Lecture Analysis

This week’s lecture talked extensively on the Bauhaus which was a school made with the intention of encouraging students to make creative and useful things in the world. I think that this is an awesome idea and a really cool way to show the world that creative minds matter. It’s also amazing how the majority of the instructors at the school had established careers as artists themselves and chose to pass on their knowledge to students. I think that is an incredible opportunity!

The school was based in Germany, but I feel that the design of the school has been adopted by many schools today all over the world. I think this also includes the IDEA program, which is a prestigious program that has established a reputation for successful graduates in the creative field. In observing what students farther along in their degree have experienced, the program encourages us to be creators that are unique, innovative and useful to the world. This is how I picture the Bauhaus being.

The Architect: Le Corbusier

>> That’s WAY to artsy to be a church Le Corbusier!

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret was born in a small town in Switzerland in 1887. At the age of 13, he left primary school in order to learn his father’s trade. While being educated, he also learned about art history, drawing and the Art Nouveau style. His teacher, Charles L’Eplattenier, noticed he had quite a talent for art after only three years of schooling. L’Eplattenier sealed his fate when he decided his young student should be an architect and began his training.

As he became a more experienced architect, Charles became known as Le Corbusier. His style was nothing like the art that was popular during this time. Le Corbusier harped back to purism and rejected the Cubism period which was the height of popularity. His architecture returned to pure, geometric forms. A good example of this style is the Notre Dame du Haut, which shows how the simplicity and geometry of his work could also be unique and complex.

Notre Dame du Haut

The Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut de Ronchamp was a chapel built in Ronchamp, France in 1955. It is a small but powerful and complex design. The previous chapel built on this site was destroyed in World War II, so this was built to renew that piece of architecture.

The Notre Dame du Haut was built in a groundbreaking two years from it’s commission.

The renewal was done to embrace modern art in hopes to continue the relevance of the church in society. Although, Le Corbusier brought a different taste to modern art which was the simplicity aspect. He even states that his style was more primitive and sculptural than the “Machine Age” that was up and coming.

In building this piece of architecture, Le Corbusier was very intentional in his symbolism and harkening back to the old chapel. For example, he made the chapel of primarily concrete to echo the past structure. He also filled the concrete walls with rubble of the old church so that it could remain on the site it was first built. Another somewhat hidden and beautiful aspect of this building is the glowing pieces of stained glass that are set deep within the walls, sometimes almost 10 feet deep! It lights the chapel jewel-like way, which is very unique.

Some other special aspects:

• Various sized and slanted windows
• Roof has appearance of floating

(Not supported by the walls, but by concrete columns which helps to give the affect)

• Main Altar
• Two entrances
• Three chapels beneath towers

Conclusion

Le Corbusier was a very unique architect and wasn’t afraid to be different. Personally I appreciate how modern his designs appear, even though they were created almost a century ago. This is visualized in the Notre Dame du Haut, which is a beautiful piece of architecture.

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Works Cited

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Le-Corbusier

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_du_Haut