Function, representativeness and spatial implications of form modelling in Le Corbusier’s architecture

Aug 27, 2026

Upload by Mason

Le Corbusier’s architectural design methods are analyzed through the relationships among form modelling, functional meaning, and spatial experience. Drawing on studio accounts and specific villa and public-work examples, the text explains how initial rational diagramming is followed by curved, autonomous pieces that shape perception. It details how curve–countercurve compositions and type-objects guide circulation, hygiene, and thresholds, translating movement and bodily comfort into built geometry.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Spatial modelling

Early houses and curved volumes

Curve–countercurve gestures

Modelling and Function

Type-objects for circulation and hygienic spaces

Cylindrical stairs and movement articulation

Function, representativeness and spatial implications of form modelling in Le Corbusier’s architecture Alejandro Gómez García DOI: [https://doi.org/10.20868/cpa.2024.14.5325](https://doi.org/10.20868/cpa.2024.14.5325) Introduction Charlotte Perriand recalled that the designs developed in the studio at 35 Rue de Sevres during the years in which she worked there, between 1927 and 19371, usually followed a two-phase ideation process: the first, analytical and rational, in which the possible organisations ofthe programme of uses were studied using abstract diagrams of squares or circles equivalent to simple geometric volumes connected to each other; and a second, in which those pieces that she wanted to give greater prominence in the composition were moulded with curved shapes, becoming artistic objects clearly differentiated from the regularity of the rest of the design. These unique pieces, in their formal autonomy, would be responsible for introducing into the experience of using the building, both exterior and interior, the perceptual and emotional questions that Le Corbusier was so fond of talking about. If it was a simple project, such as small homes, the functional and artistic criteria could overlap, but if the work involved a certain complexity, such as in buildings for communal use or public programmes, the design process would cover both phases. This was the case, for example, in the design process for the Cité de Refuge in Paris, or in the Competition for the Palace of the Soviets [Fig. 01]. Spatial modelling The first artistic forms in Le Corbusier’s architecture appear in the houses he constructed in La Chaux-de-Fonds and in Le Locle after his trip to the East in 1911. In the “Villa Blanche” of 1911, a semi-cylinder is attached to a large box. As ifit were an apse, this modelled form is situated on oneof the main axes of the house, indicating the route that must be taken to get from the access point, on “Chemin de Pouillerel”, to the entrance to the house located at the last corner of the rear part of the main volume. Its plasticity, in addition to leading to this necessary turn in the approach route to the house, produces a drastic reduction in the perceptual scale produced when leaving the small secondary staircase that remains hidden between the walls of the support platform [Fig. 02]. This staircase, situated between the two scales, prepares the encounter with the curved volume, recreating the same effect produced by the propylaea of the Acropolis of Athens, which introduce a blind passage on the path of ascension to the Parthenon2. In this first example, the artistic form is moulded from the inside out in an attempt to expand the interior space. Using this same box and cylinder scheme, but now duplicated symmetrically, he designed the “Villa Turque”(Schowb) in 1916. Beyond the usual Ottoman or Byzantine references to his journey to the East that have frequently been discussed, its composition seems to echo the churches of Andrea Palladio in Venice, especially “San Giorgio Maggiore”, which Le Corbusier knew well3. Inside the villa, an alternating succession of straight and curved contours, in single and double height, constructs a perceptual sequence of contracted and expanded spaces, at the midpoint of which are located the two semicylinders whose shape projects outward toward the boundaries of the garden4. Already in the slightly earlier “Villa FavreJacot” in Le Locle, Le Corbusier had used a compositional duality of curve and countercurve on the entrance façade, in a formal gesture that seems to refer to the Roman Baroque, both to Bernini’s Sant Andrea del Quirinale and to that of the Piazza del Vaticano in Rome, which embraces the space before the building. In Le Locle, this artistic form expresses its use, defined by the turn of the car, while bringing the entrance door closer to the person arriving, as occurs in Bernini’s works, but its artistic intention goes further, leaving the trace of

FAQs

What two-phase ideation process is described for Le Corbusier’s studio designs?

A first analytical phase uses abstract geometric diagrams to study possible program organizations, followed by a second phase where emphasized elements are moulded with curved shapes as distinct artistic objects.

How does spatial modelling in early villas connect form to perceived experience?

Curved and modelled volumes are positioned to structure approaches, change perceptual scale, and create sequences of contracted and expanded spaces, turning interior expansion into a key design aim.

In what way do these models function as “type-objects” linked to specific uses?

Modelled forms are treated as functional traits associated with circulation and hygienic spaces, including toilets and bathrooms, and they often express the geometry of movement or bodily comfort through softened contours and enclosure.

Aug 27, 2026

Upload by Mason