Living Le Corbusier

The Academy of Architecture of the Università della Svizzera italiana, in partnership with the MDFF-Milan Design Film Festival, promotes the "Living Le Corbusier” program, a selection of films produced between 1966 and 2019 by French, German, Italian, Swiss and filmmakers, dedicated to the work of the renowned Swiss architect and which can be seen from September 19, 2020 to January 24, 2021 in the Gallery at the second floor of the Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio.

The programme is intended as a chance to explore some of Le Corbusier's iconic works, from Villa Savoye to the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, from the foundation of the city of Chandigarh to the Firminy-Vert district and to the famous LC4 chaise longue. Thanks to the encounter between the disciplines of filmmaking and architecture, in which film practice acts as a tool for condensing space and time into a visual fiction that conveys the emotional qualities of sites in all their material and non-material components, the six films are characterised by different approaches, from the more traditional documentary-oriented one to those with a "fiction" intention, to the video art experiment by Heinz Emigholz, an important filmmaker who was for some years the main reference for the "Filming Architecture" workshop of the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio.

Grandma and Le Corbusier

by Marjolaine Normier

France , 2017

lenght: 58′

language: French with English subtitles

The precise indications of measurements, the sure selection of colors, the millimetric search of the functions of space and of the furniture, in short all the vademecum of the habitability of Le Corbusier, useful to the grandma of the director, dealing with the reconstruction of her apartment in the aftermath of a fire. Where? In the Unité d’Habitation of Marseilles. One of the most studied and most visited modernist condominiums of the history of architecture, and for sure one of the most known and discussed. The friendly old lady meets with the equipe of experts and the troupe to redraw the sixty years that she lived there, weaving her daily life and memories with the visionary standard of a persistent architect of the past.

Chez Le Corbusier/A casa di Le Corbusier

by Olivier Lemaire

France, 2018

lenght: 33′

language: French with Italian subtitles

It was in 1934 that Le Corbusier left his apartment in rue Jacob in Paris to move to the two upper floors of the Immeuble Molitor at 24 rue Nungesser-et-Coli in the Boulogne neighbourhood. This duplex apartment, which Le Corbusier designed with revolutionary architectural choices, represents the matrix of all his work, and is the creative space where he lived until his death in 1965, and where he experimented using his reflections on architecture. On the occasion of the restoration of the apartment and studio, this film aims to investigate Le Corbusier’s work to better understand his artistic contributions, his talent. The story weaves together sequences shot on the site and archival documents showing the different aspects of the apartment and the phases of construction. In addition to these sequences, interviews with the finest expert restorers who worked directly on the building. The documentary was made with the support of Cassina, that also contributed to the restoration of the interiors and furnishings of this iconic example of interior architecture.

Une Ville à Chandigarh

by Alain Tanner

Switzerland,  1966

lenght: 52’

language : French with English subtitles

The filmmaker, Alain Tanner, and the architect, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris at the time of Le Corbusier, have in common not only that they both are Swiss, but also a planning ability of research that constantly fluctuates between realism, contemporary reality and utopia. At the center of the documentary, a city, the city symbol of liberation and national identity: Chandigarh, at the foot of the Himalaya. An empty space meant for becoming inhabited, just like the capital of a new united nation: India in 1947. A more than just unique occasion for an architect. An exciting topic for a filmmaker. Tanner shoots the- now famous -documentary one year after the death of Le Corbusier, when the city was not yet finished. This is enough to give back the meaning of an extraordinary challenge.

Le Corbusier [|||||] Asger Jorn [Relief]

by Heinz Emigholz

Germany –Denmark, 2015

lenght: 29’

Le Corbusier [IIIII] Asger Jorn [Relief] contrasts the Villa Savoye, built by Le Corbusier in 1931, and Asger Jorn’s Grand Relief, which the Danish painter and sculptor produced in 1959 for the Århus Statsgymnasium. The film makes connections between what does not belong together, at least not according to the ideological stipulations of their creators.

L’esprit Le Corbusier

by Gilles Coudert

France, 2019

lenght: 52’

language: French with English subtitles

It’s an equal relationship. The story of Le Corbusier is endless, because endless is the relationship that its works establish with each person that engages with them. It happened to the film director Gilles Coudert, who was born in the famous neighbourhood built in the middle of the 60s in Firminy, in France a few kilometres from Saint-Etienne. His Maison de La Culture was classified a World Heritage by UNESCO, together with other 16 sites planned by the french-swiss architect around Europe, in Argentina, in Japan and in India. An exploration reasoned and commented by Marco Barani, Ora Ito, Dominique Perrault, Kenzo Tange and many others. Starting from that moment in Marseilles, at the Unité d’Habitation, until the famous Cabanon of Roquebrune seen through the eyes of today with archival material.

Le Corbusier 50. Storia di incontri che hanno rivoluzionato il design

by Valeria Parisi

Italy, 2015

lenght: 50’

language: Italian

In 1965 Le Corbusier, the 20th century Leonardo da Vinci, died. Though he frequented and loved Italy, the master of modernism never managed to realise any of his projects there. In 1964, however, he gave Cassina the right to reissue the furniture designed with Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret: they became true icons of design, just remember the LC2, the fauteuil Grand Confort or the LC4, the famous chaise longue, one of the most imitated furniture in the world. The documentary traces the different contexts in which they took shape, from the Salon d’Autumn in 1929 to the presentation of Cassina's LC collection in Milan in the 1960s. A narrative that visits Le Corbusier's places and offers a comparison with today's protagonists with photos and archival footage, including those taken by Le Corbusier himself, made available by the Foundation in Paris.