Le Corbusier: Celebrating fifty years...

Nearly 50 years have passed since Le Corbusier died (1887-1965) and 28 since the celebrations for the centenary of his birth.  During this time, the Swiss Master’s life and work have been the focus of countless studies and publications.

The relevant literature is extensive, ranging from texts closely linked to architecture, urban planning, design and art to others contextualising the architect and his work sociologically, culturally and geographically, others addressing new biographical and documentary angles and even, most recently, ones examining with the restoration of his works.

The need to take stock of a situation that appears to be getting out of hand and next year’s 50-year celebrations prompted Carlo Olmo and Sergio Pace to organise a path of excellence “to celebrate 50 years after celebrating 100” at Turin Polytechnic on 11-14 November 2014 as part of the Architectural Ph. D “History & Design” studies. In attendance were renowned Le Corbusier scholars such as Bruno Reichlin, Stanislaus von Moos and Jean-Louis Cohen, restoration experts such as Stefano Musso, Susanna Caccia and Roberta Grignolo plus Bénédicte Gandini of the Fondation LC, Michela Rosso and Rosa Tamborrino, architectural historians of Turin Polytechnic, and language historian Raffaella Scarpa.

How Le Corbusier’s oeuvre is “received” by those studying, observing,  “reading” and “rewriting” it was key to several contributions and Carlo Olmo’s special focus, with the matter being addressed from several angles: from restoration projects to its interpretation in exhibitions and books, and how it was “received” by Le Corbusier contemporaries and those coming later. Sergio Pace showed how major mass phenomena have turned the architect into a real pop icon and cult figure, fuelled by the production of gadgets, comic strips, furnishing accessories, etc.

Such has been the time lapse since 1987 that Le Corbusier’s work – and “contemporary architecture” in general – has carved itself a place in history and historiography. Nonetheless, the “Master’s” work is still linked to the materials, documents and image that he constructed throughout his lifetime and he had a manifest desire to assert himself as a total intellectual and artist: from the first Ozenfant and Jeanneret exhibition in Paris in 1918, where he presented himself as a painter of the Purist movement, to subsequent exhibitions of paintings, sculptures and tapestries worldwide, especially in the 1950s and 1960s.

One mentioned by Carlo Olmo was the Florence exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in 1963, “L’opera di Le Corbusier”, studied by Susanna Caccia, which showcased him as an established artist, simply because Le Corbusier convinced Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, the event’s promoter, to place the focus on his paintings and sculptures rather than his architecture. His determination to be and present himself as an all-round intellectual and artist also set Le Corbusier apart, making him unique among his contemporary architects. This was discussed during the seminar, as was the matter of his work as a writer, or rather the use of the “word”, as Le Corbusier was fond of saying in his book Creation is a Patient Search (New York, 1967). This new line of research is, to date, little explored and pioneering yet rich in materials and opportunities, given the variety and number of written works (books, articles, letters, technical reports, etc.) available. Raffaella Scarpa illustrated how Toward an Architecture lends itself as an object of interesting linguistic studies, although inevitably inseparable from an accompaniment of illustrations, perhaps retouched as Jean-Louis Cohen pointed out and transformed into “pure forms” that effectively lay the bases for his public portrayal and reception after his first major work.

Is there really anything new to be said or done with regard to his architecture? The experts invited showed that the restoration of his works is the recent new area of interest, constituting an important line of knowledge and philological analysis of Le Corbusier’s art of building but also representing a more concrete and pressing way of getting closer to the works, because it involves direct contact with the work and its construction. At the same time, consultation with archive documents (including the Restoration Archives of the Fondation LC) provides, via the critical process, significant input for a suitable completion of the work. Bruno Reichlin’s studies are also crucial to restoration projects and based on an intertextual and genetic approach to the work,  seen not only as a diachronic reconstruction and stratification of different sources but as research into the origins, solutions, practices and ideas that gave rise and shaped the design within the context of Le Corbusier’s entire oeuvre and various activities. This research methodology, adopted by other scholars such as Josep Quetglas, Tim Benton, Caroline Maniaque etc., still seems to have the most in-depth and meaningful grasp on the architecture, partly because the numerous archive documents, most of which wisely conserved and gathered in the Fondation LC by Le Corbusier before his death, are the material that fuels these studies. There are also books that, thanks to reprints, are still graphic and essential for those attempting to further explore the subject. Special mention was made of Stanislaus von Moos’ Le Corbusier. Elements of a Synthesis (first edition in German dated 1968), reprinted in 2009 with a new post scriptum to the seven chapters, which (along with publications such as Le Corbusier: Ideas and form by William Curtis, 1986), helped to clearly and precisely sistematise Le Corbusier’s biography and indeed his entire life’s work.

Summing up the coming together of History and Project, Pierre-Alain Croset then coordinated a seminar on Ronchamp, aimed at Ph. D students. Taking into consideration the debate that emerged following Renzo Piano’s project, this put forward new ideas and design solutions for the regeneration of the chapel area, with a view to restoring social meaning to the work, place and landscape. The conference proceedings, extremely rich and helpful in placing and better understanding the point reached by Le Corbusier research today, will be collected in a book published in the Intangible series by the Adriano Olivetti Foundation in 2015.

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