Friday, 25 November 2005

Corbusier -- Ronchamp


Despite being arguably the most responsible for many of the excesses of twentieth-century town planning, and depite producing a clutch of buildings with no heart, no soul and (mostly) no colour other than white -- and most of them just variants on a simple theme: a box -- Le Corbusier (AKA Corbu) did produce one building worthy of worship.

The Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp is that building. Visit it any day, and you will find a carpark overrun with Citroens, and a building swarming with earnest young men sporting bow-ties. Briefly out of fashion with the over-earnest for being 'sexist' -- it's all to do with that entrance, I'm told -- this is one building that does deserve all its accolades.

2 comments:

Rob Good said...

Very interesting look.

Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling said...

I've seen that house before...

http://members.tripod.com/~MerryJane421/pic/buiten.gif