Transcript PowerPoint Presentation - Le Corbusier after World War II

Le Corbusier after World War II
Dwelling Block at Marseilles
Original sketch concept for the Marseilles “Unite d’Habitation” or
dwelling block as a complex of residential buildings.
The Marseilles block as realized. Even moreso than before World
War II, reinforced concrete became the material of choice in Europe.
Although the materials were expensive, labor for the form work was
cheap. This meant that many innovative shapes and textures could be
developed easily. The situation in the United States was the reverse.
Many of the ideas that Corbu had developed in the inter-war period
remain a part of this scheme, including the elevation of the main mass
on pilotis and the use of the roof for recreational purposes.
Plan (below) and section (above) of skip-stop arrangement of floors
The individual apartments in the Marseilles block are very much the
derivative of the arrangement of rooms and spaces in the Citrohan
House of 1922. The living room is a two-story space with an
overlook from an upper level. Depending on the position of the
apartment in relation to the corridor, the bedrooms are either on the
upper level or on the same level as the living room. This arrangement
permits every apartment to have a high terrace and large windows as
well as cross-ventilation.
The scheme of the Marseilles block was repeated elsewhere, including
Berlin as part of the IBA (Internationale Bau-Ausstellung or
international building exhibit), a program for re-building the city of
Berlin that began during reconstruction after World War II. ( The IBA
program continues today.)
Reinforced concrete framing
with model of relationship of
individual units to the larger
organization.
Shopping street in the middle
story of the building.
Pilotis (above) and the Modulor system of
dynamic proportion as represented on the
exterior of the building
Pilgrimage Chapel at Ronchamp
The commission for the Pilgrimage Chapel at Ronchamp in eastern
France intended to replace an earlier chapel destroyed by fire. This is
one of Corbusier’s most surprising designs and caught the professional
public off-guard. The first thing that Corbu did was to analyze the site
by drawing it from several distant views, such as this one.
Equally important to Corbu were the views from the site, such as this
one with its sweeping panorama of the nearby regional landscape.
Sketches for the Pilgrimage
Chapel viewed from three
directions. The basic idea of
the chapel took shape rather
early and did not change
substantially although it was
refined during design
development.
Plan and elevations
Corbusier said that he wanted
to produce an “ineffable”
space, i.e. one that is too
overwhelming to be
described in words, one that
is inexpressible. Part of the
“ineffability” of the space
would be a lack of clear
dimensionality and scale--a
theme found frequently in
some modernist thinking,
especially where function
was not a problem of daily
routinized activities like
cooking.
The chapel’s proportions, however, are based on the Modulor.
Axonometric drawing of the
chapel from above without its
roof. The sculptural quality
is unmistakable, but related
to the phenomenology and
symbolism of light
Numerous suggestions have been made regarding the possible source
of the external form. These include praying hands, the prow of a ship,
and a nun’s habit. Given Corbu’s life-long propensity for abstraction,
none of these suggestions is very compelling. Moreover, the intention
of creating an “ineffable” space would seem to preclude the
possibility of figural imagery.
Structurally, the chapel is constructed of reinforced concrete, both
cast in forms and applied as gunnite over a frame. That is how all the
curvilinear forms were built and how the wall with the apparently
arbitrary arrangement of windows was constructed. It looks like a
solid masonry wall with deep cuts for the windows, but it is actually
hollow. Corbu was criticized for this by purists who argued that it
was not an honest use of materials.
The interior of the chapel is small and meant more for private devotions
that for large services. On days of pilgrimage, mass is said outdoors.
There is an altar and a pulpit
on this façade. The relic
that is the object of the
pilgrimage is displayed in a
reliquary visible from both
the interior and exterior of
the chapel. The outdoor
chapel can accommodate
very large numbers of
pilgrims who can stand on
the grassy knoll for the
mass.
The roof is a thin shell of reinforced concrete that is raised along the
enclosing walls by small supports. This permits light to enter the
interior along the resulting slits; and it gives the impression that the
roof is really a piece of fabric, delicately suspended over the interior.
This is a surprising effect that is not really perceived from the outside.
The interior is quite dark, in contrast the bright white exterior and has
an extraordinary fusion of intimacy and monumentality.
Upon entering the chapel,
attention is drawn to the
relic displayed in the
window about the altar
but then also to the light
that is coming into the
building from sources in
the thick wall to the right.
The light is modified by
stained glass and it is a
natural effect that
observers move forward
to find the sources of the
light at the ends of the
shorter and longer, wider
and narrower shafts in the
wall.
In the Pilgraimage Chapel at
Ronchamp, Corbu came as close
as anyone to reproducing the
environment of mysticism found
in the Gothic cathedrals of the
high middle ages. While this is by
no means a neo-Gothic chapel, it
does use the power of light to
create a phenomenological
experience within the carefully
wrought forms of the building.