LE CORBUSIER

• Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris aka Le Corbusier was a Swiss-born French

architect.
• 1907 – worked under Auguste Perrete at Paris.
• 1908 – studied architecture at Vienna.
• During World War I he came up with Domino house.
• 1918 – 1922 - developed Purist painting with Ozenfant.
• Partnering with his cousin, they made a series of villas.
• He viewed house as “A machine for living in”.
• Delved into city planning and designed Chandigarh.
“Space, light and order. Those are the things that men
need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.”

EARLY DAYS AND INSPIRATION:

• In his early days he studied modern building construction under Ar.
Auguste Perret in Paris. Auguste Perret was the first who introduced
concrete and Le Corbusier further worked on it.
• Le Corbusier used concrete to form a structural whole unlike Perret who
viewed concrete as a superior form of construction to masonry.
THE MODULOR:
• Le Corbusier explicitly used the golden ratio in his Modulor system for the
scale of architectural proportion.
• The Modulor is an anthropometric scale of proportions devised by him. It is
based on the height of an English man with his arm raised.
• He saw this system as a continuation of the long tradition of Vitruvius,
Leonardo da Vinci and , the work of Leon Battista Alberti. They used the
proportions of the human body to improve the appearance and function
of architecture.
Contribution to Architecture:
• He was the pioneer of modernism in architecture and laid foundation to
what is known as Bauhaus Movement or International style. Leader of the
modernist movement to create better living conditions & a better society
through housing concepts.
• He is known for innovation in urban planning and his solutions for low
income housing.
• During his lifetime he had projects in Russia, India and Europe. Two are in
the USA too.
• He formed the FIVE POINTS OF ARCHITECTURE which were the guiding
principles for many architects.
Characteristics of work :
• Mostly, all of his works were based on the principles mentioned earlier.
• The earlier buildings by Le Corbusier were smooth, white concrete and glass
structures elevated above the ground.
• He called these works "pure prisms."
• In the late 1940s, Le Corbusier turned to a style known as "New Brutalism,"
which used rough, heavy forms of stone, concrete, stucco, and glass.

A house is a machine for living in

 “THE FIVE POINTS OF A NEW ARCHITECTURE"
Le Corbusier developed a set of architectural principles that dictated his
technique, which he called “The Five Points of a New Architecture" and were
most evident in his Villa Savoye. The five points are:

1. PILOTIS - Replacement of supporting walls by a grid of reinforced concrete

columns that bears the structural load is the basis of the new aesthetic.
2. THE FREE DESIGNING OF THE GROUND PLAN - The absence of supporting
walls—means the house is unrestrained in its internal use.
3. THE FREE DESIGN OF THE FAÇADE - separating the exterior of the building
from its structural function - sets the façade free from structural
constraints.
4. THE HORIZONTAL WINDOW - which cuts the façade along its entire length,
lights rooms equally.
5. ROOF GARDENS - on a flat roof can serve a domestic purpose while
providing essential protection to the concrete roof.
• Villa Savoye is related to the whole range of Le Corbusier’s architecture and
urban planning.
• It is situated on smoothly sloping hill top in midst of fields.
• It illustrates with extreme clarity and is perhaps the most faithful in its
observation of his five points i.e pilotis, roof garden, free floor plan,
elongated window, and free façade.
• Palladian grid is followed.
• Golden proportions are analyzed.
• Columns of the buildings are defined by a system of walls independent of
structure
• The main portion of the house is raised on the columns which are set on
grass plane.
• Second level with open garden terrace, as the extension of the main rooms
of the house is lifted upon columns.
• Living area opens on the south to the garden through large floor to ceiling
sliding glass doors.
• Ground floor is a perfect square and is defined as zone of motion.
• The minimum turning radius of an automobile determined the radius of the
semi-circular ground floor that contains an elegant reception hall, garage
and the servant quarters.

‘The reinforced concrete gives us the pilotis. The house is up in the air,
far from the ground: the garden runs under the house...’
Villa Savoye, Poissy, France - 1931
Villa Savoye, Poissy, France - 1931
Unlike his earlier town villas Corbusier was able to carefully design all four sides
of the Villa Savoye in response to the view and the orientation of the sun.
On the ground floor he placed the main entrance hall, ramp and stairs, garage,
chauffeur and maids rooms.
At first floor the master bedroom, the son's bedroom, guest bedroom, kitchen,
salon and external terraces.
The salon was orientated to the north - west whilst the terrace faced the south.
The son's bedroom faced the south east and the kitchen and service terrace
were on the north east.
At second floor level were a series of sculpted spaces that formed a solarium.
Ground Floor Plan First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

Villa Savoye, Poissy, France - 1931

Villa Savoye, Poissy, France - 1931
 SECOND
LEVEL
WITH
ROOF
GARDEN

LIVING
AREA

ABOUT 1/3RD OF THE SPACE IS OCCUPIED BY THE ROOF TERRACE

ELONGATED WINDOWS
LIVING ROOM OPENING TOWARDS
TERRACE (INTERIORS)
RAMP TOWARDS TERRACE

Villa Savoye, Poissy, France - 1931

• Dom-Ino House is an open floor plan structure designed by noted
architect Le Corbusier in 1914–1915. It is a design idea to manufacture in
series, that combines the order he discovered in classical architecture.
• It was a prototype as the physical platform for the mass production of
housing.
• The name is a pun that combines an allusion to domus (Latin for house) and
the pieces of the game of dominoes, because the floor plan resembled the
game and because the units could be aligned in a series like dominoes, to
make row houses of different patterns.
• This model proposed an open floor plan consisting of concrete slabs
supported by a minimal number of thin, reinforced concrete
columns around the edges, with a stairway providing access to each level on
one side of the floor plan. The frame was to be completely independent of
the floor plans of the houses thus giving freedom to design the interior
configuration. The model eliminated load-bearing walls and the supporting
beams for the ceiling.

DOMINO HOUSES - 1915