Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, known as Le Corbusier, is a Swiss architect, town planner, decorator, painter, sculptor, author, naturalized French, born October 6, 1887 in La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland) and died August 27, 1965 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (France). He is one of the main representatives of the modern architectural movement. Living in Paris since 1917, he participated in the creation of Esprit Nouveau, an art and architecture magazine in which he took the pseudonym Le Corbusier. Subsequently, Le Corbusier became known through works describing his techniques and his vision of his art: Vers Une Architecture (1923), Urbanisme (1924). He implements his theories in several projects, always combining aesthetics with functionality. From 1928, Le Corbusier took part in the International Congresses of Modern Architecture. In the Charter of Athens, he presents his conceptions of architecture linked to social and daily urban life. Le Corbusier also worked in town planning and design. He is known for being the inventor of the "Habitation Unit", a concept on which he began to work in the 1920s, an expression of theoretical reflection on collective housing. 'The housing unit of conforming size' (name given by Le Corbusier) will only be built during the reconstruction after the Second World War, in five examples, all different, in Marseille, Briey-en-Forêt, Rezé , Firminy and Berlin. Its design envisages in the same building all the collective facilities necessary for life — daycare, laundry, swimming pool, school, shops, library, meeting places.