Learning from Le Corbusier

Resume: Interroge sur l’enseignement de l’architecture, et bien qu’il ait expose ses idees sur le sujet principalement dans deux de ses livres : « Precisions » (1930) et « Sur les quatre routes » (1941) Le Corbusier repond : « Je n’ai jamais recu d’enseignement proprement dit. Je suis autodidacte meme dans le sport. ». La formidable puissance didactique de Le Corbusier reside en cinq points : sa formation, son positionnement theorique, son invention de typologies, sa diffusion de l’architecture, sa production prolifique. Ainsi, bien au-dela de l’Œuvre Complete Le Corbusier offre a qui veut s’en servir un champ pedagogique particulierement riche a decouvrir et a partager. Aucun programme ne lui a echappe que ce soit les villas ou maisons, le logement collectif, les bureaux, les equipements (publics ou prives), les bâtiments institutionnels, les musees, les usines : tout est matiere a invention. Cette invention s’accompagne de sa diffusion de l’architecture, de ses idees, a travers publications et conferences a travers le monde. Mais cela n’est rien compare a sa production aux echelles variees de l’habitat minimum jusqu’a l’edifice monumental. C’est pourquoi avec le regard porte sur le projet des Quartiers Modernes Fruges construits a Pessac en 1926 nous examinerons comment ce « laboratoire » constitue une experience pedagogique qui a valeur d’exemplarite et toujours d’actualite. Abstract: Asked about the architectural education and although he outlined his ideas on the subject mainly in two of his books: "Precisions" (1930) and "Sur les quatre routes" (1941), Le Corbusier replied: "I have never received proper education. I am self-taught even in sport. ". The amazing power of Le Corbusier’s didactic resides in five points: his training, his theoretical positioning, his invention of typologies, his diffusion of architecture, his prolific production. Thus, beyond his “Oeuvres Completes” Le Corbusier offers to whom wants to use it, a rich educational field to discover and share. No program has eluded him whether it is villas or houses, collective housing, offices, facilities (public or private), institutional buildings, museums, factories : everything is material for invention. This invention is accompanied with his diffusion of architecture, of his ideas in books or lectures all over the world. But this is nothing compare to his production to various scales from the minimum housing to the monumental building. Therefore with the close look on the Modern Quarters Fruges project built in Pessac in 1926 we will examine how this "laboratory" is an educational experience that has of exemplarity value and is still relevant today. Mots-cles: Enseignement, Habitat, Patrimoine XXe, polychromie, Restauration. Keywords: Education, Housing, Heritage XXe, Polychromie, Restoration. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/LC2015.2015.660