Le Corbusier, the Noble Savage: Toward an Archaeology of Modernism

This study of Le Corbusier's oeuvre looks at the early, formative years of the architect's life as a key to understanding his mature practice, and to solving such fundamental questions as "where did his design vocabulary come from?", and "how was his aesthetic sense formed?". Adolf Max Vogt uncovers in this text those aspects of the physical and educational environment that made an indelible impression on a receptive kindergarten boy in a remote Swiss village - and had a profound impact on the future architect's imagination and development. Vogt's investigation of Le Corbusier's early life and education not only reveals important, previously unacknowledged influences on specific projects such as the Villa Roche and the Villa Savoye, but also offers explanations as to why Le Corbusier, throughout his career, preferred to lift buildings above the ground, to give them the appearance of "floating". This tendency had decisive consequences for buildings associated with the Modern Movement (whose identity as a monolithic stylistic norm Vogt questions), and continues to influence architecture today.