Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier was born on October 6th, 1887 in LaChaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, but his real name was Charles Edouard Jeannerct. His father was a dial painter (watch industry), and his mother a musician and pianist. He had a strong love for the arts and his environment, in addition to his teacher Charles L`Eplattenier at his local art school also had an immense influence on his design eye and education. Le Corbusier called his teacher “My Master”, and he was taught the combi
nation of National Romanticism and many strains of later nineteenth century. And through the influence and help of L`Eplattenier he learnt art, decoration and architecture and helped him get his first job.
He completed his first house in 1907, then he traveled extensively until 1912, then came back hone to teach with his mentor, and start his practice. His travels took him to Italy, Vienna, Munich, Paris, The East, Eastern Europe, and the Acropolis, as he studied, practiced and trained under opposite teaching to that of his own, learnt all could about different materials, architecture, and designs. Back home, he designed a series of villas, “Maison Dom-ino”, with structural frames of reinforced concrete (something he in depth on his travels), these were to affordable house after WWI. Afterwards he moved to Paris, there he worked under government contracts and had a brick production business, but had time to dedicate to painting, a more influential and profitable route. He had helped developed the Purism movement, which demanded the restoration of the integrity of the object in art, and it grew in Synthetic Cubism, structure of overlapping planes, but it kept its distinct viewpoint towards the mass produced items, which they called objet-types.
He designed the Contemporary City plan and the two housing types: the “Vaulted Monol” and the “Maison Citrohan”, which would become basis of most of architecture throughout his life. In 1927, Le Corbusier developed the principles of the “Five points of Modern Architecture”, he was also a founder of the “Congres Internationaux d`Architecture Modeme”, dealing with architecture’s relation to economic and political arenas. He also produced the urbanism document that administered as a blueprint for city planning for the next 20 years, and he also gained the Soviet Centrosoyus, the Cite de Refuge for the Salvation Army, and the pure purist house of Villa Savoye. Le Corbusier also did many other wonderful architectural pieces, and he started to write about his theories on architecture, magazine pieces, poems, and a whole lot more.
He worked continuously for afterwards, only retiring in the late 1950s, and it was really hard to put his life works in any one category as he filled in many roles. He just had a soul that was filled with what the world could not see, and he was very misunderstood and overlooked at some period in his life, but he still accomplished many, many beautiful and interesting things. He drew from many cultures all over the world, and had a huge understanding of vast types of materials. His last significant project was the Venice Hospital, and while he was in the midst of it, in 1965 he died of a heart attack while on one of his usual swimming trysts in the Mediterranean.