Le Corbusier Swiss-French, 1887-1965

The renowned architect, writer and painter was born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris in north-western Switzerland in 1887. He attended the Arts Décoratifs at La Chaux-de-Fonds before becoming an engraver’s apprentice. Between 1908-12, he studied under Auguste Perret in Paris, Josef Hoffmann in Vienna and Peter Behrens in Berlin, and opened an architectural practice with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret.

In 1917 he moved to Paris, and a year later collaborated with the French artist Amédée Ozenfant who encouraged him to focus on painting. He first gained fame for co-writing Après le Cubisme, a manifesto that established the Purism movement as well as his new pseudonym ‘Le Corbusier’. He went on to produce several important publications, including Toward a New Architecture, in which he famously described a house as ‘a machine for living’. Now considered the pioneer of European architectural modernism, Le Corbusier redefined urban planning with his radical designs and visionary approach to the housing crisis.

He died in 1965 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.