Socialist Realism In The Works Of Le Corbusier

During the 1930s Le Corbusier’s commissions in France began to dry up due to the Great Depression. But, he continued to write hoping to get his urban plans adopted by some governmental authority. His politics thus began to take a dangerous turn; an enthusiast of capitalism and the major industrialists as the prime movers of civilization in the aftermath of the war, he flirted with Communism, beginning with his visit to the SSSR, dropped much of his support for capitalism after the stock market crash in 1929. Also, having fallen out of Stalin’s favor in the early 1930s with the adoption of Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union, Le Corbusier began to drift towards Fascism. In his urban plans, particularly in the publication of Radiant City,

This rough aesthetic formed the basis of some of Corbusier’s most organic, sculptural works, as the chapel Notre-Damme-du-Haut (1950-55), near Ronchamp in eastern France. Perched on atop o the hill, the church is atypical among Le Corbusier’s works. Its highly organic and sculptural forms use virtually no right angles and make no reference to his prismatic clarity. The inclined walls appear almost to be collapsing inwards under the weight of the massive brown concrete roof. Only when the visitor enters the small and dark sanctuary, pierced by small shards of light, does he discover the thickness and solidity of these walls that firmly enfold the space, creating a solemn atmosphere with meditative tranquility. The scholars and critics have traced Le Corbusier’s inspirations for this chapel to the Athenian Acropolis, Mediterranean sources, the Hebrew temple and Bronze Age crypts. In 1951, he was awarded the commission for designing a new northwestern provincial Indian capital of Chandigarh, which had to be created from a blank slate due to the territorial partitions between India and Pakistan, when the British left South Asia, in 1947. He viewed this job as the chance to show the Western powers what they had missed in refusing to implement his urban schemes over the previous decades. He was occupied for the next ten years

Their impressive scale boldly displays the architect’s affinity for rough cast-concrete, punctuated by long rows of bays articulated by prominent brise-soleil to provide relief from the hot desert sun. Chandigarh’s success might be gauged from recent polls that reveal it to be the happiest city of India, most likely due to the calm and order resulting from its unique design.
Le Corbusier died suddenly on August,27, 1965 of an apparent heart attack while swimming in the Mediterranean. In spite of the many times in which the state had rejected his services, he was given a funeral in the courtyard of the Louvre on September, 1. 1965.
Le Corbusier’s six decade career reshaped cities from India to South America. He worked on over four hundred architectural projects and disseminated his ideas through his forty books and hundreds of published essays. The extensive practice established him as one of the most controversial and most influential artists of the twenty century. However, many of his ideas were too utopian and idealistic to be put in practice, especially the one reflecting his desire for a somewhat order of society and extreme