Le Corbusier, photo via Wikipedia
LA CHAUX-DE-FONDS, SWITZERLAND – The 125th anniversary of the birth of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, will be celebrated by the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds where the Swiss-French architect was born.
The small Swiss city will kick off celebrations with an event to take place at the White House, or Maison blanche on 21 January.
La Maison blanche, is the first independent project of Le Corbusier built by the then-25-year-old architect, who designed the house for his parents and lived there himself for several years. It is now a Swiss national monument.
The town is also planning on publishing a new book, mounting an exhibit, offering a conference and carrying out events in schools.
The festivities will end with big street party on 6 October 2012, the day of the architect’s birth.
The “critical homage” as the event has been described in his birth city, raises some controversy because of Le Corbusier’s alleged anti-Semitism.
Le Corbusier, considered as one of the most influential architects of the 20th-century, adopted his pseudonym in the 1920s.
La Chaux-de-Fonds, Neuchatel (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss watchmaking centres of La Chaux-de-Fonds/Le Locle was the scene of a celebrations in the street Saturday night after the news was announced that theit is one of 11 new Unesco World Heritage cultural sites. Italy’s Dolomites in the north of the country, near Switzerland, were named one of two new natural sites, and, for only the second time, a site was remove from the list. Germany’s Dresden Elbe Valley has lost its title because of a four-lane highway being built through the centre of the site.
The description of La Chaux-de-Fonds, from the Unesco list:
Title: Le Corbusier’s Maison Blanche guided visits
Location: La Chaux-de-fonds, Neuchatel
Link out: Click here
Description: What has been called the “first entirely personal achievement of the young Le Corbusier” can be visited with a guided tour the first Saturday of the month.
La Maison Blanche of this important Swiss architecht has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
The “villa” designed by Le Corbusier when he was 25 years-old is open Friday-Sunday, from 10:00-17:00.
Villa Jeanneret-Perret • Le Corbusier • 1912
Chemin de Pouillerel 12 • La Chaux-de-Fonds
Telephone Information Schedule: Tuesday- Friday 8h-11h45, +41 32 910 90 30
Date: 06 Jun 2009
