DesignerDeco

Le Corbusier

Posted on 17. Feb, 2009 by DesignerDeco in Modern Furniture Designers

Le Corbusier can be considered as one of the fathers of modern furniture design, having not only perpetuated the classic style, but also as a mentor to many of the period’s budding furniture designers. The choice in name doesn’t just reflect eccentricity, but a distinction that set him above the rest.

The personal life of Le Corbusier

Before becoming Le Corbusier, the famed artist and designer was known under the name of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris. He is a Swiss-born artist who became a French national in the 1900s. Having had a strong inclination toward the visual arts, he set on the road to build up his skills in he visual arts and studied architecture. His trips to Paris, Greece, and around Europe all influenced his future architectural designs.

He adopted the name Le Corbusier in the 1920s to live out his belief that anyone can reinvent himself. He used a deviation of his paternal grandfather’s name, Lecorbesier, when he first published a journal about Purist theories. Le Corbusier then first dabbled in architecture, coming up with plans for public housing for those who lost their homes in the First World War. He later went on to study and draw up plans for an ideal city, where commercial airplanes landed in spaces in between the colossal 60-storey buildings.

The design ethics of Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier’s design ethics were modern in the strictest sense. His was the standards that many of the era’s great designers such as Eileen Gray, Charlotte Pierrand, and other luminaries of the modern design movement followed.

In architecture, Le Corbusier believed that modernism was the answer to remodeling society. His designs for public housing were geared toward eliminating overcrowding, which eventually leads to filth and social and moral decay.

Popular works of Le Corbusier

As an architect, Le Corbusier had strong ideals for the city. He came up with a visionary plan for a city for three million occupants who will reside in steel-enforced high rises. Those who wish to get away from the center of the Contemporary City can then choose to live in low-rise zigzag apartments away from the center.

Le Corbusier also dabbled in furniture design, implementing modern styles in his pieces. In his travels to Europe during his youth, it was purported that he had interacted with prominent designers such as Mies Van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. Le Corbusier’s furniture pieces were creations that utilized tubular steel, a material that became a favorite of designers and consumers for years to come. Le Corbusier classified furniture into three types: type-needs, type-furniture, and human-limb objects. Le Corbusier classified some furniture as extensions of human limbs and as docile servants that serve their masters well and easily leave when not needed anymore.

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