The issue of theology on the formative years of

charles-edouard jeanneret
Dallo teologico negli anni formativi di Charles-Edouard Jeanneret
Le Corbusier e il suo rapporto con la religione

Le Corbusier, Two carachteristic house types in the Jura region (1960)

The God of Calvinism demanded of his believers not single good

works, but a life of good works combined into a unified system.
There was no place for the very human Catholic cycle of sin, repentance,
atonement, release ()

Max Weber, The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Pg. 71

Le Corbusier insisted that his

ancestors arrived in the high Jura
region as early as the midfourteenth century ()
Later in life he relished the idea of
tracing back his lineage to southern
France and thereby substantiating
his claim to being (1) French rather
than Swiss, (2) of Mediterranean
origin, (3) and descended from the
heretical Albigenses (since he
considered himself to be a heretic)

H. Allen Brooks, Le Corbusiers formative

years. Pg. 5

Le Corbusier () would remain a creature of his upbringing: he was

obsessed by the work ethic and by the belief that only through suffering
and self-denial one can perform at ones best
The boys () received their religious training from their aunt Pauline
() perhaps in later life he might be called agnostic, yet the Protestant
faith had left a deep, indelible impression in his mind.

H. Allen Brooks, Le Corbusiers formative years. Pg. 20

(LEplattenier) had taught him to

consider () himself, the artist, as a
servant of a moral regeneration of
mankind
() In Paris (1908), he devoured
Nietzsches Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
(Nietzsches) image of the lonely
superman, whose tragic destiny it
was to be sacrificed for the sake of
humankind, seems to have become a
key to Jeannerets understanding of
his own role as an artist in society
Stanislaus Von Moos, Le Corbusier elements
of a synthesis. Pg. 22

 ... and what are poets for in a destitute time?" The word
"time" here means the era to which we ourselves still belong.

Martin Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought. Pg. 89

LEsprit Nouveau was non other

than the last, if not the most
important, of a series of attempts to
establish a cubist magazine in Paris

() the phrase LEsprit Nouveau

had been used by Choisy (in the
context of) a rappel lordre in
architecture, the expression is a
notorious citation of the quote by
Cocteau, who by 1919 also used the
esprit nouveau in the sense of
Zeitgeist.
Reyner Banham, Theory and design on the
first machine age (translated back from
italian). Pg. 247

In the statement of purpose

included in the first issue of
LEsprit nouveau the editors ()
openly reaffirmed the continuity
between Rimbauds poetic
experiments and the esthtique
mcanique () Yoking together the
names of Rimbaud and Mallarm
perhaps for the first time.

Carrie Noland, Poetry at stake. Pg. 39

I attempted to create a place for meditation, of search and prayer for the
monks. The human resonances of that matter have guided our work ()
I imagined the forms, the contacts, the circuits necessary with which
prayer, liturgy, meditation can develop at ease in this home.
Le Corbusier, speech at the inauguration of La Tourette monastery . 1960

I made rules for the form and movement of every consonant, and I
boasted of inventing, with rhythms from within me, a kind of poetry
that all the senses, sooner or later, would recognize. And I alone would
be its translator.
J-Arthur Rimbaud, The alchemy of the word.

The issue of theology on Corbusiers first European travels

The monastery as constant

On Sunday, September 15 () Jeanneret spent the afternoon at the Chartreuse de

Galluzzo where he underwent the most profound architectural experience of his
life. By his own admission, ideas derived therefrom formed the basis for his
immueble-villas of 1922, Pavillon de lesprit nouveau of 1925, and the numerous
Units dhabitation
From this moment on I saw the two terms, individual and collectivity, as
inseparable. he would write.
H. Allen Brooks, Le Corbusiers formative years. Pg. 20

Charles-edouard Jeanneret , sketches of La chartreuse dema / Certosa del Galluzzo (1907?)

Carthusian monasteries are unlike all others since each monk lives not in a
narrow, ill-lit, one room cell but in a modest house of several rooms with
fireplace, cellar, attic, terrace, and a small private garden with flowers () a
bridge-like walkway (is) the origin of Corbusiers architectural promenade.
H. Allen Brooks, Le Corbusiers formative years. Pg. 20

Charles-edouard Jeanneret, sketches of La chartreuse dema / Certosa del Galluzzo (1910)

This existence, in such a setting, became Jeannerets dream of the ideal life:
much that he designed and built in future years would reflect his love affair with
the Chartreuse dEma.
H. Allen Brooks, Le Corbusiers formative years. Pg. 20
Photograph of La chartreuse dema / Certosa del Galluzzo (2015)

Without doubt Christian asceticism () has had a definitely rational character

in its highest Occidental forms as early as the Middle Ages. () with the
Cistercians, and most strongly the Jesuits, (man) has become emancipated from
plan-less otherworldliness and irrational self-torture. It had developed a
systematic method of rational conduct with the purpose of overcoming the status
natur, to free man from the power of irrational impulses and his dependence on
the world and on nature.

Max Weber, The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Pg. 72

The issue of theology on Corbusiers serial houses

(vers une architecture, 1923)
The morality of dwelling

(the role of the architect) is a question of morality, the lie is not

tolerable, one dies because of the lie
there is no right to waste energy, health and courage in the name of a
bad tool: it is to be discarded, replaced.

C-E Jeanneret (as Le Corbusier), Towards an architecture. Pg. 5

the man practices a religion and doesnt believes in it is a coward: a

miserable man. We are miserable for we inhabit unworthy houses that
ruin our health and our morality
() Religions crumble, moth-eaten. Houses havent changed. The
religion of housing has remained the same for centuries. The house will
crumble.

C-E Jeanneret (as Le Corbusier), Towards an architecture. Pg. 6