Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 1887 – 27 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ɔʁbyzje) was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland to French speaking Swiss parents, and acquired French nationality by naturalization on 19 September 1930. His career spanned five decades, in which he designed buildings in Europe, Japan, India, as well as North and South America. He considered that “the roots of modern architecture are to be found in Viollet-le-Duc”.

Dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities, Le Corbusier was influential in urban planning, and was a founding member of the Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM). Le Corbusier prepared the master plan for the city of Chandigarh in India, and contributed specific designs for several buildings there, especially the government buildings.

On 17 July 2016, seventeen projects by Le Corbusier in seven countries were inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites as The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement.

Le Corbusier remains a controversial figure. Some of his urban planning ideas have been criticized for their indifference to pre-existing cultural sites, societal expression and equality, and his alleged ties with fascism, antisemitism, eugenics, and the dictator Benito Mussolini have resulted in some continuing contention.

Le Corbusier also designed well-known furniture such as the LC4 Chaise Lounge chair and the ALC-3001 chair, both made of leather with metal framing.

Early life (1887–1904)

Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret), 1920, Nature morte (Still Life), oil on canvas, 80.9 cm × 99.7 cm (31.9 in × 39.3 in), Museum of Modern Art, New York
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret was born on 6 October 1887 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a city in the Neuchâtel canton in the Romandie region of Switzerland. His ancestors included Belgians with the surname Lecorbésier, which inspired the pseudonym Le Corbusier which he would adopt as an adult.15 His father was an artisan who enameled boxes and watches, and his mother taught piano. His elder brother Albert was an amateur violinist.16 He attended a kindergarten that used Fröbelian methods.171819

Located in the Jura Mountains 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) across the border from France, La Chaux-de-Fonds was a burgeoning city at the heart of the Watch Valley. Its culture was influenced by the Loge L’Amitié, a Masonic lodge upholding moral, social, and philosophical ideas symbolized by the right angle (rectitude) and the compass (exactitude). 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 Corbusier lacked formal training as an architect. He was attracted to the visual arts; at the age of fifteen, he entered the municipal art school in La-Chaux-de-Fonds which taught the applied arts connected with watchmaking. Three years later he attended the higher course of decoration, founded by the painter Charles L’Eplattenier, who had studied in Budapest and Paris. Le Corbusier wrote later that L’Eplattenier had made him “a man of the woods” and taught him about painting from nature. His father frequently took him into the mountains around the town. He wrote later, “we were constantly on mountaintops; we grew accustomed to a vast horizon.” His architecture teacher in the Art School was architect René Chapallaz, who had a large influence on Le Corbusier’s earliest house designs. He reported later that it was the art teacher L’Eplattenier who made him choose architecture. “I had a horror of architecture and architects,” he wrote. “…I was sixteen, I accepted the verdict and I obeyed. I moved into architecture.”