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Post-war Corbusier: Maisons Jaoul

An architectural study of Maisons Jaoul and the intellectual position of its architect Le Corbusier within its physical, historical and cultural context.

Date : 16/09/2013

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Mufaddal

Uploaded by : Mufaddal
Uploaded on : 16/09/2013
Subject : Art

''I will build you two houses and they will have vaults.'' The Maisons Jaoul, in Neuilly Sur-Seine, was one of the key projects of post-war Le Corbusier; a persona that had significantly driven modern architecture to an overwhelmingly new direction. Arranged over three levels, the houses are constructed using load bearing brick walls, exposed concrete floor slabs and concrete ceiling vaults. The architectural considerations and the methods of construction chosen in this project portray a fairly dramatic difference to his preceding work of 'ideal form' . This project quickly drew attention to critics of the time including James Stirling and may have influenced in creating the Brutalism movement. This project is also one of the practical applications of his supposedly most important invention - The Modulor. Was this a radical change of Le Corbusier's preceding theories towards an utterly new approach, or was this rather a development of ideas during the war period based on the same principals from a few decades ago? To eventually answer this argument, it is first important to understand Le Corbusier as a person, his preceding works and the impact of social and cultural context to his intellectual position over time.

C.E. Jeanneret, later known as Le Corbusier, received his first arts and crafts training in French Switzerland where he first learnt watch engraving. He was then persuaded to pursue architecture and later on travelled to Balkans, Istanbul and Athens. Following this trip, he developed his interests in natural forms with a blend of vernacular solutions he discovered in Istanbul and the order and masculinity in the classicism of ancient Greece. His first major contribution was to L'Esprit Nouveau a magazine introduced in 1920, which led him to adopt the pseudonym of Le Corbusier. The principal agenda in this magazine was the conflicting relationship of art and industrialisation. He later developed interests in the aesthetics of reinforced concrete as well as its ability to isolate walls and partitions. One of his first inventions was the Dom-ino frame around 1914; where the concrete frame of columns and floor slabs are independent of the spatial planning. At this point in time Le Corbusier writes to a client - "We have got used to compositions which are so complicated that they give the impression of men carrying their intestines outside their bodies. We claim that these should remain inside... and that the outside of the house should appear in all its limpidity." Such statements make apparent his idea of the similarities between modern technologies and architecture. Like the machinery of a car, the constantly changing and complex building technology of the house should be invisible and enclosed with pure casing. Hereafter, he published his 'Five Points for a New Architecture' in which he invented a set of laws for a new architectural system; the pilotis, the roof garden, the free plan, the horizontal window and the free façade. Amidst this quest of defining the 'ideal form' and embracing the 'machine age', Le Corbusier's earlier interests in vernacular solutions weren't forgotten. In his book, Vers une Architecture published in 1923, he asserts his argument and ideas on the relationship between modern technology and architecture. A decade or so later a series of his lectures were published in Précisions, in which his statement shows the fusion of that search for 'ideal form' and ageing wisdom, revealing ideas on vernacular methods and materials - "Architecture is the result of the state of the spirit of the epoch. We are in the face of an international event... techniques problems posed, like scientific means are universal. However, the regions are distinct from each other, because climatic conditions, racial currents... always guide the solution towards forms which they condition." The first of the series of houses constructed by traditional methods and materials; Villa de Mandrot, 1931, Pradet marked the beginning of what seemed like a change of direction towards a new architectural philosophy.

In his final years, Le Corbusier had a strong poetic approach to projects. His expressionist ideas locked together with a strong intellectual discipline, were a modification of earlier theories. As a result of not building for over a decade because of the war and extensive research during this period, the post-war Le Corbusier expected to combine all these ideas and use the forthcoming projects as experimental sites. His nostalgia for iconic ancient architecture and his obsession with nature gave more importance to site history and spiritual emotion, which, perceived by critics like Pevsner, was the complete opposite to works of 'rationality' in his pre-war years. At the time of completion of the Chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut, James Stirling was far from delighted by 'conscious imperfectionism' and 'mannerism' and questioned whether this building typology is the image of modern architecture. Le Corbusier certainly did not abandon his former theories - "La Tourette was still based on the Five Points of Architecture, but the number and type of architectural elements had increased." Therefore, each project in his late works became a 'testing ground' for new ideas as well as an extension of earlier ones. One of his primary publications at the time was the Modulor - an invention of a proportional system, which he described as a 'tool' of architecture, that he later used in several of his projects including the Jaoul houses. He expresses his idea through the notion of perfect music as being a result of formality; order and measure, and that musical notation is the 'tool' of describing perfection of sound. Architecture, as well, demanded a 'tool'- ".the apotheosis of the machine age will demand a subtler tool." By giving this rather poetic comparison in the very introduction of the book, he establishes a sense of reworking of ideas with subtlety. "The artist is a medium of infinite, extraordinary sensitivity; he feels and discerns nature and translates it in his own works." The Jaoul project was a 'canvas' of this artist and therefore he felt the need to apply his theories of measured art. The structural units and the layout of the correlating spaces in this project are all based on the Modulor system.

The numbers of the 'Modulor' are 'measures'. That means they are facts in themselves, they have a concrete body; they are the effect of a choice made from an infinity of values. These measures, what is more, are related to numbers, and possess the properties of numbers. But the manufactured objects whose dimensions these numbers are to determine are either `containers` of man or `extensions` of man. [Machine, furniture, diary, all these are extensions of human gestures.]

The Jaoul project stands as a case study of post-war Le Corbusier as it contrasts itself dramatically with preceding work. An expressive tactile quality and specific textural effects were desired in this project and therefore Le Corbusier managed to convince Jaoul to select his own "family of constructors" - a selected group of skilled craftsmen with whom he had already established both professional and sympathetic relationships with. With these professionals Le Corbusier seemed to have made the project an experiment of the fusion of craftsmanship and the 'machine'.

In contrast to his work of pure white geometrical forms in buildings like Villa Savoye around the 1920s, he now turns to the ideas of exposing rough materiality of brick, concrete and wood. The elongated openings with reinforced concrete construction now turns to exposed brick load bearing walls and concrete Catalan vaults and floor slabs. The spaces are carefully articulated so that light is provided only where it is needed, keeping the house private and intimate as opposed to the 'illuminated' floors of his Purist villas of the 1920s. It is also important to understand that this execution of sophisticated poetic ideas is somewhat an expression of avant-garde taste. Both Jaoul and Le Corbusier were interested in and appreciated the painting methods of Jean Dubuffet, which made it less difficult for the architect to convince his client that his houses be built using the rough and crude methods used in the paintings - "we appreciate the rough texture of exposed brick, joints coarsely mortared by the mason, whitewash laid over the brickwork, etc. I'm convinced that your house will be much better in its rude state, and you'll economize at least 20% on expenses, well worth your while." Working with the artist, Nivola, whom he met in 1946, may have further enhanced Le Corbusier's interests and confidence in handling rough, tactile raw materials. Le Corbusier observed carefully the details of vernacular architecture on his travels. Having observed the low Catalan vaults in Pisano's houses and notes of his voyage to Columbia on wooden shutters, he intended to develop a similar system in the Jaoul project. The vaults in this case implied a symbolic space portraying the image of the essence of shelter within a rocky crevice; the first human dwelling. Therefore the spans of these vaults were also based on the Modulor. The use of rough bricks and uneven mortar joints emphasizes his technique of 'beauty by contrast' which he had exploited in the Unité projects. The choice of brick may also have been further influenced by his travels to India keeping in mind that at the same time as the Jaoul project, two other houses were being designed simultaneously for Indian clients. Expressing the coarseness and randomness of the brick construction as inspired by Dubuffet's painting methods, seemed to have required a paradoxically high level of focus and precision to achieve that appearance. Therefore, before the wall was laid, it was important the artisan understood the character that was required by the architect; he was obliged not to smoothen and refine but stress the importance of the natural irregularities that the material formed. One of the inventions of Le Corbusier, evident in the Jaoul project, was a version of what he called le quatrième mur - A fully glazed wall fitted with an assembly of proportional wooden panels, fittings and strips of ventilation openings. "The result, in the interior, was one of the warmest domestic environments that Le Corbusier created." The glazing and the openings in this project were based on the Modulor as well; with no surprise. The pans-de-verre were prefabricated and installed in situ; alternating with wood panels and glazing allowing an experiment of his idea of 'juxtaposing rectangular elements'. Corbusier, being a detail perfectionist, he chose the paint and the brand himself for the polychromatic interiors. He mentions in a letter, "...you cannot and must not use anything but Matroil paints from the company 'Peinture Berger'..." and "There is no other colour to compare with them, and if your painter objects, get rid of him" Even though it seemed it was less expensive to build using vernacular tradition and it was predicted as an economical piece of construction by Le Corbusier, the execution of the crude brick work and exposed concrete took additional time, concentration and costs.

However, many architects and individuals in the industry mistook this subtle expression of this poetry. Seemingly most important amongst these, James Stirling mistook Le Corbusier's carefully articulated roughness and texture of the walls as cheap careless construction. He later observed that, "frequently accused of being 'internationalist', Le Corbusier was, in fact, the most regional of architects" - this was in reference to his vernacular solutions and the influence of the Sarabhai Houses and studies of Indian traditional architecture which were parallel with the Jaoul project. Even though he heavily criticized the building and its architect, two years later Gowan and himself designed a more tidied up version of Le Corbusier's ideas; the combination of brick and béton-brut aesthetic in their Ham Common flats. The 'Brutalist' architecture stressed the importance of exposing structure and exhibiting their materiality. The movement had already begun before professionals in the industry knew what to call it - Alison Smithson claimed it as 'the warehouse aesthetic' . Maisons Jaoul may have marked the beginning of this movement as it generously exposes materials in the exterior, boasts beautiful finishes in the interior, and compliments the invention of béton brut; what seems like the etymology of the term 'Brutalism'. Ultimately, even though Le Corbusier's mature works display a change of taste, he still managed to drive modern architecture forward based on the reworking of the deficiencies of his former ideas and most importantly questioning the 'art of living' .

P.S: Notes and Images in original article by author which can be available by request if interested.

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