Maison Clarté

South side before renovation, 2008

The lakeside facade with one of the two entrances

The Maison Clarté is a residence by Le Corbusier in Geneva , Switzerland , from the years 1930–32.

The client was the Swiss industrialist Edmond Wanner, who also worked as a building contractor and was therefore able to guarantee the necessary quality of the welding work for the steel structure. He commissioned Le Corbusier, who was at the height of his first fame, to design a modern house. The steel frame building houses 45 duplex apartments in the then current standard. The modular organization system, the ribbon windows, the serial production illustrate the demands of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne , which he co-founded in 1928, and make the house a forerunner and prototype of a modernism that was able to establish itself worldwide by the 1950s at the latest - and it is often criticized for this today.

Building description and urban situation

The house, located on the edge of the city center, orients its apartments with a view of Lake Geneva . Two apartments per floor are located in a block on each of the two stairwells. The ceilings protruding on every second floor give the maisonette apartments a spacious balcony. Curtis describes that it “... rises out of the complex street structure like a stranded ocean liner.” This radicalism, which it shares with the works of the Pavillon Suisse and Maison de Refuge , which were built almost simultaneously , is conveyed by the ground floor zone, which reflects the old town plan is adapted or perceived and forms the small cul-de-sac on which the house is located. There are practice and office rooms and, forming a semicircular head building, a restaurant.

use

The house, built for a wealthy community, was extensively renovated in 2007-09 after it was in an externally worrying condition.

World heritage site

In December 2004, four located in the area of Switzerland buildings by were Le Corbusier in the Tentative List of UNESCO entered: next to the Maison Clarté the Villa Jeanneret-Perret (Maison blanche) and the Villa Schwob (Villa Turque) in La Chaux-de-Fonds and the Villa Le Lac (Petite maison au bord du lac Léman) in Corseaux . This is a prerequisite for applying for recognition as a World Heritage Site at a later date .

In January 2008, at the instigation of France, these four and initially 19 other works by Le Corbusier were nominated as candidates for inclusion in the World Heritage List. The list, entitled “The urbanistic and architectural work of Le Corbusier” ( French Œuvre urbaine et architecturale de Le Corbusier ) included buildings and structures from Argentina , Belgium , Germany , France, India , Japan and Switzerland. The Indian contribution Chandigarh was soon eliminated . In 2009 the World Heritage Committee decided to postpone treatment. The international candidacy was viewed positively, but the committee suggested a revision by 2012. In accordance with this, a new application was submitted in January 2011 with only 19 structures and plants. One of the three objects that were deleted was one from Switzerland, Villa Schwob . But even this candidacy did not find a majority in the committee. It is also not yet clear whether Le Corbusier's work actually has global significance. A third, revised design with 17 objects from 7 countries, including the Maison Clarté, was published in mid-July 2016 under the title "The architectural work of Le Corbusier, an extraordinary contribution to the modern movement" ( French: L'œuvre architecturale de Le Corbusier, une contribution exceptionnelle au Mouvement Moderne ) recognized as World Heritage by UNESCO.

literature

Christa Zeller: Swiss architecture guide; Volume 3: Western Switzerland, Valais, Ticino. Zurich: Werk Verlag 1996. ISBN 3-909145-13-2
Florian Adler, Hans Girsberger, Olinde Riege (HG.): Architekturführer Schweiz , Zürich: Les Editions d'Architecture Artemis exp. New edition 1978, ISBN 3-7608-8004-5
William JR Curtis: Le Corbusier. Ideas and forms , Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 1987, ISBN 3-421-02883-4
Christian Sumi: Immeuble Clarté Geneva 1932 by Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret , Zurich: gta, ETH Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-250-50106-9