Le Corbusier’s Secret Laboratory

Architect, artist, and designer of books.

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier (1887–1965), influenced the design, function, and construction of office and residential buildings as well as twentieth-century art and design.

However, there has not yet been an extensive, precise examination of his role as an artist. For more than five decades, Le Corbusier oscillated between contradictory poles: his dedication to mechanical objects on the one hand, and his search for poetic form on the other. The mutual inspiration stemming from aesthetic versus creative took place in his “secret laboratory,” the artist’s studio. This is the first publication to consolidate all of the facets of his oeuvre, and it arrives at new approaches toward understanding his paintings, drawings, sculptures, tapestries, furniture, architectural sketches and plans, as well as his books and photographs.

The book’s five chapters cover a wide spectrum, ranging from the purist paintings and early villas to Le Corbusier’s reinterpretation of values and his late works.