Godfather of modern architecture; An exhibition about controversial architect Le Corbusier has opened in Liverpool. Laura Davis takes a look exhibition Box office.
Byline: Laura DavisTHEY came from opposite ends of the architectural spectrum, so it was perhaps unsurprising when Edwin Lutyens denounced Le Corbusier's housing designs in a national newspaper article.
Supported by pillars, rather than four walls, the cubic villas pioneered open plan living that is so popular today, but Lutyens declared they had been designed for "robots without eyes - for eyes that have no vision cannot be educated to see."
What then would he make of his Crypt - the only part of his blueprint for Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral to have been completed - housing a retrospective of Le Corbusier's work?
As the UK's first major exhibition about the Swiss architect in 20 years, it is expected to attract architecture buffs from all over the country, but those who know little or nothing of his designs would also find plenty to entice them.
"There was a lot of criticism of Le Corbusier in the 90s, particularly of his urban planning and housing blocks, but in the last few years there has been a growing interest in his work," says Mateo Kries, one of the exhibition's three curators.
"We asked ourselves, what is so contemporary about his work that architects are still fascinated by it?"
The chalk white villas and radical urban plans for which Le Corbusier is best known belong to his early career, some 90 years ago, and yet they continue to surprise today.
Included in the exhibition is a model and diorama of his proposal to demolish a great swathe of Paris and replace it with a series of tower blocks.
In today's heritage-conscious society, it is hard not to be shocked or even borderline offended at this suggestion, but this is exactly what the architect intended - to wake people up from their preconceptions about how building should be designed.
"He thought Paris was too crowded, so he designed housing blocks with enough space between them for traffic to circulate freely," explains Kries.
"We're lucky it didn't happen, but there is a question over whether he ever meant it to be realised or whether it was a Utopian model and a way for Le Corbusier to establish himself as the most radical architectural thinker of his time."
Born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret- Gris, in the watch-making town of La Chaux de Fonds, the "godfather of modern architecture" was sent to a school of applied arts to learn the local industry, but instead became fascinated by the structure of buildings.
The exhibition traces the evolution of his ideas, not in chronological order but through the cities and themes that inspired him - from the first house he built in a fairly traditional style to his Villa Savoye, in Poissy, France, with its flat windows and roof and open spaces.
He is often blamed for the hundreds of ugly tower blocks that sprang up in the 60s like concrete stalagmites, quickly becoming symbols of deprivation and false hope.
But, as the exhibition makes clear, these were mainly poor imitations of Le Corbusier's mass housing projects, which included his Unite d'habitation development in Marseilles, that is featured in the Crypt.
Rather than individual singlestorey flats piled one on top of the other, it included 15 different styles of living space split over two floors, with plate glass windows and balconies.
"He did not see them as housing blocks but as vertical cities and the corridors he saw as streets," explains Kries.
"This was one of his most controversial designs, because it has been copied thousands of times and many of them were grotesque versions of his idea.
"The first thing to go was the two-storey structure and then the use of colour."
In later years, before he died of a heart attack while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, at the age of 77, Le Corbusier's designs became more fluid, incorporating shapes from the natural world.
A wooden model of his Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France, with its curved walls and shell-shaped roof, and plans and photographs of the Indian city of Chandigarh that he designed from scratch shows how far his ideas had evolved.
Also featured are his furniture designs, including the instantly recognisable chaise longue he created with Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, paintings, tapestries and sculptures.
There are also a selection of films featuring the man himself in his trademark circular glasses.
Kries adds: "It's interesting to compare the dress of the people in the films and how old-fashioned they look with how contemporary his skyscrapers still seem and you realise advanced his ideas were."
LE CORBUSIER: The Art of Architecture, in the Metropolitan Cathedral Crypt, runs until January 18.
CAPTION(S):
Villa Savoye, Poissy, 1928-31, by Le Corbusier Y FLC/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2008; Le Corbusier in the 1960s Y FLC/Vg bild- Kunst, Bonn,2007; Femme et coquillage IV mural by Le Corbusier. Oil on isorel (in 6 panels) mural in the office at Rue de Sevres Y FLC/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2008; Office at Rue de Sevres, Paris, 1948; Chaise longue, designed by Le Corbusier
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Publication: | Daily Post (Liverpool, England) |
|---|---|
| Geographic Code: | 4EUFR |
| Date: | Oct 3, 2008 |
| Words: | 839 |
| Previous Article: | Mighty funny; TV's Mighty Boosh are thrilling many with tales from their surreal world. |
| Next Article: | Oasis's new album is a genuine Gem; Soon music. |
| Topics: | |