1957-58Brussels World Exposition, and is inscribed in the plan of Ronchamp's indoor altar platform.

33. Le Corbusier, Heidi Wever Paviiion model (Zurich, 1967) [Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier: Volume 8 des ouevres completes (Zurich Switzerland, 1973) 145.1

35. Le Corbusier, model - Chapelat Fiminy [Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier: Volume 8 des ouevres comoletes (Zurich Switzerland, 1973) 42.1

36. Le Corbusier, Philips Paviiion [ed. Carlc Palauolo and Riccardo Vio In the Footsteo: of Le Corbusier (New York, 1991) 194.1

NATKINAL CONFERENCE ON THE BEGINNING DESIGN STUDEM

Diagram "Do is the same as the third but coiled, joining the ends of the day 1 night cycle in a perpetually revolving hyperbolic paraboloid. This variation of the sun diagram most closely resembles the roof line at Roncharnp, connecting the large chapel tower with the prow that projects across the eastfacing out-door altar. At Zurich, Firminy, Brussels and Ronchamp, Le Corbusier's sun diagrams act as compositional scaffolds for architecturalfigures and events. At Ronchamp, ~e or busier used the sun diagram as an armature for figurative events exactly as Juan Gris had used the odalisque as an armature for still-life subjects. As Stuart Cohen, Steven Hurtt,lg Daniele Pauly 2oand others have noted, the Chapel at Ronchamp also embodies one of Le Corbusier's most constant obsessions, that of the Parthenon and its precinct, the Athenian Acropolis (figures 37 & 38). For Le Corbusier, the Chapelat Ronchamp evokes both temple and temple precinct archetypes. Here, Le Corbusier has assembled elements of his personal cosmology, using them as signs that are rich with meaning and association, and as an itinerary of place memories that embodies sublime plastic sensation and universal architectural truths. To explore the Acropolis metaphor, we may try to see Ronchamp's various architectural figures as being separate, as events encountered along the indoor / outdoor pilgrimage route. The whole of the chapel appears to be broken into parts, joined and separated by its envelope, in a manner similar to

that at the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau. Side altars, confessionals, pews, lectern, altar, and the south wall may all be seen as nearly autonomous events sited against the uneven terrain of the hill-top sanctuary. The floor slopes sharply towards the altar, calling our attention to its unevenness. The vertical elements, as if they were architectural fragments transported from elsewhere, are provisionally joined by pivot doors, allowing visitors to this site to "wander among the ruins." Indeed, most architectural pilgrims encounter Ronchamp as Le Corbusier encountered the Acropolis. Though both sites were designed for sacred worship, they are ultimately examined and understood as universal, cultural icons. If we must imagine Ronchamp and its setting as a temple precinct, the various "temples" and "treasuries" of which its fabric is composed must be examined as well. The easiest of the figures to recognize are the three side chapels with their hooded light canons. Each resembles both a briar pipe, one of Le Corbusier's favorite "object types," and, as oth,ers have noted, and as Le Corbusier admits,. forms derived from the Nimpheum or Sarapeum at Hadrian's Villa. Le Corbusier sketched these structures during his Italian journey i n 1911 and published the sketches together with designs for a chapel at Sainte Baume (figure 39). A second figurative element, the south wall of the chapel, recalls the thick, white-washed masonry from the Mosque of Sidi Brahim at M'azb (figure 40 ) and other Mediterranean sources. 22 The wall's sharp turn and

39. Le Corbusier, sketches of Serapeum,

Hadrian'sVilla (1911) [Le Corbusier. le ~asse B e (Paris, 1987) 70.1

40. Mosque of Sidi Brahim, M'zab, Algeria [Daniele Pauly. "The Chapel of ronchamp as an Example of Le Corbusier's Creative Process," H. Allen Brooks, ed. Le Corbusier (Princeton, New Jersey, 1987)140.]

Le Corbusier, sketch of the 41. 'Philosopher's Wall' at Hadrian's Villa [ Le Corbusier, Towards a NewArchitectur&(New York,1984) 180.1

37. The Parthenon [Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture (New York, 1984) 185.1

38. Le Corbusier, Chapel at Ronchamp sketch [Daniele Pauly, ronchamo: lecture d'unearchitecture (Paris)]

42. Le Corbusier, Chapel at Ronchamp [Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier Ouevrg Com~lete 1952 - 1957 (Zurich Switzerland, 1964) 24.1

43. Plan, Hadrian'sVilla [Le Corbusier,&

wards a New Architecture (New York.1984)

139.1

44.

Le Corbusier, site plan - Chapel at Ronchamp [Le Corbusier, Ronchamo: Oeuvre de Notre-Dame du Haut (Germany. 1975) 103.1

rise toward its eastern promontory create an illusion of deep perspective, evoking another of Le Corbusier's sketches from Hadrian's Villa, that of the remaining wall of the Pecile, or Greek portico (figures 41 & 42). It should be noted that Hadrian designed and built a country estate at Tivoli composed of reconstructed fragments of places and structures that he had visited during his travels and military campaigns. The Serapeum was designed to imitatethe sanctuary of Serapis that stood outside of Alexandria. The Pecile was Hadrian's reconstructionof the Stoa Poikile in Athens, famous in Hadrian's time for its association with the Stoic philosophers. Le Corbusier's use of these elements from Hadrian's Villa is identical to Hadrian's use of them (figures 43 & 4 4 ) . In each instance, place memories and significant architectural fragments aie reconstructed in new settings, serving different purposes. In each instance, the elements have a double identity as function type and reference type. This overlay of meaning is similar to the marriage of contours that Le Corbusier and Gris employed in their paintings, and is an example of Cubist collage slrategy in architectural design.23 Facing the south wall and main entry to the chapel is a second entrance, at the joining of the east and west facing side-chapels. When seen together, the side-chapels resemble an open book, one of Le Corbusier's most frequently used object types (figures 45 - 48). In the place where a block of text would appear, a portal supports the pulpit, where the words of the

apostles are read. The nave space, a sacred ground for prayer and reflection, is framed by the open book and the facing south wall (figure 49). This space establishes a "narrative" within the chapel and symbolizes one of the great dramas of the Catholic faith: the conflict between faith and reason. The actors in this conflict are Le Corbusier's symbols of the open book and the philosopher's wall. They represent the battle between the "word of God" and the words of the philosophers, and the perseverance of Christian faith in the material world. Having examined Ronchamp as temple precinct, we must address those characteristicsof Ronchamp that are temple-like. While many have written about Rondhamp as one of Le Corbusier's many interpretations of the Parthenon, it is useful to trace the contours of this metaphor very closely from the forms of the church. Like the Parthenon, the Chapel at Roncharnp is designed for outdoor worship. The chapel's exterior is both a protective shelter for indoor worship and a backdrop for outdoor worship. The outdoor altar sits on a concrete pedestal, like the peripteral aisles that frame the Parthenon's cella (figures 51 & 52). Curiously, Ronchamp is a "free plan" building with only one column (figure 50). This column frames the northern edge of the outdoor altar, and is one in a series of elements that screen the eastern flank of the chapel. The column also supports a projecting e d g e 1 of the roof. There is an implied symmetry between east and south facing walls, which rise together towards the comer where they meet. The roof line

45. Sketch - Chapel at Ronchamp [by author]

46. Le Corbusier, Chapelat Ronchamp [Le Corbusier, Ronchamo: Oeuvre de NotreDame du Haut (Germany, 1975) 107.1

47. Le Corbusier, Chapelat Ronchamp [Le

Corbusier: Svnthese des Arts (Karlsruhe,

1986) 108.1

48. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, Nature mo~ea/acrucheblanchesurfondbleu, 1920 -formerly in the collectionof Raoul La Roche

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON M E BEGINNING DESIGN STUDEM

projects, sheltering the outdoor altar below. This gable follows the contour of a pediment wrapped around the sharp prow of the south wall. If the south-east corner of the chapel forms a pediment against the sky, then the outdoor altar space occupies the tympanum and its furniture acts as the setting for a sculptural scene of battle and triumph (figure 53). In "Apres le Purisme," Robert Slutzky speculated about the meaning of Cubist still-life objects, as compared with traditional subjects: "Thus pitchers, glasses, bottles, carafes, siphons, pots, dishes, dice, boxes, lanterns, architectural moldings, books, violins, and guitars become actors on the stage of a still-life theater ... Reclining guitars become surrogate odalisques; bottles and jugs double as orators and statesmen... '24

If we compare one of Le Corbusier's photographs of the tympanum of the Parthenon with an edgewise view of Ronchamp's outdoor altar, once again there is an uncanny coincidence of contour (figures 54 & 55). This visual pun, though subtle and perhaps subliminal, is the same sort of game that Juan Gris engaged in when he transformed the works of Corot and Ingres.

gests that they are not accidental. The initial lines of Le Corbusier's early designs for Ronchamp were plastic and intuitive responses to both the physical and historic characteristicsof a site, and to the functional requirements of the congregation. Though the general siting and outlines for the design of the chapel at Ronchamp were determined early on, the figurative elements described above emerge only after an ongoing process of refining the design. This process of refinement marks a conscious effort on the part of Le Corbusier to translate architectural memories and events across material, spatial and temporal boundaries, into the fabric of his design. Le Corbusier impregnatedthe fabric of his works with architectural figures. This was intended by Le Corbusier as an analogue to the harmonious orchestration of space that he found in nature. As he stated in his essay "lneffable Space": "The flower, the plant, the tree [and] the mountain stand forth, existing in a setting. If they one day command attention because of their satisfying and independent forms, it is because they are seen to be isohted from their context and extending influences all around them." 25 I have attempted to illustrate how the characteristics of literal and non-literal representationfunction in painting and in architecture. My goal has been that of demonstrating how Le Corbusier's architectural development was influenced by his familiarity with the paintings of Juan Gris and by his own experiences as a Purist painter. These

51. The ParthenonILe Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture (New York, 1984) 194.1

Conclusion
The tympanum figure may be subtle and somewhat obscure. While I can not prove that this or other figurative elements at Ronchamp were premeditated, their legibility and thematic consistency within this project and throughout Le Corbusier's work sug-

52. Le Corbusier, Chapel at Ronchamp [Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier Ouevre Cornolete 1952- 1957 (Zurich Switzerland, 0 . 1 1964)3

49. Le Corbusier, Chapel at Ronchamp [Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier Ouevre Cornolete 1952 - 1957 (Zurich Switzerland, 1964)33.1

50. Le Corbusier, ChapelatRonchamp-detail [by author]

53. Le Corbusier, Chapel at Ronchamp [Le Corbusier, Roncharno: Oeuvre de NotreDame du Haut (Germany, 1975) 60.1

experiences led to Le Corbusier's employment of archetypal forms in a poetic rather than in a literal manner. Le Corbusier's figurative elements are not evident upon first inspection of his works. They emerge only after prolonged exposure to a given work. The use of non-literal figuration is central to Le Corbusier's method of architectural design, as it was for Juan Gris in painting; Le Corbusier's means for the application of non-literal figuration were based on translating painterly techniques into the practice of architecture. In the words of Richard lngersoll in his Marriaae of Contours,"...critics and architects generally treat [Le Corbusier's artistic production] as an amusing digression. Ironically, it is quite possible to appreciate the art works independentlyof Le Corbusier's architecture, but what is not possible is to understand his architecture separately from his art." 26 The following excerpt, from Le Corbusier's "Ineffable Space" seems to have been written specifically about his Chapel at Ronchamp: "Without making undue claims, I may say something about the 'magnification' of space that some of the artists of my generation attempted around 1910, during the wonderfully creative flights of cubism. They spoke of the fourth dimension with intuition and clairvoyance. A life devoted to art, and especially to a search after harmony, has enabled me, in my turn, to observe the same phenomenon through the practice of three arts: architecture, sculpture and painting. "The fourth dimension is the moment of limitless escape evoked by an exceptionally just consonance of the plastic means employed. "It is not the effect of the subject chosen; it is a victory of proportion in everything - the anatomy of the work as well as the carrying out of the artist's intentions whether consciously controlled or not. Achieved or unachieved, these intentions are always existent

and are rooted in intuition, that miraculous catalyst of acquired, assimilated, even forgotten wisdom. In a complete and successful work there are hidden masses of implications, a veritable world which reveals itself to those whom it may concern, which means: to those who deserve it. "Then a boundless depth opens up, effaces the walls, drives away contingent presences, accomplishes the ' miracle of ineffable space." 2

54. Le Corbusier, Chapelat Ronchamp [by

author]

Notes:

55. The Parthenon - detail [Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture (New York, 1984) 207.1

I studied with Robert Slutzky at The Cooper Union in the mid- 1970's. I am indebted.to him for many of my formative conceptions concerning the relationships between painting and architecture. I would call particu/ar attention to four of his critical studies: the two "Transparency" essays, coauthored by Slutzky and Colin Rowe; "Aqueous Humor" and "Apres le Purisme," written by Slutzky alone. I .attended the history lectures of Colin Rowe at Cornell in the late 1970's. Particularly significant for me are three of his critical works: "The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa," "La Tourette," and @ laae City, the last of which was coauthored by Rowe and Fred Koetter. I owe special thanks to John Hejduk, who led me to the works of Juan Gris and Ingres, and in whose studio these works were discussed, as were the architectural works of Le Corbusier. Special thanks to Dr. James Cascaito for his assistance in editing this text.

NATIONAL CONFERENCEON THE BEGINNING DESIGN STUDENT

1. Colin Rowe, The Architecture of Good Intentions (London, 1994) 16. 2. The titles of architectural projects and of paintings and works of sculpture will be found in italics throughout this study; the titles of essays will be found in quotation marks. Book titles will be underlined. 3. Gyorgy Kepes, Lanauaae of Vision (Chicago. 1964) 77. 4. Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, "Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal," Persoecta 8: The Yale Architectural Journal (1963). 5. Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, "Transparency: Literal and Phenom1 , " Persoecta 14: The Yale enal ... Part 1 Architectural Journal (1971): 287 301.
6. Richard Ingersoll, A Marriaae of Contours (New York, 1990) 8.

sures in the Certosa and in the Pavilion. 13. Charles Jenks, Le Corbusier and the Traaic View of Architecture (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1973) 49. 14. The Palauo Davanzati was formerly a nobleman's house and is currently the Museum of the Antique Florentine House. During the early part of this century, it was a private museum of antiquities. 15. In my same conversation with Jonathan Block Friedman (see note 12 above), Friedman interpreted Le Corbusier's balcony form in this way. 16. Le Corbusier in Richard lngersoll, A Marriaae of Contours (New York, 1990) 12. lngersoll added: (same page): "Though Le Corbusier mentioned several sources, such as a crab shell found on a Long Island beach, he never confessed to this drawing as a direct source. The obsessive pursuit of this image, however, seen also in [other paintings in this series], is an essay on the mystery both of women and of religious faith and must have fueled his imagination in the church design." 17. Structure and event are terms that derive from Claude Levi-Strauss' The Savaae Mind, and were used by Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter in their Collaae C i . (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1978). 18. Le Corbusier writes: "One evening, on the lawn outside the RestHouse of Chandigarh, where Jane Drew, Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry and Le Corbusier have their base, Jane Drew said: Le Corbusier, you should set up in the heart of the Capitol the signs which symbolise the basis of your philosophy and by which you arrived at your understanding of the art of city design. These signs should be known - they are the key to the creation of Chandigarh." Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier: Oeuvre comolete 1946 - 1952 (Zurich, Switzerland, 1953) 153. 19. Stuart Cohen and Steven Hurtt,

"The Pilgrimage Chapel at Ronchamp: Its Architectonic Structure and Typological Antecedents," Oo~ositions19 1 (Winter l Spring 1980): 142 -

20. Daniele Pauly, "The Chapel of Ronchamp as an Example of Le Corbusier's Creative Process," in H. Allen Brooks, ed., Le Corbusier (Princeton, New Jersey, 1987) 127 140. 21. In my conversation with Friedman (see notes 12 and 15 above), he remarked on the similarity between Le Corbusier's sketches of the Serapeum of Hadrian's Villa and the form of a briar pipe. 22. Daniele Pauly, "The Chapel of Ronchamp as an Example of Le Corbusier's Creative Process," in H. Allen Brooks, ed., Le Corbusier (Princeton, New Jersey, 1987) 140. 23. For a detailed discussion of collage strategies in architectural design and urban design see Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, Collaae City (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1978). 24. Robert Slutzky, "Apres le Purisme," Assemblaae 4 (October 1987): 94 - 101. 25. Le Corbusier, "Ineffable Space," in his New World Of Soace (New York, 1948). 26. Richard Ingersoll, A Marriaae of Contours (New York, 1990) 1. 27. Le Corbusier, "Ineffable Space," in his New World Of Soace (New York, 1948).
'
kt

7. Amedee Ozenfant and CharlesEdouard Jeanneret, "On The Plastic," L'Esorit Nouveau. No. 1. For Anthony Eardly's English translation see Jonathan -BlockFriedman, Creation in S~ace ( Dubuque, Iowa, 1989) 30 32.

8. Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Juan Gris: His Life and Work (New York, 1968) 213 (note 135). 9. Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Juan Gris: His Life and Work (New York, 1968) 193. 10. Giuliano Gresleri discussed the Parthenon and the Pantheon as prototypes for the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau in the lectures he gave to my New York institute of Technology students at the Pavilion in June 1993 and June 94. 11. Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture (London, 1984). 12. Jonathan Block Friedman, in a recent conversation with me, pointed out the aspects of similarity between the opportunities for views and expo-

NATKINAL CONFERENCE ON THE BEGINNING DESGN S T U D E N T

incidents (figure 1). Frequently, the fragmented subjects are portrayed as if seen from many view points, together. Within the larger context of shallow, layered Cartesian space, episodes of perspective illusion are fragmentary and de-emphasized. Synthetic Cubism refers to a process of synthesis, or the painterly reconstruction of a subject after its fragmentation or analysis. Building on the innovations of collage, including Picasso's Guitar sculpture of 1912, Synthetic Cubism is characterized by a shift in emphasis away from the dialectic between framework and visual ) . In Synthetic Cubincident (figure 2 ism, it is as if the representational fragments of Analytical Cubism were able to stand on their own, supporting themselves without the braces of an articulated scaffolding. The new dialectic is between two and three-dimensional interpretations of surface. Another manifestation of Synthetic Cubism lies in the appearance of reciprocal exchange between solid and void, surface and volume, figure and field. Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal Literal transparency defines a material quality of surfaces as being pervi,ous to light and view. Phenomenal transparency describes the overall organization or structure of a composition and is characterized by a dense layering of orthogonal spatial zones. The concept of phenomenal transparency was inspired by Kepes' definition: "If one sees two or more figures partly overlapping one another, and each of them claims for itself the common overlapped part, then one is confronted with a contradiction of spatial dimensions. To resolve this contradiction one must assume the presence of a new optical quality. The figures are endowed with,transparency; that is, they are able to interpenetrate without an optical destruction of each other. Transparency however implies more than an optical characteristic; it implies a broader spatial order."

INTRODUCTION Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky were the first to examine how Cubist painterly devices operate in painting and in architecture. In Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal," they established the criteria for recognizing the qualities of phenomenal or spatial transparency. Their second essay, 'Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal... Part 1 1 , " demonstrated how an architecturai framework may play a figural role in composition, facilitating topographic strategies and establishing multiple relationships between groups of architectural members and ornament in a way that is similar to the figural and spatial ambiguity characteristic of Cubist and Purist still lifes. These two essays describe the compositional frameworks that support the analyzed and synthesized material of Cubist figuration. The question of figuration, or representation, bears further critical examination for a deeper understanding of Cubist and Purist painting and the implications therein for the development of Le Corbusier's architec, tural strategies. .
Le Corbusier and Purist Paris

:
'

1. Georges Braque Le gueridon. 1911formerly in the collection of Raoul La Roche

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret moved to Paris in 1917 where he met Amedee Ozenfant. Through Ozenfant, Jeanneret became acquaintedwith the Cubist circle of artists and their works. In their collaborative journal, CEs~rit Nouveau, published between 1920 and 1925, Jeanneret and Ozenfant published articles featuring the theo- . ries and works of Picasso, Juan Gris, Leger, and others. Ozenfant and Jeanneret also assembled a collection of works by these artists for Raoul La Roche, who would soon commission Jeanneret / Le Corbusier to design for him a house containing a gallery for his collection. This collection included at least twelve of Juan Gris' best paintings executed between 1916 and 1918, and a number of Purist works by Ozenfant and Jeanneret. Before he arrived in Paris, Jeanneret had completed a handful of buildings in his home town, La Chaux-de-Fonds.

'

;.
2. Juan Gris Bouteille. ioumal etcomootier. I 915 - formerly in the collection of ~ i o L= u ~

Roche [ed. Ulrike Jehle-Schulte Strathaus, Le Corbusier und Raoul La Roche (Basel, Switzerland, 1987)64.1

STATE UNIVERSIT( SCHOOL OF

They were in a progressive vernacular style and were omitted from his Ouevre comolete. Between 1910 and

"And yet after a century of sensibility, and prior to certain CUBISTS, only

might have escaped our notice. Between 1920 and 1925, Le Corbusier evolved an approach to architectural design that continued to be fruitful throughout his long career. His artistic and architectural growth stemmed directly from his deep understanding of Cubism, especially the works of Juan Gris, and his own experiences as a Purist painter.

THE LESSON OF CUBISM

Juan Gris, Le Corbusier & L ' E s ~ r i t Nouveau
3. Corot Woman with a Mandolin, 1865 [James Thrall Soby, Juan Gris (Ipswitch, England, 1958)68.1

Juan Gris arrived in Paris in 1906 and soon connected with Picasso and his Cubist circle. Though he began as a graphic artist, by 1911 he was exploring Cubism along with Picasso, Braque, and Leger. During World War I, Braque and Leger were mobilized, leaving Picasso and Gris as the only members of this group practicing during the 1914 , - 1918 war. After the war, some believed that the Cubist experiment was over or had failed. Ozenfant and Jeanneret criticized Cubist art in the essay "Apres le cubisme," attacking it on the following grounds: "1) it had become nonrepresentational; 2) it had become obscure; 3) it used inappropriate titles; and 4) it made false claims to approximating the fourth dimension.." "Apres le cubisme" notwithstanding, the editors of L'Esorit Nouveau continued to promote the work of a select group of Cubist painters (Picasso, Gris, and Leger). They did so either because this group had not, in retrospect, transgressed the "rules" of good painting as badly as their followers, or because they saw a way to legitimize and promote Purism as the next avantgarde. But Purism, in competition with Dada and Surrealism, was more tradition bound. The following Purist tract is excerpted from "On the Plastic," published in L'Esorit Nouveau in 1920:

into account. Why? As we come to know the lives of these artists and as we consider their works, we note the dogged tenaciousness that they have brought to bear to achieve this foundation. Their foundation is identical, as it is identical to that of POUSSIN, of CHARDIN or of RAPHAEL. We are compelled to conclude that all the recent movements based on the glorification of sensibility, on the liberation of the individual and his detachment from contingencies, from the "tyrannical" conditions of the metier (composition, execution) collapse lamentably one after the other. This is because they had renounced, or been blind to the physics of art. The painters today would appear to seek only to elude the laws of painting, and architects the laws of architecture. Physical and terrestrial man seeks to evade the constant conditions of nature, and that is rather ridiculous." Le Corbusier and Ozenfant were not alone in adhering to the "laws of painting and architecture." The following is excerpted from one of Juan Gris' letters to his principal dealer, DanielHenry Kahnweiler: "...There seems to be no reason why one should not pinch Chardin's technique without taking over the appearance of his pictures or his conception of reality. Those who believe in abstract painting are like weavers who think they can produce a material with only one set of threads and forget that there has to be another set to hold these together. Where there is no attempt at plasticity how can you control representational liberties? And where there is no concern for reality how can you limit and unite plastic liberties?" The following excerpt, written by Juan Gris, was also published in the pages of L'Esorit Nouveau: "Though in my system I may depart

'

4.

Juan Gris Woman with a Mandolin (after Corot), 1916 - formerly in the collection of Raoul La Roche [ed. Uirike Jehle-Schulte Strathaus, Le Corbusier und Raoul La Roche (Basel.Switzerland, 1987) 69.1

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON M E BEGINNING DESGNS T U D E N T

greatly from any form of idealistic or naturalistic art, in practice I do not want to break away from the Louvre. Mine is the method of all times, the method used by the old masters: there are technical means and they remain constant." Representation: Literal a n d Non-literal in t h e Work of Leger & J u a n Gris
If we turn our attention to some of Juan Gris' works from 1916 to 1918, we may better understand his interest in the old masters. In 1916, Gris painted Woman with a Mandolin (after Corot) (figures 3 & 4). Both Gris' and Corot's paintings clearly depict a s e a t e d woman with a stringed instrument. While Gris borrowed his subject from Corot, h e was not interested in renFiering solid, textured figures in threedimensional space. What is instrucs how Gris s a w Corot, and how tive i Gris used what h e saw. Gris delights in the alliteration of cutviinear forms at the center of the panel - the body of the mandolin, the woman's ample upper arm, the swell of her breasts. In his own painting, Gris offers us both a multiplicity of views and a form of "color separation" where clues relating to form a r e strangely disjointed. Contour lines exceed the color fields they bind, volume rendering appears arbitrary and disassociated from underlying forms. If Picasso and Braque analyzed the constituent parts of their sitters and still lifes, Gris analyzed the constituent parts of visual perception. Gris borrowed a great deal from Corot: his subject, his geometric scaffolding, and the particular details of a silhouette. But Gris took compositional liberties. The central zone of his panel depicts an area where sitter and her instrument merge, their contours spilling into one another, their anatomies mutually interdependent, linked by plastic means. In this painting, G r i moved away from literal figuration. This pair of paintings, by Corot and Gris, may act as a Cubist "Rosetta Stone," identifying a pattern after which other translations of Cubist and Purist technique are possible.

To better understand Gris' movement away from literal figuration, we may compare Gris' work with two paintings by Leger which were inspired by Ingres. In a n open letter, also published in I 'Esorit Nouveau, Fernand Leger acknowledged lngres a s a source of form in his work. In Legrand dejeunerof 1921 (figure 5), Leger's tubular figures recline in an exotic modernist spa. While this composition could have been entirely of Leger's invention, I suspect that he reworked Ingres' Le bain turc of 1863 (figure 6). In the earlier painting, lngres had recreated a harem scene where seated and reclining figures ebb and flow in a s e a of erotic luxury. In the foreground, s a small still life. A bather with there i s rendered in more vivid a mandolin i fleshtone than that of her companions. While s h e s e e m s to belong t o this group of odalisques, the others recede from-her into a sort of classical sculptural frieze, blurring the distinction between where the figures end and the architectural ground begins. Leger's Le grand dejeuner also features a still life in the center foreground, and again a bather in more vivid fleshtone than that of her comfianions. Rather than holding an instrument, s h e balances a teacup upon its saucer atop a n open book. Leger's women are placed in a setting that i s part sauna, part plumbing supply house and part decorative a r t s showroom. While Leger a s sembles a framework of figurative geometric elements for his geometric cons little ambiguity becubines, there i tween figures and grounds. Excepting only the areas where the shaded volumes of his three women a r e adjacent to similarly shaded drapery or s no difficulty in sepacushions, there i rating foreground, middleground and background from each other, or figures from their architectural interior. Leger's figures, in their clinical spa, a r e more modest than those of Ingres, whose figures embrace in an erotic confusion of limbs. In the areas most likely to offer Cubist illusion, Leger resolves ambiguity by contrasting cutvlinear figures against straightlinear grounds. Leqer - is more literal than Gris in his use of figurative elements. Figures and grounds remain distinct; the set-

5. FernandLeger Legmddejemec

6. J.A. D.

lngres Le bain turc, 1863

7 . Fernand

Leger

La baigneuse, 1931

tings are often described with clear foreground, middle ground, and background, and his citations from Le bain turc are direct. In his La baigneuseof 1931 (figure 7), Leger once again used the Le bain turc as a model. By this time, Leger had substituted a Surrealist landscape for his earlier modemist interior.' Leger's bather is an unmistakable amalgam of two figures from Ingres' Le bain turc. Though Leger tends towards integrating figure and ground, his woman in the dunes remains isolated, apart from her surroundings, less integrated than Ingres' bather (in Le bain turc) who finds herself in a sea of concubines. Leger opts for spatial clarity and remains literal in his use of figures. Juan Gris had already demonstrated nonliteral figuration in his Woman With Mandolin (after Corot). In the center of this painting, Gris succeeded at translating the same sense of ambiguity, the confusion of limbs, that we found among Ingres' figures. It is primarily Gris' development of non-literal figuration that nourishes the development of Synthetic Cubism and serves as a paradigm for Le Corbusier's Purist aesthetic and his architectural development. Two additional paintings by Gris will further illustrate his use of non-literal figuration. After Woman With Mandolin (after Corot), Gris returned to his familiar repertoire of still-life objects. Gris, like Leger, struggled with questions of interpretation and representation. Though Cubism for Gris was an art of representation, he always undermined representational elements by commingling them with their settings. If Leger used Le bain turc for inspiration, then Gris must have laid earlier claim .to Ingres' Baigneuse de Valpin~on(figure 10) and La Grande Odalisque (figure 8). If we compare Gris' Verre et journal (figure 9) with La Grande Odalisque, Gris seems to have borrowed both his geometric substructure (the crossing diagonals of the panel) and his palette from Ingres. Further attention reveals a

8. J.A.D. lngres La GrandOdaIisque, 1814 [ed. Debra Edelstein, In Pursuit of Perfecction: J.-A.-D. Inares (Bloornington, Indiana, 1983) 126.1

9. Juan Gris Verre et journal, 1917 -for-

merly in the collection of Raoul La Roche [ed.

UlrikeJehle-SchulteStrathaus, Le Corbusier und Raoul La Roche (Basel, Switzerland, 1987) 65.1

similar piling up of figures and elements towards the center, which in turn buckles, folding inward, as the odalisque's knees dig into the cushions of her-divan. A leap of faith may still be required to accept that the sensuous remnants of an analyzed still life signify La Grande Odalisque in any direct way. But the particulars of that still life suddenly appear less arbitrary, and begin to loosen from the rigid diagonal symmetry of the panel. Two rendered balls evoke either puffs of smoke or genitalia, until we look at Ingres' Grande Odalisque and see that these forms are breasts. The suggestive concavities and convexities of Verre etjournalmirror the right foot and buttocks of the Odalisque. The newspaper fragment "LE" echoes the jeweled belt beneath the reclining figure and the fragment "ALn seems to follow the curtain folding into depth, or to follow the outstretched legs of the Odalisque seen in plan. If Gris borrowed liberally from Corot, he "stole" from Ingres. In a series of paintings executed between 1916 and 1920, Gris used the Grande Odalisque format as a scaffold for his still-life subjects. Unlike Leger, Gris' use of Ingres' figures is not literal. The Odalisque is transformed through some secular transubstantiation, where "flesh and blood" are turned into "bread and wine." In another series, Gris used a vertical format, turning the reclining guitar I odalisque into a seated violin I bather. Le violon of 1916 (figure 11) is drawn with crisp precision, and with a palette limited to black, gray, white, and a woody brown-orange. There is almost . no modeling. The picture is organized about an orthogonal gridding that oscillates between readings of four squares and nine squares, further animated by a pair of off-center diagonals. As in Verre et journal, there is a tension between classical foreground / middle ground I background disposition, surface geometry and coloration. There is a slippage between figural objects (violin, bow, sheet music), and figural pigment (the brown-orange band that cuts through each spatial layer). When compared with the Louvre's

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ME BEGNNNG DESiGN STUDEM

Baigneuse de Valpinqon, also by Ingres, many of Gris' details fall into place, as a tit for tat parody of the classic figure.
We may speculate about Gris' motives. His production quotas may have been too onerous. Cribbing from the old masters may have been expedient. Or it may have been a manifestation of insider information current in Cubist and Purist circles. Gris may have been testing his dealer and his audience. Regardless of his motives, he succeeded at expanding and enriching the modernist repertory, and at nourishing Cubist painting when the benefits of previous innovations seemed exhausted. At some level, Jeanneret understood what Gris had achieved, as is evidenced by his own use of non-literalfiguration and its subsequent impact on his architecture.

Verre et journal and Le violon were among twelve paintings by Juan Gris in the collection assembled by Jeanneret and Ozenfant for Raoul La Roche. This series, typified by these two paintings, representeda new paradigm in painting. The classical nude figure, centerpiece of the Renaissance tradition, was reinterpreted in a modernist idiom. Just as Raphael, in his School of Athens (figure 12) dressed his contemporaries as Greek philosophers, Juan Gris dressed oriental odalisques as soda siphons and violins. Juan Gris' technique became a model for translating the classical canon into the modern; for Le Corbusier, this technique would become a model for translating the essence of classical architecture without the orders. THE ARCHITECTURAL LESSON OF CUBISM Le Corbusier & the Pavillion de

"object types." The figures are: a cubelike apartment unit, from the 1922 Immeubles- Villas, and a drum-like, illusionistic diorama, advertising Le Corbusier's Plan Voisin for Paris. In the Pavilion, the diorama sits within a double-shelled rotunda, open along one axis to illusionistic renderings of the Plan Voisin. The dwelling unit and the diorama are autonomous events that are linked by entry and circulation passages, light cannons, and plastic means, wedding their separate parts and functions. Giuliano Gresleri has noted that the cube and cylinder are iconic forms that, for Le Corbusier, evoke particular architectural archetypes, the Parthenon and Pantheon.lo -rhese are forms that Le Corbusier referenced in his critical writings, especially in Towards a New Architecture.ll The Pavilion is therefore a kind of hybrid that joins together the two great archetypal monuments of western architecture. The cube and cylinder also represent the two archetypal organizing strategies: the Cartesian grid, preferred by the Purist painters, and concentric / radial geometries, upon which perspective geometry relies. The subjects for Gris' Cubist still lifes and Jeanneret's Purist still lifes were manufactured objects and musical instruments, employed for their anthropomorphic and allegorical qualities. Jeanneret used a geometric underlay to generate a lattice of aligned edges and shared contours that fragment his subjects. From the transparent overlay of forms he fused new clusters of elements, merging separate identities into new hybrid elements. In the Pavillion de L' Esprit Nouveau, the cube and drum are joined in like manner. In plan, a regular structural grid is employed, similar to that used in nearly all of Le Corbusier's residential projects from the twenties (figure 14). But surprisingly, within the fabric of Le ~orbusier's aichitecture, if columns are expressed at all, the grid frequently IS not. Individual structural members may be revealed for plastic effect, but perception of a structural system is suppressed. It is here that Le departs from the modernist's rationalist rhetoric, his own

10. J.A.D. lngres La Baigneuse de ValpjnPn, 1808 fed. Debra Edelstein,ln Pursuit of Perfecction: J.-A.-D. lnares (Bloomington, Indiana. I9831 l20.1
,

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11. Juan Gris Le violon, 1916 - formerly in

the collectionof Raoul La Roche [ed. Ulrike -

Jehle-SchulteStrathaus, Le Corbusier und Raoul La Roche (Basel, Switzerland, 19B7)

64.1

a
q

L'Esprit Nouveau
Le Corbusier designed the 1925 Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau in a manner similar to the way in which he designed his Purist still lifes(figure 13). The Pavilion is composed of discrete architectural figures, similar to Purist

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12. Raphael School of Athens, 1 509 [ed. Jean Leymarie, Who Was Raphael? (Geneva, 967)70.]

m r r f i 1
13. Le Corbusier, Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau (Paris, 1925) [Giuliano Gresleri, L'EsoritNouveau (Milano,1979)94.1

included, and gives priority to plastic effect. For Le Corbusier, the structural grid acts in the same manner as the geometric underlays in his Purist paintings. The structural framework, in both instances, is revealed at significant moments as the ligature joining manufactured artifacts or architectural fragments. The allusive fragments operate at many scales, simultaneously, and their use reveals Le Corbusier's painterly techniques transposed to architecture. At the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau, Le Corbusier employed figurative strategies at a variety of scales including that of the ensemble (cube and cylinder), that of the rooms within the apartment, and that of the furniture. Though the cube and cylinder may refer to the Parthenon and Pantheon archetypes, other models operate at more intimate scales. It is well known that the Certosa at Ema was the primary social and formal model for the lmmeubles- Villas project (figure 15). The interlock of an "L" shaped unit with a private outdoor garden offered a variety of views and exposures within an essentially party wall plan, where each unit had just one outside exposure.12 It may be suggested that the Certosa model is the primary figure that resides in the scaffolding of the structural grid. The grid also acts as a scaffolding for a number of object / artifacts of Florentine derivation. Following the Certosa model, Le Corbusier readapted the spare furnishings from a typical monk's cell for use in the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau. The furnishings derived from the Certosa include the storage

niche in the main room, the front panel of which folds down to form a study desk, and an arch-shaped niche in the loggia, which likely held a devotional figure (figures 16 & 17). These elements are reinterpreted as fixed patio furniture, cast in place as table and shelf. Almost surreal in their figural quality, these artifacts appear as traces of life within the dwelling (figure 19). Arrayed along the terrace wall, they link indoor and outdoor living rooms in a manner that would connect objects in a Purist still life. The transposition of these elements to mass housing evokes the Certosa's presence in format, ritual, and detail. At the edge of the master bedroom, another parapet overlooks the living room and large window to the exterior (figure 20). The balcony is screened, as is the outdoor terrace, with sliding metal panels, partly revealing and partly concealing private activities from more public spaces (figure 18). Here, Le Corbusier employs a nesting of hierarchies where the relationship between individual and group, between enclosure and openness, between privacy an'd exposure is repeated and adjusted to reflect a range of complex social and plastic relationships. The Certosa suggested a model for an ideal society, one in which individual, family, and community were each given explicit and interrelated spaces. The benefits enjoyed from mass production and distributed to residents in the form of large, spatially developed apartments, followed another model. Charles Jenks, in Le Corbusier and the Traaic View of Architecture,13cites the

14. Le Corbusier, Plan - Pavillionde L'Esprit Nouveau (Paris, 1925) [Le Corbusier, & Corbusier Ouevre Com~lete 1910 - 1929 (ZurichSwitzerland, 1964)100.1

15. Le Corbusier's drawing of a monk's cell from the Cerfosa di Ema [Le Corbusier. le passe a reaction ~oetiaue (Paris, 1987)80.1

16. Cerfosa di Ema, detail from a monk's a reaction cell [Le Corbusier. le ~asse poetiaue (Paris, 1987) 81.]

17. Cerfosa di Ema, detail of monk's cell [GiulianoGresleri, L'Esprit Nouveau (Milano, 1979)61.]

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE BEGINNINGDESIGN STUDEM

21. Restaurant Legendre [Charles Jenks, Le Corbusier and the Traaic View of Architecture (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1973) 49.1

18. Le Corbusier, Pavillion de L'Esprit Noweau (Paris, 1925) [Stanislausvon Moos, L' Esprit Nouveau: Le Corbusier und die lndustrie 1920 - 1925 (Berlin. 1987) 134.1 Paris restaurant Legendre, where Jeanneret and Ozenfant frequently lunched, as the model for the balcony used in the Maison Citrohan, which was a precedent for the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau (figure 21). While the double-height living area in the Irnmeubles-Villas unit is similar to that of the Maison Citrohan, the balcony at the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau is different. At the Restaurant Legendre, the balcony mezzanine is distinct from the dining area that flows underneath. The balcony at the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau was modified from the version published in the Immeubles-W/as project. In the earlier version, the balcony was nearly closed from the living room below (figure 22.). In the balcony wall there was a small, traditional, punched-window, unusual in Le Corbusier's work. Beneath it, facing the living room, there was a somewhat kitsch window box. While this element may have been used to suggest the indoor / outdoor character of the living room, and a cozy domesticity that the grand piano and wall mounted still-life objects failed to arouse, it also sdered the bedroom from the spatial continuum that is manifest in the later Pavilion. At the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau, in the zone behind the balcony parapet, space appears denser. The stacked bedroom and dining room belong to a zone of simple domestic activities, each sub-space lit by a similar horizontal window, overlooking the private terrace. On the wall between terrace and living room, up to the height of the balcony, Le Corbusier partly re-

22. Le Corbusier's sketch - lmmeubles-Vile Corbusier Ouevre /as [Le Corbusier, C com~lete 1910 - 1929 (Zurich Switzerland, 1964)42.1

19. Le Corbusier Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau (Reconstructedin Bologna, 1977) [GiulianoGresleri, L'Es~ritNoweau (Milano, 1979) 157.1

20. Le corbusier Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau (Reconstructed in Bologna, 1977) [Giuliano Gresleri, L'Es~rit Nouveau (Milano, 1979) 157.1

23. Section - Palauo Davanzati

24. Stair balcony - Palauo Davanzati [pho-

tograph by author]

veals the structural system by recessing and coloring the panels between expressed vertical members. The facing wall is smooth. The terrace wall articulates the division of a doubleheight wall into single-height bands and structural bays. The facing wall, undivided, articulates the whole. It relates to the double-height living room and the huge, industrial-sash studio window behind the viewer. In this manner, these two facing walls split, one articulating the parts, the other binding them together in a perceivable whole. Within the Pavilion both readings have presence, suggesting a spatial or phenomenal transparency of intersecting volumes. The Palazzo Davanzati14, another Florentine antecedent, may have served as inspiration for this development in the balcony parapet. Within the palazzo, a switch-back stair gives access from the public loggia and courtyard at street level to the upper four levels of the house (figure 23). The main living levels are the second and third, requiring greater ceiling heights than the levels above, and less than that of the public street level. Therefore, the flight of stairs shortens as one ascends. At grade level, a stone stair and landings occupy two spatial zones, that of the central court and that of a stack of secondary spaces accessed from the main living salon at each level. On levels two and three, the stair runs fill the central section and the landings penetrate into these tall secondary rooms. Ceiling height is sufficient for the landing to serve as a balcony overlooking the room (figures 24 & 25). Though I have no evidence that such a device existed, one may easily imagine a curtain or panel that shielded these servant spaces from the gaze of family members and visitors to the Palazzo, as Le Corbusier's sliding metal panels screen the bed room and terrace at the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau. Furthermore, there is a stair riser in the center of the balcony / landing at the palazzo. This required a corresponding step-up in the parapet, creating the same curious silhouette that is evident at the Pavillion de L'Esprit

Nouveau. I believe that the projecting stair landing 1 balcony at the entry hall in the Maison La Roche was Le Corbusier's first use of the Davanzati stair, where its processional role was the same, though its form was simplified (figure 26). This form, apart from its processional role, may play a key part in Le Corbusier's repertory of forms. For Le Corbusier, the cubic balcony signified the most minimal space in the minimal house,15a surrogate individual used to articulate a telescoping hierarchy of scales. Within this setting, several elements generate a profusion or confusion of scales and imbue Le Corbusier's work with a sensation of Cubist illusion: the small projecting shelf (for exhibiting a miniature figurative Cubist sculpture), the outdoor living room balcony, the bedroom balcony, and the terrace parapet. At the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau, the stepped parapet and its protruding shelf also suggest a spatial extension (along x, y, and z axes) that was characteristic of Purist composition.
These three examples (the Parthenon / Pantheon model, the Certosa, and the Davanzati stair) serve as both formal frameworks and non-literalfigures within the composition of the Pavillion de L'Esprit Nouveau. Within a matrix of overlapping spatial zones, these plastic elements emerge as figures, alternately forming spaces for particular activities and establishing spatial and temporal connections. The Pavillion de L'Esprif Nouveau represents an architectural counterpart to the works of Juan Gris. Le Corbusier translated the techniques of non-literal representation from painting to architecture. 'To summarize: the plastic means of Juan Gris and Le Corbusier's implicit rules of painting and architecture are techniques of translation. If Le Corbusier's rules are understood, a subject may be transposed across material, spatial, and temporal boundaries. For Gris or Le Corbusier, subject may refer to compositional structure, representational figures, or space(s) of illusion. In this way, the work of Gris may be said to be architectural, and that of Le Corbusier may

25. Stair balcony - Palazzo Davanzati [diagram by George Cumella]

26. Le Corbusier's sketch -Atrium - Maison

La Roche [Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier 1910 - 1929 (Zurich SwitOuevre Com~lete zerland, 1964) 62.1