Cgriffin - Le Corbusier

8/10/2019 Cgriffin - Le Corbusier

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Le Corbusier:

Architecture, Urbanism and Theory

Proceedings

Southern Polytechnic State University

February 26-28, 2009

Proceedings Editors:Tony Rizzuto

Chris Welty


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Le Corbusier:

Architecture, Urbanism and Theory

Published By:

Anthony Rizzuto

795A Myrtle St. NE.

Atlanta GA. 30308

Copyright: 2009 by Tony RizzutoISBN: 0-9746724-8-3

Printed By:

Olympic Printing

5801-F Goshen Springs Rd.

Norcross, GA. 30071

Symposium Sponsored By:

The Architecture Program

The School of Architecture, CET, and Construction

Southern Polytechnic State University

Marietta GA., USA

Symposium Organizing Chairs:

Tony Rizzuto

Liz Martin

Assistant:

Dorianne Ayala

Technical Assistant:

David Easterwood

Proceedings Editors:

Tony Rizzuto

Chris Welty

Exhibition

The Lens of Architecture: Ronchamp through Herve

Exhibition Curator:

Carl Safe

Supported by:

A Grant from the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts


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Le Corbusier - The Annual Deans Architecture Symposium 2009

- 137 -Southern Polytechnic State University

Integrated Design: Collaboration and Experimentation in

Le Corbusiers Immeuble Clart

Assistant Professor Corey Grifn

Department of Architecture

University of Oregon

Introduction

LImmeuble Clart, Geneva. A client risked itthe bankers smothered it but the building hassurvived. (1)

As is the case with many of Le Corbusiersworks, the Immeuble Clart was at least 50 yearsahead of its time with its glass faades and largeexposed concrete entries. Completed in 1932,the Immeuble Clart was the rst realized, multi-

family housing project by Corbusier as well as hisrst steel frame building. It served as the testing

ground for many of Corbusiers ideas that arefound throughout his writings and later works.

However, there has been little documentationby Corbusier or others on this pivotal work, andconsequently those studying Corbusier couldeasily overlook its importance in the developmentof his theories on housing as well as the merits ofClart as an example of integrated design. Thesynthesis of multiple modes of inquiry and thecollaboration between client, architect and builderare fundamental to the success of Clart.

Corbusier succinctly describes the Clart, locatedin the southeast of Geneva, Switzerland, in hisLe Corbusier 1910-65: The program called for abuilding housing 45 apartments with double oor

heights and a large variety of dimensions and

interior furnishings. The building is, nevertheless,constructed entirely of standard elements, upona frame of standard steel sections electricallywelded and conforming to a strict module ofcolumns, beams and windows. This standard,pushed to the absolute, did not limit in theslightest the search for variety in the interior of thebuilding. (2)

The uniform faade of the Immeuble Clart,so named by the rst residents and translated

literally means clarity or clear building, beliesthe complex spatial organization of units withinthe building. The building consists of two-room

to nine-room studio ats for professional class,particularly doctors, writers and painters. (3) Toaccommodate the wide variety of units, somehave south-facing double height spaces whileothers do not even open onto the south faade.Some units run the entire width of the buildingwhile others are only half width. Some units aretwo stories (those with the double height spaces)with their own stair within the unit while others areonly one story. The plan of the upper oors (those

labeled 1 through 6 in the small section) shadesthe different unit types. The unit plans of the

Figure 1: Immeuble Clart, north faade (photograph byauthor).

Figure 2: Immeuble Clart, entry (photograph by author).


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- 138 - Southern Polytechnic State University

Clart on these upper oors are mirrored across

its middle.

The units are accessed by two vertical circulationcores each with stairs and an elevator. Thestairs and landings are glass block and the entirestairwell is lit from large skylights, creating twoshafts of light that penetrate eight stories intothe lobby on the ground oor. The ground oor

also houses fourteen garages, stores for cyclesand prams, two porters ats, central heating,

incinerator with chutes. (4)

The Client

The schematic development of the Clart canbe seen as a result of the unusual relationshipbetween Corbusier and his client, EdmondWanner, a Geneva industrialist, who was also thecontractor for the project. Wanner, whose iron andsteel working business created items from lampsto iron gates to airplane hangers, had previouslyasked Corbusier in 1928 to develop a scheme for

typical rental buildings for Geneva, often calledProject Wanner. The unrealized project consistedof Immeuble Villa based apartment buildingssuch as those documented in Towards a New

Architecture, each with an outdoor terrace andaccessed by an interior street or corridor. Earlyplans and elevations for Clart show Corbusierpursuing a similar strategy of an interior street toaccess the units and only one vertical circulationcore as well as two terraces at the end of eachcorridor. However, this scheme was abandoned,and the nal design of Clart closely resembles

a schematic plan by Wanner done in responseto Corbusiers initial design. Wanners plan was

accompanied with a letter describing the changeshe wanted Corbusier to make:

I have received you scheme whose idea isacceptable, but not perfect.

In fact, there are three main defects:

1) Orientation

2) Corridors: in spite of the two gardens thatyou foresee for lighting the corridors, it remains,however, that each of the corridors measures12 meters without any lighting whatsoever. Thisis certainly bothersome and since it is why thedisposition of the plot absolutely does not allow

comparison to a general case, but leads ratherto the resolution of a specic case, wouldnt it

be better to treat it only as such, bringing out itsgreatest advantages?

3) The apartments are too big: in fact, in theapartments that you have foreseen, there aremore than 200 square meters of habitablespace per apartment, which is too much for theinhabitants we can expect in this part of town.

I am therefore sending you an outline of my ideathat needs further development. The buildings

will have 18 bays measuring 2.75 meters in widthand will be distributed every two oors with 5

apartments on 2 oors and four apartments on

one oor. (5)

Why would Corbusier abandon his concept ofClart for Wanners design? First, as a wealthyindustrialist, Wanner could of conceivably hiredCorbusier for a series of more commissions ifClart was successful. On this level, one wouldthink Corbusier would not want to alienate such aclient. As the contractor, Wanner could have moreinuence over the construction method used and

not only engineered the steel frame but suppliedthe double-paned, Wanner model windows. Asthis was both Corbusiers rst large scale housing

Figure 3: Immeuble Clart, interior view of a southfacing, double height space (photograph by author).

Figure 4: Immeuble Clart, exterior view of south facing,double height space (photograph by author).


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project in comparison to his villas of the 1920sand his rst steel framed building, Wanner would

have had more experience with projects of thisscale and how the structural system worked.Despite the fact that Corbusier would later reuse

the design concepts discarded by Wanner infuture projects, one of the strengths of the Clartdesign comes not from Corbusiers resistance tothe wishes and experience of the client but fromthe eventual cooperation between the two men.

Immeuble Villa

Long before the design of Clart, Corbusier gaveserious thought to the multi-family, or apartmentdwelling. An entire chapter of Towards a New

Architectureis dedicated to mass-productionhouses and focuses both on factory-made villasas well as three to ve-story Immeuble Villas

with a single unit type repeated. A prototype ofthe proposed Immeuble Villa unit was built asthe Esprit-Nouveau Pavilion at the InternationalExhibition of Decorative Arts in 1925 in order todemonstrate the practical, habitable cell thatcould be grouped in large colonies, both in heightand breadth. (6) The Immeuble Villa would serveas the root of Corbusiers thoughts and designsfor Clart.

In the years leading up to the design andconstruction of Clart, Corbusier traveled toMoscow for the rst time in 1928 and returned

in 1930 lecturing as well as designing theCentrosoyuz and his competition entry forthe Palace of the Soviets. During these visitsCorbusier observed modern Russian architectureincluding the at, glass faade (pan de verre)

of the Gostorg building, which Corbusier calledan ideal vertical beehive. (7) He also visitedthe communal house of Narkomn that featured

another smooth faade with elongated, ribbonwindows, repeated units with double height

spaces and the entire building lifted off theground on columns. Lit the entire length by aribbon window, corridors on two of the ve oors

provided the horizontal circulation to the units.This organization served as a built example of theinterior street Corbusier had and would proposefor his housing schemes.

Edmond Wanner was present at the InternationalExhibition of Decorative Arts in 1925 and certainlyknew of the Esprit-Nouveau Pavilion. However,it is uncertain if he met Corbusier at this time.What is known is that in 1927, Wanner had beenin contact with Corbusier when Wanner and hiswife went to visit the Weissenhof settlement in

Stuttgart. (8) In 1928, Wanner commissionedCorbusier to design typical rental buildings forGeneva. The nine-story buildings, collectivelycalled Project Wanner, consisted of double heightunits with roof gardens similar to the ImmeubleVillas. The units would be served by an interiorstreet for circulation on every other oor, much

like the Unit dhabitation that would be builtover twenty years later. The upper oors are

recessed from the otherwise uniformly at faade,

like Clart, to conform to the Geneva planningrequirements.

Figure 5: Immeuble Clart, stairwell (photograph byauthor).

Figure 6: Immeuble Clart, south faade highlighting therecessed upper oors (photograph by author).


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Designed at the same period between 1930-32,the Swiss Pavilion did not begin constructionuntil after Clart, as many of the elements of theSwiss Pavilion were borrowed directly from it.The Pavilions steel frame used the same 2.8 mmodule and Wanner model windows as Clart.Having no previous experience with structuralsteel framing, it would have been difcult for

Corbusier to design and build the Swiss Pavilion

without having rst worked with Wanner andlearned how to use this construction system.While the Pavilion may have been the secondbuilt, it included more concepts from ProjectWanner and Corbusiers vision for a multi-story,communal dwelling including raising the buildingon pilotis to allow people as well as nature to passunderneath, a roof garden, and the all-glass, at

faade. The structural columns pushed to theexterior still broke up what would otherwise be anideal pan de verre, free of balconies.

Corbusiers own apartment building, Porte Molitor,and the Salvation Army Refuge built shortly afterClart in 1933, demonstrate the pan de verre

as Corbusier has intended it for Clart. In theOeuvre Complete, Corbusier reects on the

Molitor and his desire to have a pan de verreexist, intact, clear and with right proportions. (9)The Molitor, unlike Clart, has the rolling shuttersinstalled on the interior, maintaining in the waythe faade in its precise proportion of iron andglass and assuring its dignity. (10) However,the overheating problems with the inoperablewindows of the Salvation Army Refuge as wellas summer hear in his own east and west-facingapartment in Molitor would lead Corbusier to laterconclude that the balconies on Clart were usefulto block the summer sun and became the roots of

the development of the brise-soleil.

The Unit dhabitation at Marseille representsthe culmination of Corbusiers ideas regardingmulti-family, apartment dwellings. As Corbusierhimself states, many of these ideas came fromClart: Clart offers a demonstration of amodern apartment building and well merits beingfollowed by further new realizations. (11) Theunits all have double height spaces and areaccessed by an interior street on every otheroor. This is similar to the initial sectional sketch

of Clart. The main difference lies in that thelong faades of Clart face north and south with

double height living spaces only on the south sideto take advantage of the light, while the Unitfaces east and west with double height spaces onboth sides. Furthermore, by the design of Unit,Corbusier had invented and successfully used thebrise-soleil that is applied to the faades of Unitwhereas he was trying to create the purest pande verre possible at the time of Clart.

Brise-soleil

Both the north and south faades of Clart have

two types of adjustable sun shading devices.The rst is a wooden screen directly in front of

the glass faade that can be raised or loweredfrom within the units. The screen slides betweenmetal brackets attached to the steel columns, andconsequently each wooden screen is the widthof a bay (2.8 meters). The second adjustableshading device is a red awning either attachedto the end of each balcony for double heightunits or to the faade at the oor plate between

balconies for single height units. In the case ofdouble height units, the awning extends from theunderside of the balcony above to the railing ofthe unit being shaded. For single height units,the awning extends at a 45-degree angle fromthe faade to the balcony railing of the unit beingshaded.

Without deploying the adjustable devices, a solaranalysis of Clart, using a 1/8 = 1 scale physicalmodel and a heliodon, highlights Corbusiersthoughts about the direct sunlight with respect to

the composition of the entire building. Placingmost living spaces and all double height spacesto the south, he maximized the amount and depthof direct sunlight in the most used spaces withina unit. In the same fashion, he placed bedrooms,bathrooms and the kitchen on the north side of thebuilding, which are typically the least used, and inthe case of the kitchen, the room that needs theleast heating.

Due to the 20 degrees east of north orientation ofthe building, the south faade receives more directsun in the afternoon and the sun is perpendicular

Figure 7: Immeuble Clart, south faade with balconies,awnings, and wooden screens (photograph by author).


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with the building at about 1:30 pm solar time. Theorientation of the building at the latitude of Geneva(46 degrees north) only allows direct sun to enterunits on the north faade during the early morningin June. By 9 am solar time any time of the year,the north faade is completely shaded.

The balconies on the south side of the building

extend (1.5 meters or 4.5 feet) and act as shadingdevices keeping direct sun out of units in thesummer during the warmest, and sunniest seasonof the year in Geneva and allowing direct sun tostream into the units during the winter, the coldestseason with the least sunshine. In a retrospectiveof the development of the brise-soleil from uvreComplte 1938-1946published in 1946, Corbusierclaims it was instinct that led to the rst use of the

brise-soleil on Clart:But in the Clart apartment building in Geneva,thus baptized by the users, we have instinctivelytriggered a working approach for the brise-soleil. Idraw the oors, these extend beyond the pan de

verre across a balcony with a rather conspicuousprojection of 1.50 meters, furnished with its ownrailing. The rst shadow is cast; and for the dog

days there is the supplement of rolling shuttersvertically to the balcony railings, thus creatingvery satisfactory conditions of admitting the sunin wintertime (sun low on the horizon) and ofblocking the sun in the summer (sun high on thehorizon). (12)

However, Christian Sumi suggests the balconieswere more likely the wishes of the client, Wanner,who exhorted Le Corbusier to place a continuousbalcony in from of the glass faade a requestthat must have contrasted profoundly with LeCorbusiers idea of the pan de verre as a at

continuous membrane. (13) This is most likelythe case as Corbusiers next three works, theSalvation Army Refuge, the Swiss Pavilion at theCite Universitarie, and his own apartment buildingat the Porte Molitor, all used a pan de verrefaade not compromised by balconies, woodenshutters or red awnings. After experiencing the

unpleasant summer months in his own at inMolitor, Corbusier claims that with respect to theall-glass, west facing faade of Molitor that, Westood in the wrong, we knew it. We have wantedit judiciously so at least, a pan de verre existed,intact, clear, and with right proportions. (14)Again, the give and take relationship betweenWanner and Corbusier would help spark the oneCorbusiers most important design tenants in hislater works, the brise-soleil.

Urbanism

Designed in between Corbusiers proposal of

the Contemporary City for 3 Million People in1922 and the Radiant City in 1935, Clart canbe seen as a bridge between these two urbandesigns. As his rst multi-family dwelling, Clart

also represents the rst opportunity for Le

Corbusier to apply his urban planning concepts,which include higher density housing, to a realproject in an urban context. To create higherdensities than the nearby existing housing, thenine-story Clart took advantage of the maximumallowable height in its district of Geneva bytapering the top stories. Similar to the housing

Figure 8: 1/8 = 1 scale model of Immeuble Clart,south faade with sunlight simulated for noon onDecember 21 (photograph by author).

Figure 9: 1/8 = 1 scale model of Immeuble Clart,south faade with sunlight simulated for noon on March21 (photograph by author).

Figure 10: 1/8 = 1 scale model of Immeuble Clart,south faade with sunlight simulated for noon on June21 (photograph by author).


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of the Contemporary City, Clart is doubleloaded with the long faades facing North andSouth. However, while the surrounding urbangrid was oriented approximately with the cardinaldirections, the plan of Clart was deliberatelycanted so the faades faced 20 degrees east ofnorth and 20 degrees west of south and requiredthe construction of a new street.

This shift can be explained by examining thecontemporary thoughts on urban planning leadingup to the design of Clart. Physicians duringthe Industrial Revolution attributed disease to alack of direct sunlight in workers housing, andconsequently urban planners in the early 1900sdeveloped different tools and thoughts aboutmaximizing light in urban areas. (15) In 1913,

Augustin Rey, a French housing ofcial, mapped

both the length of days throughout the year aswell as the maximum temperatures at differenttimes of the year on a circular graphic. Findingthe longest day of the year, the summer solsticein June, and warmest day of the year, typicallyAugust in France, he drew a solar axis from

the center of the graphic to June and a thermalaxis from the center to August. Rather arbitrarilyassigning the direction of south to the solar axis,Rey determined that the optimal direction for abuilding to face would be in the direction of aheliothermic axis or the average of the solarand thermal axes. A building oriented toward aheliothermic axis would face slightly west of south.Corbusier was aware of Reys theories and drewsimilar diagrams when discussing the orientationof buildings in the Radiant City.

A simpler and more straightforward explanationfor orienting a building west of south can be

found in the writings of Raymond Unwin. Aftercompiling information on the position of the sunthroughout the year and making the assumptionthat sunshine before 8 a.m. is little enjoyed,while that from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. is perhaps themost enjoyed, Unwin came to the conclusionthat taking the whole year round, there can beno doubt that an aspect south or slightly west ofsouth may be considered the most desirable fordwelling rooms. (16) These thoughts on solarorientation manifest themselves more fully in thehousing of the Radiant City with its double loadedcorridors in buildings with units facing east andwest and single loaded corridors with units facing

south.However, the organization and complexity ofClart is signicantly different from the proposal

for housing seen in either the Contemporary orRadiant City concepts. In all likelihood, thesedifferences are the result of the client, EdmondWanner. In the letter from Wanner to Corbusierdated April 26, 1930, Wanner argued to replacethe design of an interior street, a strategy commonto the housing designs in Corbusiers urbandesign proposals. This interior street wouldeventually be built in LUnit dHabiation designs

of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Wannersconcern was that the corridors measure 12meters without any lighting whatsoever. (17)

Furthermore, Wanner continued to argue in thesame letter that the disposition of the plot doesnot allow comparison to a general case, but leadsrather to the resolution of a specic case implying

that Corbusier was trying to apply his urbandesign concepts to Clart. The general casethat Wanner referred to is likely the designs forProject Wanner, the Immeuble Villa based housingproposal Corbusier had designed for Wanner twoyears earlier. The design for the Immeuble Villasand Project Wanner is similar to the housing of theContemporary City, and Corbusier continues to

Figure 11: Immeuble Clart, balcony (photograph byauthor).

Figure 12: Immeuble Clart with surrounding contexthighlighting the unusual orientation of the building(photograph by author).


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develop this concept of using a repeated housingunit with interior streets connecting them in theUnite-like housing schemes for the Radiant Cityproposal. The question as to why Corbusierdesigned Clart with a variety of unit types if hisurban planning schemes continued to emphasizethe use of a single repeated unit. The answercan be found once again in the desires of Wannerwho wanted a variety of unit types for different

perspective inhabitants.

Nature

Corbusier designed ve projects for Geneva

between 1927 and 1933 including the Palace ofthe League of Nation, Project Wanner, and theonly design actually built, Clart. Throughout thedrawings of Corbusiers Geneva projects, thereis an understanding of the landscape and naturewith the city located in a valley between the lakeand surrounding mountains. The elevation ofthe Palace of the League of Nations and theCite Mondiale perspective clearly shows thisrelationship. The perspectives of Project Wannerdemonstrate how the housing frames a view ofthe distant mountains and sits in the landscapewith visual access to nature on the ground levelgranted by the use of pilotis.

Based on these other projects (especially thosedesigned before Clart), one would expectCorbusier to be fully aware of the Genevalandscape and nature and incorporate it fully intothe design of Clart. However, the sketches and

drawings of Clart show the building completelyout of context as an object oating in space.

Often times, Corbusier only draws part of thebuilding denying the surrounding landscape andnature.

From perspectives drawn during the designof the building and photos taken at the end ofconstruction, it is clear Corbusier designed Clartwithout having known the site. Although he drewone existing building (with no detail and muchshorter than the actual building to the south ofClart) in the perspective drawing, Corbusiercompletely ignores the large tree on the corner ofthe site that casts a striking shadow on the westfaade. Also, the street along the north faade,lined with tiny trees (and no other buildings), doesnot exists as the street along the north is morelike an alley ending into the rear of an existingbuilding. In his writings, Corbusier stresses thisseparation of building and its surroundings:Today, the agreement of the ground with thehouse is no longer a question of site or ofimmediate context. (18)

Since Corbusier did not know or chose to ignorethe site and surrounding context, he also wouldnot know what views were offered from the site ofClart. However, Corbusier had thought about theadvantages of tall apartment buildings and statesin The Home of Manthat to dwellings high abovethe ground is offered the spectacle of the skyand all its movements and its colours, its formsthroughout the seasons. A distant hill appears.(19) In his sketch accompanying this quote isCorbusiers ideal city with more nature, trees andlandscape, rather than buildings occupying theview. In contrast, existing buildings dominate the

view over Geneva near Clart with the mountainsand any existing nature far in the distance.

When Clart is completed, instead of taking aphotograph from the roof garden of the completesurroundings, Corbusier published a photocarefully framing the view from the roof gardenof only the sky, a landmark church nearby andthe distant mountains. Unlike his roof gardenon the Apartment for Charles de Beistegui inParis, Corbusier does not use the architectureof Clart to block the views of the clutteredcityscape leaving only the tops of monuments,the sky and the distance landscape becausehe did not know what the view was going to be

like in the rst place. In order for his rst tallbuilding to successfully offer his idealized viewfrom a dwelling high above the ground, thedocumentation of Clart must be manipulated.

Furthermore, Corbusier draws the inhabitantas an eye looking down and across the naturesurrounding the building. However, it is obviousfrom an aerial view of Clart, that the only viewsoffered from within the units and on the balconiesis of the surrounding buildings. The East faadeof Clart, which offers one of the few unobstructed

Figure 13: Immeuble Clart, view of an adjacentbuilding from the interior (photograph by author).


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views of a nearby park, is solid with no windows,showing further that Corbusier either did not knowor ignored the context of the site.

The Villa Savoie is perhaps the best exampleof Corbusiers work that frames views of thesurrounding landscape. He designed Clart inthe same fashion with columns in the foregroundframing your view at rst, then the window frames

and frosted glass emphasizing the view across thehorizontal. Finally, the balcony railing continues toemphasize the view of the horizon and the sky byblocking the view of the ground below. However,in each of the photos taken to document Clartthe framed view is obscured by overexposedphotographs, drawn curtains, or both. In the caseof the one photo from the balcony, the view iscarefully selected in the one direction, the east,where there are no surrounding buildings toblock Corbusiers idealized view of nature from adwelling high above the ground.

Beatriz Colomina argues that Corbusierviewed many of his villas as detached from the

surrounding landscape: If the window is a lens,the house itself is a camera pointed at nature.Detached from nature, it is mobile. Just as thecamera can be taken from Paris to the desert,the house can be taken from Poissy to Biarritz toArgentina. (20) In the case of Clart, the cameracannot frame the desired views of nature and skyif other buildings surround it. Corbusiers apparentlack of knowledge about the Clart site and thesurroundings undermined the potential of Clart tofully take advantage of its height and views.

Conclusion

Clart represents a series of rsts for Corbusier:

his rst steel frame building, his rst large scale,

multi-family dwelling, his rst use of the brise-

soleil and his rst attempt at creating a pan de

verre. In this capacity, the Clart served as atesting ground and Wanner as a sounding boardfor Corbusiers ideas about high-rise buildings.Perhaps, most interesting is how long it tookCorbusier to incorporate many of successfulelements from Clart such as the brise-soleil

balconies into other projects and how he ignoredthe success of the vertical circulation light welland returned to his dark interior street for theUnit dhabitation. Despite its minor shortcomings,Clart is a major turning point in Corbusier s workand should be recognized as such.

If the Clart is such a pivotal work, then thequestion arises why did Corbusier not write aboutit more or document the project more thoroughly?As the project was a collaboration betweenCorbusier and Wanner, perhaps Corbusier feltthere would be some question of ownership overthe design if he discussed Clart too often or intoo much detail. Corbusier also could have beendisappointed that his rst dwelling high above

ground does not sit in nature or frame viewslike he idealized it would. In both the OeuvreCompleteand Creation is a Patient Search,Corbusier complains about the obstacles thatthe bankers proved to be on the Clart project,and perhaps this situation as well as his otherdifculties in Geneva was reason enough to

ignore Clart.

Despite his reluctance to highlight Clart, thedesign process of this seminal work serves asa prototype for integrated design and holdsmany lessons for contemporary architects.The collaboration between design and buildingprofessionals is critical as the complexity ofbuilding systems increases. The relationshipbetween Corbusier and Wanner, while at timescontentious, succeeded in producing a buildingthat beneted from the combined design and

technical expertise of both men. The technicaladvantages of the structural steel frame gaveCorbusier the ability to explore his theoretical

propositions such as the free plan, free faadeand the pan de verre. The successful use ofsingle architectural elements to achieve multiplegoals is another attribute of integrated design.While providing access to nature, the balconiesalso serve as highly successful brise-soleil,blocking the sun during hottest months of theyear. With these strengths in mind, it is clear thatthe longevity of the Immeuble Clart is proofof how integrated design can create enduringarchitecture.

Notes

1. Le Corbusier, Creation is a patient search (NewYork: Praeger, 1960) 90.2. Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier 1910-1960 (New York:

Thames and Hudson, 1967) 62.3. F.R.S. Yorke and Frederick Gibberd, The Modern

Flat (London: Architectural Press, 1937) 150.4. Yorke, 150.5. Christian Sumi, The Immeuble Clarte in In

the footsteps of Le Corbusier, edited by CarloPalazzolo and Riccardo Vio, 177-178 (New York:Rizzoli, 1991).

6. Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier 1910-65, 28.7. Jean-Louis Cohen, Le Corbusier and the mystique

of the USSR: theories and projects for Moscow,1928-1936 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UniversityPress, 1992) 55.

8. Christian Sumi, Immeuble Clart Genf 1932: von LeCorbusier & Pierre Jeanneret (Zurich: GTA/Amman,1989) 159.

9. Nous lavons voulu pertinemment ainsi an

quau moins, un pa de verre existt, intact,proper, et de bonnes proportions. Le Corbusier,Pierre Jeanneret, and Willy Boesiger. uvrecomplte, 1938-1946. (Erlenbach-Zurich: ditionsdarchitecture, 1947) 104. All translations from theFrench by Associate Professor Susan Ubbelohde,University of California, Berkeley.


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10. les volets roulants furent installs a lintrieur,mauntenant ainsi la faade dans sa prciseproportion de fer et de glas, lui assuran sadignit Le Corbusier, uvre complte, 1938-1946, 104.

11. Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier 1910-65, 62.12. Mais dans limmeuble Clart de Genve,

baptiz ainsi par les usagers, nous avions amorcinstictivement des travaux dapproche vers le brise-soleil. Je dessine les planchers, ils se prolongent

au-del du pan de verre par un balcon dune assezforte saillie de 1,50 m muni de son parapet. Unepremire ombre tait provoque; on y ajouta pour lacanicule le complment de volets roulants installsau droit des parapets des balcons, crant ainsides conditions trs satisfaisantes dadmission dusoeil en hiver (soleil bas sur lhorizon) et dobstacleau soleil en t (soleil haut sur lhorizon). LeCorbusier, uvre complte, 1938-1946, 104.

13. Sumi, The Immeuble Clart, 181.14. Nous nous mettions en tort avec nous-mmes,

nous le savions. Nous lavons voulu pertinemmentainsi an quau moins, un pa de verre existt, intact,

proper, et de bonnes proportions. Le Corbusier,uvre complte, 1938-1946, 104.

15. Ken Butti and John Perlin. A golden thread: 2500years of solar architecture and technology (PaloAlto: Cheshire Books: 1980) 160.

16. Raymond Unwin, Town planning in practice; anintroduction to the art of designing cities andsuburbs (London [etc.]: T.F. Unwin, 1909) 312.

17. Sumi, The Immeuble Clart, 178.18. Le Corbusier and Franois de Pierrefeu, La Maison

des homes, trans. Beatriz Colomina, in Privacyand publicity: modern architecture as mass media.(Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1994) 318.

19. Franois de Pierrefeu, Le Corbusier, and CliveEntwistle, The home of man (London: ArchitecturalPress, 1948) 93.

20. Beatriz Colomina, Privacy and publicity: modernarchitecture as mass media. (Cambridge, Mass:MIT Press, 1994) 312.

Bibliography

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Documents

Cgriffin - Le Corbusier