Module 3

EARLY MODERN ARCHITECTURE II

Modern movement-
Brutalism – Le Corbusier

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 BRUTALISM
• Created by LE CORBUSIER and fellow architects MIESVAN-DE-ROHE and WRIGHT
• Named by PETER and ALISON SMITHSON 1954
• Flourished from 1950's mid 1970’s
• Typically large buildings, massive in character fortress like, with a predominance of exposed concrete construction.
• Critics find it unappealing due to its old appearance
• An undeniably honest approach to architecture that demanded form follow function and avoided unnecessary
flourishes.
• The Brutalist approach was all about showing off the materials from which the building was made(inevitably
concrete), about sharp angles, rough surfacing and exposed services.
CHARACTERISTICS
o Strong bold shapes
o Reinforced concrete structures expressed.
o Largeness of scale, strong, muscular character.
o Brick work and stone
o Large area of blank wall
o Off form concrete construction
o Diagonal, slopping or strong curved elements contrasting with
horizontal and vertical members.

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LE CORBUSIER “pioneer of modern architecture”
(1887-1965)
Le Corbusier was born Charles-Edouard JeanneretGris in
Switzerland on October 6, 1887…. Le Corbusier, was a Swiss-
French Architect, Designer, Painter, Urban Planner, Writer, and
one of the pioneers of what is now called modern architecture.
1907 – worked under Auguste Perrete at Paris.
1908 – studied architecture at Vienna.
During World War I he came up with Domino house.
1918 – 1922 - developed Purist painting with Ozenfant
In 1917, he moved to Paris and assumed the pseudonym Le
Corbusier.
In his architecture, he chiefly built with steel and reinforced
concrete and worked with elemental geometric forms.
He viewed house as “a machine for living in”.
Le Corbusier's painting emphasized clear forms and structures,
which corresponded to his architecture.
Partnering with his cousin, they made a series of villas.
Delved into city planning and designed Chandigarh.
Died while swimming in Mediterranean sea on august 27’1965.
Influenced: Oscar Niemeyer, Richard Meier
Awards: AIA gold medal(1961)

“Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just
as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.”

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STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE

• Mechanical analogy…. Building as a machine

• Linguistic analogy
• He introduced Five points of Architecture
1. Use of pilotis i.e. reinforced concrete stilts
2. Free façade
3. Open floor plan
4. Long horizontal ribbon windows
5. Roof garden
• The Modular is an anthropometric scale of proportions devised by Le Corbusier

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The design principles include the following points:

1. The Pilotis
A grid of concrete or steel columns replaces the load-bearing walls and becomes the basis of the new aesthetics.

2. The roof garden

Both as a kitchen garden and as a sun terrace. On a flat roof a humus layer is covered with vegetation, this ensures
constant moisture and serves as a perfect heat and cold insulator.

3. The free groundplan

The absence of load-bearing walls allows flexible use of the living space, which can be divided by screen elements.

4. The horizontal windows

The horizontal windows cut through the non-load-bearing walls along the facade and provide the apartment with even
light. It gives the interior a lightness and offers views of the surroundings.
5. The free façade
Open and closed sections on the façade enable the separation and connection of the exterior design from the building
structure.

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DOMINO HOUSE

Dom-Ino House is an open floor plan modular structure designed

by noted architect Le Corbusier in 1914–1915.

Le Corbusier was just 27 when he conceived of the Dom-ino – so

called because the houses could be joined end to end like
dominos and hyphenated to combine "domus" and "innovation".

By November 1914, one fifth of the Belgian population was

homeless. Corb’s solution was almost painfully simple: a
standardised, two-storey open floor plan house made up of
concrete slabs supported on reinforced concrete columns around
the edges and a staircase. That was it – no walls, no rooms, just a
skeleton.
It was a prototype as the physical platform
for the mass production of housing.

The name is a pun that combines an allusion to domus (Latin for

house) and the pieces of the game of dominoes, because the floor
plan resembled the game and because the units could be aligned
in a series like dominoes, to make row houses of different
patterns.

The frame was to be completely independent of the floor plans of

the houses thus giving freedom to design the interior
configuration.

The model eliminated load-bearing walls and the supporting

beams for the ceiling. HOA- III MODULE – 3 III SEM
HOA- III MODULE – 3 III SEM
• More than one speaker pointed out that the Dom-ino model doesn't actually work. First of all, the columns are too
slender to support those slabs, and secondly, the placement of the staircase prevents the houses being joined end to end
as the name implies.
• Moreover, Corb's vision for the resulting houses was far from radical.
• Today, we are only too aware that most homes
on the planet are built without architects. Go
to the suburbs of Cairo, and you’ll find they
are made up of thousands of medium rise.
• Concrete frames, filled in with
terracotta blocks.
• If only his patrons had known that
one day millions of houses would
be built along similar lines, not just
in Europe but in the slums of the
developing world
• What is radical about Dom-ino is that it
is merely the beginning of a process, one
completed by residents themselves. It is,
in other words, the abandonment of total
design. The architect is no longer a
visionary, just a facilitator.
• Corbusier had standardisation in mind
and yet produced the perfect architectural
symbol for an era obsessed with
customisation and participation. Stripped
of architecture, the Dom-ino is pure
system. It invites us to complete it and
inhabit it in any way we desire. More
than the specific system itself, it is that
idea that is so relevant today. HOA- III MODULE – 3 III SEM
Villa Savoye…POISSY, FRANCE

Five points of Architecture

1.Use of pilotis i.e.
reinforced concrete stilts
2.Free façade
3. Open floor plan
4. Long horizontal ribbon
windows
5. Roof garden

▪ Location: Poissy, France

▪ Date: 1928-1929
▪ Construction system: Reinforced
concrete and plastered unit masonry
▪ Climate: temperate
▪ Style: modern

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HOA- III MODULE – 3 III SEM
Characteristics
1. The reinforced concrete gives us the pilotis. The house is up in the air, far from the ground: the garden runs under the house..
2. 'The columns set back from the facades, inside the house. The floor continues cantilevered. The facades are no longer anything but light skins of
insulating walls or windows. The facade is free.‘
3. 'Until now: load-bearing walls; …. forming the ground floor and the upper stories, up to the eaves. The layout is a slave to the supporting walls.
Reinforced concrete in the house provides a free plan!...’
4. The window is one of the essential features of the house. Reinforced concrete
provides a revolution in the history of the window. Windows can run from one end of the facade to the other.‘
5. 'the garden is also over the house, on the roof...

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▪ The Villa Savoye was designed by Le
Corbusier as a paradigm of the "machine
as a home", so that the functions of
everyday life inside become critical to its
design.
▪ This concept also includes the fact that the
house is designed as an object that
allegedly landed on the landscape, is
totally autonomous and it can be placed
anywhere in the world.
▪ Pillars supporting the ground floor also
advanced this idea, and the independence
of the Villa from its garden, and was
recognized as one of the key points of the
first generation of International
Architecture.
▪ The main part of the house (living
room, kitchen, bedrooms and
bathrooms) is located on the first floor.
▪ The ground floor is occupied by the hall and
offices for the service, with a garage capable
of storing 3 automobiles of the time,
something that was a milestone in the history
of architecture and a great step forward for its
time.
▪ The roof is flat and on it there is a small
garden.
▪ The ground floor is largely determined by the
movement of a car entering the building. This
movement also determines the structure,
based on an orthogonal grid of concrete
pillars separated 4.75 meters from each other.
This forms a square grid of 23.5
meters on the side, on top of which sits the Villa.

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▪ In the front of the house near the garage entrance is the front door, in front of which there is a hall that has two main elements: a ramp that runs from
the bottom up the entire building that constitutes its backbone, prolonging this movement from outside inward, and a spiral staircase.

SECOND FLOOR

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

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▪ The interior is painted white, representing the interest of Le Corbusier in architecture, health and hygiene in an era in
which the city suffered the consequences of overcrowding in the form of epidemics

▪ The four columns in the entrance hall seemingly direct the visitor up the ramp. This ramp, that can be seen from
almost everywhere in the house continues up to the first floor living area and salon before continuing externally
from the first floor roof terrace up to the second floor solarium.
▪ Corbusier's pilotis perform a number of functions around the house, both inside and out.
▪ On the two longer elevations they are flush with the face of the façade and simply heaviness and support, but on the
shorter sides they are set back giving a floating effect that emphasizes the horizontal feeling of the house.

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RONCHAMP (CHAPEL OF NOTRE DAME DU HAUT)

▪ In 1950, Le Corbusier rebuilt of the

chapel at the request of archbishop
of Besancon
▪ The master is touched by the
significance of the site,because was a
place of battles
▪ After five years of technical difficulties
and the constant critic, is finished in
june 1955
▪ Completed in 1954, the Ronchamp
chapel was built for a Catholic church
on a pre-existing pilgrimage site. The
previous stone building had been
largely destroyed during the second
world war.
▪ It is considered one of the most
important buildings of the 20th century,
▪ The chapel of notre dame du haut is located in ronchamp, on the hilltop of bourlemont
and represents a key shift away from
▪ In the the middle age, this place was a catholic pilgrimage centre dedicated to the virgin mary. the sparse, functionalist form of
▪ The chapel suffered a voracious fire in 1913, consequently was rebuild in neo gothic style Modernism that Le Corbusier displayed
▪ In 1944, was bombarded by the nazis in his earlier projects.

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▪ Location: Ronchamp, France
▪ Date: 1955
▪ Building Type: church
▪ Construction System:
reinforced concrete
▪ Climate: temperate
▪ Context: rural, mountains
▪ Style: Expressionist Modern

Physical Characteristics
• Simplicity
• Oblong nave
• Two side entrances
• Axial main alter
• Three chapels
• Three towers
• 4 ft to 12 ft thick, whitewashed, sprayed concrete walls
(known as Gunite or Gunnire)
• Beton brut roof
• Southern facing wall of windows
• Exterior alter and Sculpture of the Virgin Mary

INTRODUCTION
▪ "Surrealism is a key to other late works of Le Corbusier, most notably the church at Ronchamp, France, of 1950-55.

▪ Notre-Dame-du-Haut was a more extreme statement of Le Corbusier's late style.

▪ Programmatically, the church is simple, an oblong nave, two side entrances, an axial main altar, and three chapels beneath
towers—as is its structure, with rough masonry walls faced with whitewashed Gunite (sprayed concrete) and a roof of
contrasting beton brut (architectural concrete left unfinished).

▪ Formally and symbolically, however, this small building, which is sited atop a hillside with access from the south, is
immensely powerful and complex.”
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 ROOF SHELL ON COLUMNS ABSTRACT FOUNTAIN

RESEMBLANCE
WITH THE
ACROPOLIS
- PARTHENON

DIFFUSED LIGHT LIGHT TOWER

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 DOOR DECORATIONS
The door itself has a painting by Le
Corbusier.
Door panels consist of open
hand,star,pyramid, meandering river, rain, and
clouds.
Each door consists of eight panels. Pivoting
door on center. Red and blue symbolize
opposites

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 REAR ENTRANCE ( NORTH )

WATER COLLECTION
The billowing roof of concrete was
planned to slope toward the back, where
a fountain of abstract forms is placed on
the ground. When it rains, the water
comes pouring off the roof and down
onto the raised, slanted concrete
The most striking features of the façade
structures, creating a dramatic but natural
are the two chapels flanking the
fountain. secondary access: both are
symmetrically arranged around the axis
of the door. However, their curved shape
invite to access to the interior.
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PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ENHANCE THE RELIGIOUS FUNCTION
• Simplicity- The chapel appears completely organic both in form and in materials. Notre Dame Du Haut lacks any obvious attempts at
accentuating geometry. The materials are left in the raw and allowed to age naturally. The simplicity of form gives the chapel the feel of
sculpture.
• Lack of ornate detail allows the building to completely exist as a religious space without any distractions to pilgrims and worshippers.
• Lacking mass-produced materials the structure is pure and simple exemplifying the desired way of life for those who came to the chapel.
• Beton Brut Roof-It is said that the smooth curve of the roof is symbolic of praying hands.
• South Facing Wall of Windows-Light has been a long time symbol of religion. Gothic Architecture took this concept to the extreme
considering light one of the most important elements of any religious structure. Light gives the space an ethereal quality.
• Sculpture of the Virgin Mary

RONCHAMP (CHAPEL OF NOTRE DAME DU HAUT)

SUMMARY
• The main structure consists of thick masonry walls, which are curved to improve stability and provide structural support.
• The monumental curved concrete roof is a shell structure supported by columns hidden in the walls. A gap underneath allows a sliver of
light to filter into the interior.
• Although its external appearance suggests a complicated layout, the interior is fairly simple in plan.
• Three thick white walls curl inwards from the outside to create smaller chapels at the sides of the main space. Two sit on either side of the
north entrance and one in the south-east corner next to the main entrance.
• The interior of one of the chapels is painted bright red and the sacristy on the north side is painted violet – echoing the bright sections of
colour in the architect's Dominican Monastery Of La Tourette
• The floor follows the slope of the site towards the main altar, and is covered with a concrete surface that was poured on site and divided into
a gridded pattern based on the architect's Modulor system of proportions.
• An irregular arrangement of windows is scattered across the walls. These are glazed with a mixture of clear and coloured glass.
• "This has no connection to stained glass; Le Corbusier considers that this form of illumination is too closely bound to old architectural
notions, particularly to Romanesque and Gothic art," explained the Fondation Le Corbusier, a non-profit organisation set up to help protect
the architect's legacy.
• "Therefore here there is no stained glass, but glazing through which one can see the clouds, or the movements of the foliage and even
passers-by," it said.
• The internal and external walls were finished with mortar, which was sprayed onto the surfaces before being whitewashed or painted. The
roof was left raw, showing the board marks from the casting of the concrete.

HOA- III MODULE – 3 III SEM