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Born: Neuchatel in 1887
Most Recognised for: LC4 Chaise Longue
LE CORBUSIER- (1887-1965)
DESIGNER BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR LE CORBUSIER
Le Corbusier was born ‘Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris’ in the town of Neuchatel canton in the North West of Switzerland.
From an early age Le Corbusier showed a keen interest in visual arts and he went on to study at the Swiss Art school ‘La Chaux de Fonds’. On graduating he found work in 1907 as a building architect in Paris and then in 1910 he moved to Berlin to continue his career there.
During the war he returned to Switzerland to work on his architectural theory and it was during this period that he designed ‘the domino house’ – a modern and modernist approach to building that was to form the basis of his work for the next decade.
Shortly after the war he changed his name to Le Corbusier (which was loosely based on an old family name) and relocated to Paris once again, where he established his own studio. His studio not only catered for the design of accomodation for wealthy individuals, but also the problem of social housing.
Many lived in squalor in Paris at this time and Le Corbusier set about designing low cost and efficient housing for large numbers using modernist industrial techniques – described at the time as ‘Urbanism’. With hindsight this was a particularly forward thinking stance, but at the time was met with great scepticism and resistance.
It was around the late 1920’s that Le Corbusier turned his attention to furniture. Along with his architectural partners of the time, he married simple design lines with tubular stainless steel and leather to produce some of the most iconic and instantly recognisable furniture designs of the century.
His designs (dubbed by him “equipment for living”) were as practical as they were simple. A good example of this is his LC4 Chaise Longue (or relaxing machine as it has come to be known) which looks as modern today as it did in 1928. Le Corbusier went on to become a prolific and internationally renowned architect whose name is still a by-word for high quality modernist design.
He died in France of a suspected heart attack whilst swimming in the Mediterranean Sea in 1965.
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