"Le Corbusier" book - Taschen

Born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) is widely acclaimed as the most influential architect of the 20th century. Applied to private residences as well as to social housing, his radical ideas, creations and writings amount to a complete reinvention not only of individual structures, but also, more broadly, of the way modern life is conceived. Le Corbusier's work evolved over the years, from his early vernacular houses in Switzerland to the dynamic syntheses of art and architecture embodied by the chapel at Ronchamp or the administrative city of Chandigarh in India, by way of his breathtaking white, purist villas. The common thread running through these creations is his ability to combine functionalist aspirations with a keen sense of expressionism, together with a broader, more empathetic understanding of urban planning, as one of the founding members of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), which championed "architecture as social art". This book sets out some of Le Corbusier's major projects to present an architect, thinker and pioneer of modernity who, even in his never-realised projects, provided food for debate and inspiration for generations to come.