Short description:

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.

Long description:

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.

"This is an astonishing piece of research, full of detail and new material that will fascinate expert historians of modern architecture. It is a significant addition to the field and part of a trend to research architects who passed through the atelier at the rue de S?vres."

Tim Benton, Professor Emeritus of Art History, The Open University

"This book will clearly make a major contribution to our understanding of Le Corbusier and the way that his office worked."

Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Professor of Art History, University College Dublin

"Martina Hrabová?s book offers splendid new insights into the world of Le Corbusier?s atelier and the many extraordinary young assistants who worked for him there. What makes this book especially intriguing is that it presents a previously unknown photographic record of the "galaxy" around Le Corbusier, mostly in the guise of informal snapshots. This deeply personal record offers the reader a compelling look at modernism?s heady years and those who made it."

Prof. Christopher Long, Professor of Architectural History, University of Texas at Austin

"Hrabová?s book is unique in its subject matter and there are really no competing works.  It moves the focus away from Le Corbusier, as important as he remains, to the young people in the atelier who helped make the interwar work so exciting, including women! The book covers material not covered in other publications and places a greater emphasis on the personal friendships that were forged in Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret?s atelier and their lasting impact on careers and architecture."

Mary McLeod, Columbia University, Professor of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP

"In her new book, Martina Hrabová charts a circuitous search for the more nuanced meaning of modern architecture in the period between the two World Wars. She deftly explores the documentary, historic and social significance of the photographs concealed for close to eighty years in the remote locality of an Indian ashram. Thanks to the author?s informed and empathetic approach, the reader of this highly original book gets to discover anew the contribution of some architects whose own role in the service to modern architecture is at long last revealed to be of an undeniable international significance."

Irena Žantovská Murray MArch, PhD, HonFRIBA

Table of Contents:

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 S?vres, 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 S?vres, 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 S?vres 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