The Le Corbusier Galaxy

Frantisek Sammer and a global network of avant-garde architects
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-67858-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 283 mm x 223 mm, Gewicht: 948 g

Drawing on the author‘s discovery of an unknown, long-forgotten collection of photographs in an Indian ashram, this book offers an exciting, new view of the international community of young architects who served as Le Corbusier‘s assistants in the inter-war years. A collection of some 500 snapshots, assembled by the Czech architect František Sammer between 1931 and 1939, had been stored unnoticed for more than 70 years in an unlikely location – the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. Sammer was one of Le Corbusier‘s closest assistants from the early 1930s. Later, Sammer worked in the Soviet Union, Japan and India. During, and after, his time in Paris, he personally took or collected these photographs, which he then deposited at the ashram when he left to fight in World War II. The images offer a remarkable view of the international community of people who worked in Le Corbusier’s atelier in the 1930s. Among those featured in the photographs are Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane West (the first American woman to work for Le Corbusier), Gordon Stephenson, Antonin Raymond, Junzo Sakakura and Josep Lluís Sert. Given the travels and international background of these individuals, the photographs are from different countries around the world, including the USSR, England, France, Czech Republic, Greece, USA (Tennessee, Montana, California and New Mexico), Japan and India. The Le Corbusier Galaxy successfully brings together serious archival research with a fascinating narrative, and it captures the human dimension of modern architecture, which is all too often neglected in today’s accounts.

Zielgruppe

General and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hrabova, Martina

Hrabová, Martina

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Geschichte der Architektur, Baugeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Architekten & Architekturbüros
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword by Mary McLeod Introduction Author's Note Letter for the Reader Part 1: The Research Diary Part 2: The Le Corbusier Galaxy ‘Livre noir’ Sammer’s photograph collection 35 rue de Sèvres, Paris, 1931 The family from the atelier Architect-photographer Summer 1931 In the gravitational field of the galaxy The Depression as a bonding agent A professional in a crew of amateurs, 1932 The female element On marriage Urban planning Leaving 35 rue de Sèvres, Spring 1933 Spain and the Maghreb West Kirby CIAM IV The architects brigade from Paris: ‘The Le Corbusier Group’ Moscow Merging with the masses 35 rue de Sèvres outside Paris The Grand Tour, Autumn 1934 A Life worth living The land of 1,001 Sakakuras The Soviet Union, 1935–37 Paris, January–February 1937 Japan revisited India Real war Great Britain, 1946–1947 Returning The galaxy reflected in the ‘Livre noir’ Part 3: Escursuses Excursus 1: Great Britain, 1931 Excursus 2: Spain and the Maghreb, 1933 Excursus 3: Japan, 1935 Excursus 4: The Caucasus, summer 1936

Über Autor(innen)

Martina Hrabova is an art historian who specializes in the history of modern architecture. She obtained her PhD in art history from the Charles University in Prague, where her dissertation addressed new findings on Le Corbusier‘s connections with the former Czechoslovakia. She is a recipient of numerous grants and fellowhips, including a Fulbright Fellowship, a French Government grant and the Canadian Centre for Architecture Visiting Scholarship. She has published articles in JSAH, Room One Thousand and Art/Umení. The Czech-language edition of her book Galaxie Le Corbusier received the prestigious 2022 Josef Krása prize for the best art book in the Czech Republic. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Art History at Palacký University in Olomouc.