Unesco grants key recognition to tranche of Le Corbusier works

Global heritage body Unesco has recognised Le Corbusier’s “outstanding contribution” to modern architecture with a single World Heritage designation that brings together 17 of the architect’s works, spanning three continents.

In a move that comes weeks away from the than 51^st anniversary of the Franco-Swiss architect’s death, the designation is designed to be a “testimonial to the invention of a new language that made a break with the past”.

Included are large projects such as the Complexe du Capitole, in Chandigarh, India, and the Unité d’habitation, in Marseille, France, along with individual houses, religious schemes, and industrial buildings.

The designation, made at the 40^th World Heritage Committee Meeting in Istanbul at the weekend, said the 17 sites together represented an “outstanding response” to some of the fundamental issues of architecture and society in the 20^th Century.

Describing each entry as a “masterpiece”, Unesco said: “All were innovative in the way they reflect new concepts, all had a significant influence over wide geographical areas, and together they disseminated ideas of the Modern Movement throughout the world.”

It said that while some of the sites – such as the Villa Savoye, in Poissy, France, and the Unité d’habitation had immediately assumed iconic staus, Unité d’habitation, other sites had acted as “catalysts for spreading ideas around their own regions”.

In the latter category, UNESCO cited Maison Guiette in Antwerp, Belgium, as spurring the Modern Movement in that country and the Netherlands, and the Musée National des Beaux-Arts de l’Occident in Tokyo as having “cemented” the ideas of the Modern Movement in Japan.

It added that a few of the 17 sites created major trends in the Modern Movement, Purism, Brutalism, and a move towards a “sculptural” form of architecture.

“The inaugural use of Purism can be seen in the Maisons La Roche et Jeanneret, Cité Frugès and the Maison Guiette, the Unité d’Habitation played a pioneering role in promoting the trend of Brutalism, while La Ronchamp and the Complexe du Capitole -romoted sculptural forms,” it said.

A full list of the newly designated Le Corbusier buildings is below.