Le Corbusier: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Le Corbusier arrived at modernism through a Swiss watchmaking art school, a reinforced-concrete apprenticeship in Paris, a Berlin year with Behrens, and a journey east that ended at the Acropolis. This mix traces the painter-polemicist as much as the builder: Purist canvases, Nietzsche, monastic cells and ocean liners feeding the Dom-ino frame, then the brut concrete he bequeathed to Brasília, Ahmedabad and Osaka.

The Kynda mix for Le Corbusier

• Key Influence · Apartment Building, 25 bis rue Franklin by Auguste Perret (1903). In 1908 the 20-year-old Jeanneret worked in Perret's Paris office, and the rue Franklin block was the lesson: an exposed reinforced-concrete frame with infill panels, the structure doing the composing. The Dom-ino skeleton of 1914 — slabs, columns, stair, no load-bearing walls — is unthinkable without it, as are the pilotis and free facade later codified in the Five Points. Perret remained the rival-father figure he argued with for decades.
• Influencia Obscura · Crematorium decorative scheme, La Chaux-de-Fonds by Charles L'Eplattenier (1910). L'Eplattenier taught the teenage Jeanneret at the École d'Art of La Chaux-de-Fonds, steered him away from watch engraving toward architecture, and invented the regional 'style sapin' — Jura fir cones and crystals abstracted into ornament. His Ruskin-inflected nature study gave Le Corbusier his lifelong drawing habit and his geometric reading of natural form, even after the pupil repudiated ornament entirely.
• Local Roots · Villa Noailles, Hyères by Robert Mallet-Stevens (1923–28). Mallet-Stevens was Le Corbusier's direct competitor in 1920s Paris: white rendered volumes, roof terraces, cubic massing for the same avant-garde patrons. Both were founding figures of the 1929 Union des Artistes Modernes orbit and both built private villas as manifestos for a modern way of living. The Villa Noailles shows what the Parisian 'white architecture' moment looked like from the other atelier.
• Beyond the Medium · Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche (1883). Jeanneret read Nietzsche avidly in his twenties, and the prophetic register never left him: the pseudonym adopted in 1920, the manifesto voice of Vers une architecture, the 'house as machine for living' delivered as commandment. Zarathustra's mountain solitude and demand for a new man underwrite his vision of the architect-legislator remaking society — and the authoritarian edge critics have attacked ever since.
• Peer · Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1929). Mies passed through Behrens's office in the same years as Jeanneret and became his lifelong counterweight: both built in the 1927 Weissenhofsiedlung at Stuttgart under Mies's direction, both reduced the wall to a free plane. Barcelona's sliding marble screens and chrome crosses answer the Villa Savoye's ramp and ribbon window — two opposed solutions to the same problem of the dissolved load-bearing wall.
• From the Canon · Vers une architecture by Le Corbusier (1923). Assembled from his L'Esprit Nouveau articles, this is the book that made him a world figure before he had built much: grain silos, Delage cars, ocean liners and the Parthenon set side by side, the house declared a machine for living in. It explains the whole career better than any building, because Le Corbusier always designed and polemicised at once — the propaganda preceded the Villa Savoye and justified Chandigarh.
• Key Collaborator · Metastaseis by Iannis Xenakis (1954). Xenakis worked twelve years in Le Corbusier's atelier as engineer, shaping the Unité's concrete and devising the Philips Pavilion's hyperbolic paraboloids for Expo 58 — a credit Le Corbusier was slow to grant. Metastaseis translates the same ruled-surface glissandi into orchestral sound: string lines sweeping as straight elements generating curved mass. One mind, two media, the same geometry.
• Legacy · Cathedral of Brasília by Oscar Niemeyer (1970). Niemeyer worked under Le Corbusier as part of the Brazilian team on the Rio Ministry of Education and Health in 1936, and openly treated him as master, later hosting him and sparring over the UN Headquarters scheme. Brasília is the Ville Radieuse actually built — superquadra housing, monumental axis, pilotis — with Niemeyer's hyperboloid concrete curves extending Ronchamp's plasticity into a whole capital.

What influenced Le Corbusier

• Peter Behrens. Le Corbusier acknowledged Behrens's influence while comparing it with Perret's. (also via AEG Turbine Factory) “"You can see," he wrote to Auguste Perret in July 1916, "that Auguste Perret left more in me than Peter Behrens."” (Wikipedia)
• Auguste Perret (1874). Le Corbusier worked in Perret's architectural office. (also via Apartment Building, 25 bis rue Franklin) “for 14 months between 1908 and 1910 he worked as a draftsman in the office of the architect Auguste Perret , the pioneer of the use of reinforced concrete in residential construction” (Wikipedia)
• Charles L'Eplattenier. Le Corbusier attended a course founded by L'Eplattenier, identified elsewhere in the article as his teacher. (also via Crematorium decorative scheme, La Chaux-de-Fonds) “Three years later he attended the higher course of decoration, founded by the painter Charles L'Eplattenier , who had studied in Budapest and Paris.” (Wikipedia)
• Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814). States Le Corbusier considered Viollet-le-Duc the father of modern architecture. “He also influenced the first modern architects, Frank Lloyd Wright , Mies van der Rohe , Auguste Perret , Louis Sullivan , and Le Corbusier , who considered Viollet-le-Duc as the father of modern architecture.” (Wikipedia)
• The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin (1849). The Seven Lamps of Architecture (John Ruskin) — culture for Le Corbusier “Architects including Le Corbusier, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius incorporated his ideas in their work.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Konstantin Melnikov. Le Corbusier admired Melnikov's pavilion. “He met the Russian architect Konstantin Melnikov during the 1925 Decorative Arts Exposition in Paris, and admired the construction of Melnikov's constructivist USSR pavilion” (Wikipedia)
• René Chapallaz. Chapallaz taught Le Corbusier and influenced his early house designs. “His architecture teacher was architect René Chapallaz, who had a large influence on Le Corbusier's earliest house designs.” (Wikipedia)
• Certosa del Galluzzo. The Florence Charterhouse made a lasting impression on Le Corbusier. “In Florence, he visited the Florence Charterhouse in Galluzzo , which made a lifelong impression on him. "I would have liked to live in one of what they called their cells," he wrote later.” (Wikipedia)
• The Development of Industrial Buildings by Walter Gropius. Gropius’s article is explicitly said to have influenced Le Corbusier. “A very influential text, this article had a strong influence on other European modernists, including Le Corbusier and Erich Mendelsohn , both of whom reprinted Gropius's grain elevator pictures between 1920 and 1930.” (Wikipedia)
• Adolf Loos. Le Corbusier invoked Loos's argument in his writing on decoration. “He cited the 1912 book of the Austrian architect Adolf Loos , Ornament and Crime , and quoted Loos's dictum, "The more a people are cultivated, the more decor disappears."” (Wikipedia)
• Ballet mécanique by Fernand Léger (1924). Ballet mécanique (Fernand Léger) — culture for Le Corbusier “In December 1919 he married Jeanne-Augustine Lohy, and in 1920 he met Le Corbusier, who would remain a lifelong friend.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Une Cité Industrielle by Tony Garnier (1917). Une Cité Industrielle (Tony Garnier) — ghost for Le Corbusier “Those attending included Le Corbusier, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Auguste Perret, Pierre Chareau and Tony Garnier from France; Victor Bourgeois from Belgium; Walter Gropius, Erich Mendelsohn, Ernst May and Mies van der Rohe from Germany; Jos…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Parthenon by Iktinos and Kallikrates (447). The Parthenon (Iktinos and Kallikrates) — titan for Le Corbusier (wikidata.org)
• Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche (1883). Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Friedrich Nietzsche) — culture for Le Corbusier (openlibrary.org)
• Apartment Building, 25 bis rue Franklin by Auguste Perret (1903). Apartment Building, 25 bis rue Franklin (Auguste Perret) — titan for Le Corbusier “"It was the solution for a unique kind of worker's housing, or rather for a terrestrial paradise." He travelled to Paris, and for 14 months between 1908 and 1910 he worked as a draftsman in the office of the architect Auguste Perret, the…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• AEG Turbine Factory by Peter Behrens (1909). AEG Turbine Factory (Peter Behrens) — titan for Le Corbusier “Two years later, between October 1910 and March 1911 he traveled to Germany and worked for four months in the office of Peter Behrens, where Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius were also working and learning.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Crematorium decorative scheme, La Chaux-de-Fonds by Charles L'Eplattenier (1910). Crematorium decorative scheme, La Chaux-de-Fonds (Charles L'Eplattenier) — ghost for Le Corbusier “Three years later he attended the higher course of decoration, founded by the painter Charles L'Eplattenier, who had studied in Budapest and Paris.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736). Vers une architecture (Le Corbusier) — legacy for Claude Nicolas Ledoux (via Vers une architecture) (wikidata.org)
• Wasmuth Portfolio by Frank Lloyd Wright. Le Corbusier also acknowledged the impact of the Wasmuth Portfolio.

Peers and kindred spirits

• Oscar Niemeyer. Niemeyer and Le Corbusier collaborated on the final UN headquarters project. (also via Cathedral of Brasília) “His international influence also led in 1936 to his being adopted as a consultant for the Brazilian Education Ministry project in Rio, entrusted to a young team of Brazilian architects led by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer.” (Le Corbusier World Heritage)
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886). Mies worked alongside Le Corbusier at Behrens' studio. (also via Villa Savoye, Poissy, Barcelona Pavilion) “Seventeen leading modernist architects in Europe were invited to design twenty-one houses; Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe played a major part.” (Wikipedia)
• Eileen Gray. The article names Le Corbusier among the artists associated with Gray. (also via Vers une architecture, Le Corbusier) “Over her career, she was associated with many notable European artists of her era, including Kathleen Scott , Adrienne Gorska , Le Corbusier , and the architect Jean Badovici” (Wikipedia)
• Pierre Jeanneret. Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret had a long architectural partnership. “Jeanneret and Le Corbusier had practiced together in France for over a decade, until 1937, and then, alongside the couple Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, reunited to design and construct Chandigarh.” (Harvard Graduate School of Design)
• Charlotte Perriand. Perriand worked with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret at their studio. (also via Les Arcs ski resort, Savoie) “"[L'atelier du Corbusier] c'était le couloir d'un ancien couvent rue de Sèvres, il n'existe plus. Le sol était en dalles de pierres posées, il y avait un poêle, il y avait des planches sur les tréteaux et il y avait beaucoup de murs sur …” (France Culture)
• Walter Gropius. Villa Savoye (Le Corbusier) — peer for Walter Gropius (via Villa Savoye, Bauhaus Building, Dessau, The Development of Industrial Buildings) “His fellow employees at this time included Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Dietrich Marcks.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Jane Drew. Drew worked with Le Corbusier on the Chandigarh plan. “Jeanneret and Le Corbusier had practiced together in France for over a decade, until 1937, and then, alongside the couple Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, reunited to design and construct Chandigarh.” (Harvard Graduate School of Design)
• Pierre Chareau. Le Corbusier and Chareau jointly proposed an international architectural conference. “Elle naît du désir ardent de quelques architectes et créateurs visionnaires – Robert Mallet-Stevens, Francis Jourdain, Pierre Chareau, René Herbst, Charlotte Perriand et Le Corbusier – de réinventer les modes d'habiter” (Musée des Arts Décoratifs)
• Amédée Ozenfant. Ozenfant encouraged Le Corbusier's painting and collaborated with him on a manifesto. (also via Après le cubisme) “Ozenfant encouraged him to paint, and the two began a period of collaboration. Rejecting Cubism as irrational and "romantic", the pair jointly published their manifesto, Après le Cubisme” (Wikipedia)
• Marie-Alain Couturier. Couturier aided Le Corbusier's religious architecture. “Through the good offices of the Reverend Father Marie-Alain Couturier, the commission for a studium on the La Tourette estate was entrusted to Le Corbusier in 1953.” (Fondation Le Corbusier)
• Maxwell Fry. Fry worked with Le Corbusier on the Chandigarh plan. “Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, the English couple and architectural team who had suggested Le Corbusier for the project, also agreed to work on the housing for the project” (ArchDaily)
• Assembly of Constructors for a Renewal of Architecture. Le Corbusier founded the association known as Ascoral. “in 1942 he returned to Paris where he founded ASCORAL, the Assembly of Builders for Architectural Renovation.” (Le Corbusier World Heritage)
• Headquarters of the United Nations. The UN headquarters was built according to a joint plan involving Le Corbusier. “Le Corbusier avait été dès janvier 1947 désigné comme l’un des dix experts, chargés d’élaborer les plans de construction du palais lui-même” (Fondation Le Corbusier)
• Union des artistes modernes. Le Corbusier and his collaborators founded the Union des artistes modernes. “Elle naît du désir ardent de quelques architectes et créateurs visionnaires – Robert Mallet-Stevens, Francis Jourdain, Pierre Chareau, René Herbst, Charlotte Perriand et Le Corbusier – de réinventer les modes d'habiter” (Musée des Arts Décoratifs)
• Après le cubisme by Amédée Ozenfant (1918). Après le cubisme (Amédée Ozenfant) — collaborator for Le Corbusier “In 1918, Le Corbusier met the Cubist painter Amédée Ozenfant, in whom he recognised a kindred spirit.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• International Congresses of Modern Architecture. The heritage biography identifies Le Corbusier as a CIAM founder. “In 1928, Le Cobusier was among the founders of C.I.A.M, the International Congress of Modern Architecture, whose work was to be essential for the future of 20th century architecture.” (Le Corbusier World Heritage)
• Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright (1935). Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright) — peer for Le Corbusier “Le Corbusier would later describe these as "my guide, my choice" and as "time-honored ideas, ingrained and deep-rooted in the intellect, like entries from a catechism." Like his contemporaries Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe, Le…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Castel Béranger by Hector Guimard (1898). Castel Béranger (Hector Guimard) — geography for Le Corbusier “Despite his success with the façade competition, his late work appeared old fashioned, particularly compared with the modernism of the Paris buildings of Robert Mallet-Stevens, Auguste Perret, and Le Corbusier.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Purism. Le Corbusier and Ozenfant established Purism. “the pair jointly published their manifesto, Après le Cubisme [ 36 ] and established a new artistic movement, Purism .” (Wikipedia)
• Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. Le Corbusier was a founding member of CIAM. “Le Corbusier was influential in urban planning , and was a founding member of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM).” (Wikipedia)
• Iannis Xénakis. Xénakis jointly designed elements of Le Corbusier’s La Tourette monastery. “These undulating sections, probably inspired by construction techniques seen in India, were designed jointly with Iannis Xénakis. It was at La Tourette that they were used for the first time” (Fondation Le Corbusier)
• Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1929). Barcelona Pavilion (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) — peer for Le Corbusier “He worked alongside Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, who was later also involved in the development of the Bauhaus.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Bauhaus. Vers une architecture (Le Corbusier) — peer for Bauhaus (via Vers une architecture) “Le Corbusier admired the design of Marcel Breuer and the Bauhaus, who in 1925 had begun making sleek modern tubular club chairs.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Metastaseis by Iannis Xenakis (1954). Metastaseis (Iannis Xenakis) — collaborator for Le Corbusier “(Consultant) 1949–1953: Curutchet House, La Plata, Argentina (project manager: Amancio Williams) 1950–1954: Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France 1951: Maisons Jaoul, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France 1951: Buildings in Ahmedabad, India …” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Villa Noailles, Hyères by Robert Mallet-Stevens (1923). Villa Noailles, Hyères (Robert Mallet-Stevens) — geography for Le Corbusier “Those attending included Le Corbusier, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Auguste Perret, Pierre Chareau and Tony Garnier from France; Victor Bourgeois from Belgium; Walter Gropius, Erich Mendelsohn, Ernst May and Mies van der Rohe from Germany; Jos…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Les Arcs ski resort, Savoie by Charlotte Perriand (1967). Les Arcs ski resort, Savoie (Charlotte Perriand) — collaborator for Le Corbusier “From 1927 to 1937 they worked together with Charlotte Perriand at the Le Corbusier-Pierre Jeanneret studio.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Bauhaus Building, Dessau by Walter Gropius (1926). Bauhaus Building, Dessau (Walter Gropius) — peer for Le Corbusier “Two years later, between October 1910 and March 1911 he traveled to Germany and worked for four months in the office of Peter Behrens, where Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius were also working and learning.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Eiffel Tower by Gustave Eiffel (1889). Eiffel Tower (Gustave Eiffel) — geography for Le Corbusier
• Louis Kahn (1901). Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh (Le Corbusier) — peer for Louis Kahn (via Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh)

Who Le Corbusier influenced

• I. M. Pei (1917). Pei was inspired by Le Corbusier's books and International Style designs. (also via Villa Savoye) “The two days with Le Corbusier, or 'Corbu' as we used to call him, were probably the most important days in my architectural education.” (Wikipedia)
• Tadao Ando (1941). Ando traveled to study Le Corbusier's buildings. (also via Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, Church of the Light, Ibaraki) “He later travelled to study buildings by masters such as Le Corbusier , Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , Frank Lloyd Wright , and Louis Kahn” (Wikipedia)
• Juan O'Gorman. O'Gorman, who designed Kahlo and Rivera's house, studied under Le Corbusier. “Commissioned from Le Corbusier 's student Juan O'Gorman , it consisted of two sections joined by a bridge” (Wikipedia)
• Zaha Hadid (1950). Phaeno Science Center design was similar in concept to Le Corbusier's buildings. “It was similar in concept to the buildings of Le Corbusier , raised up seven metres on concrete pylons” (Wikipedia)
• Tempe à Pailla. The article contrasts Gray's plan for the house with Le Corbusier's free-plan ideal. “With Tempe à Pailla, Gray moved away from Le Corbusier's free plan ideal and created more separate spaces while maximizing the house's panoramic views.” (Wikipedia)
• Cathedral of Brasília by Oscar Niemeyer (1970). Cathedral of Brasília (Oscar Niemeyer) — legacy for Le Corbusier “Instead of competition, the design was to be selected by a Board of Design Consultants composed of leading international architects nominated by member governments, including Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil, Howard Robertson from …” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Dallas City Hall. Dallas City Hall's design was influenced by Le Corbusier's High Court building. (via High Court building, Chandigarh) “It was influenced by Le Corbusier's High Court building in Chandigarh , India; Pei sought to use the significant overhang to unify the building and plaza.” (Wikipedia)
• E-1027. Saunders relates E-1027's design to Le Corbusier's Five Points. (via Five Points of Architecture) “According to Frances Stonor Saunders , E-1027 was formulated on Le Corbusier's "Five Points of the New Architecture" because it is an open plan house which stands on pillars with horizontal windows, an open facade and a roof accessible b…” (Wikipedia)
• Church of the Light, Ibaraki by Tadao Ando (1989). Church of the Light, Ibaraki (Tadao Ando) — legacy for Le Corbusier “He later travelled to study buildings by masters such as Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Louis Kahn, as well as visiting Greece to study the Pantheon and the Parthenon.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Kanye West. Villa Savoye (Le Corbusier) — culture for Kanye West (via Villa Savoye) (wikidata.org)
• Denise Scott Brown. Towards a New Architecture (Le Corbusier) — titan for Denise Scott Brown (via Towards a New Architecture) (wikidata.org)
• Lina Bo Bardi. Villa Savoye (Le Corbusier) — titan for Lina Bo Bardi (via Villa Savoye) (wikidata.org)
• Sangath, Ahmedabad by Balkrishna Doshi (1981). Sangath, Ahmedabad (Balkrishna Doshi) — legacy for Le Corbusier
• Frank Gehry (1929). Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp (Le Corbusier) — titan for Frank Gehry (via Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp)
• Rem Koolhaas (1944). Vers une architecture (Towards a New Architecture) (Le Corbusier) — titan for Rem Koolhaas (via Vers une architecture (Towards a New Architecture))