Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret’s Cité Frugès: The Polychromy Issues

From 1924 to1926,with the CitéFrugès in Pessac,Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret realized an urban area as a laboratory where research on architecture polychromy was achieved among others.Colored facade was applied as a tool to modify urban space.This neighbourhood has always been inhabited and transformed by its inhabitants over time.In the 90’s,studies for the global image protection of the neighbourhood included polychromy research conducted to restore the shades of origin.However,the colors have often been interpreted in various ways.Nowadays,besides the shade problems,other challenges have arisen linked to the preservation of the facade materials.This paper presents the recent archive research done to clarify the shade references and lay the groundwork so as to choose the right material to use and further research in the future.

The Rediscovery of Polychromy in Some Le Corbusier’s Works: A Problem of Restitution

The theme of the restoration and conservation of polychrome surfaces will be addressed through several recent case studies of interventions on Le Corbusier’s work owned by the Fondation Le Corbusier:the Petite Villa sur Le Lac Léman(1923-1924),the Maisons La Roche and Jeanneret(1923-1925),and his apartment-studio in the Immeuble Molitor(1931-1934).The recent interventions allowed for numerous preliminary studies(in situ,archival,and laboratory),and proved to be an opportunity for historical and material knowledge,paying close attention to discoveries and observations during the construction phase.An important aspect of these experiences was the in-depth study of polychromes,conducted on architectural surfaces but also on furniture and fixed furnishings made of concrete,metal and wood.This was an important moment in the knowledge of the work during the restoration phase because of the richness of the stratigraphic surveys related to the many modifications made over time sometimes by Le Corbusier himself.This text exposes technical,scientific,and operational aspects specific to the study of interior and exterior polychromes,and in parallel raises theoretical-methodological questions of restoration of the polychromies and the painting.

Thermal comfort in twentieth-century architectural heritase： Two houses of Le Corbusier and Andre Wogenscky

The study of the relationship of climate and indoor thermal environments in architecture is essential to understand the inhabitants＇ sensory perception. This is even more relevant when working in the existing housing stock in view of the new challenges posed by the conservation of the 20th century architectural heritage and the adaption of these buildings to our current comfort and environmental criteria. This article aims to develop a balanced understanding of the approach of Modernist architecture to climate, indoor atmospheres and inhabitants＇ thermal comfort. To do so, we complement the quantitative approach of environmental assessment methods with the qualitative angle of the history of sensory and architecture. The goal is to understand the environmental performance of architecture for dealing nowadays with thermal comfort issues while respecting its cultural and historical values. Two modernist houses have been selected as case studies： the Villa Curutchet of the master Le Corbusier and the Villa Chupin of his discipte Andr Wogenscky. As a result, the article reveals potentialities and constraints in terms of thermal comfort when working with Modern Architecture.

Assessing architectural color preference after Le Corbusier’s 1931 Salubra keyboards:A cross cultural analysis

Color preference for the interior of a bedroom of Le Corbusier’s Swiss Pavilion was studied using 1931 Salubra color keyboards in a cross-cultural analysis.Results indicate that students from architecture and interior design slightly dislike or are indifferent to Le Corbusier color combinations and prefer pale and low saturated colors for interior architecture.The least preferred colors belong to green and brown hues.Scarce significant gender differences are found that follow a stereotyped tendency,with females preferring pinks,light blues and light greens,while males vivid oranges and Vermilions.Near Easterners are significantly more likely to green colors,while Western Europeans to dark greys.These data indicate that not only hue,but also value and saturation are important color features to inform preference for interior architecture.

White,everything white?Josef Frank’s Villa Beer(1930)in Vienna,and its materiality in the context of the discourse on‘white cubes’

In 2017 a group of conservators-restorers conducted a conservation-science study of the materials used in the construction of Josef Frank’s main work,the Villa Beer(1930)in Vienna-Hietzing,and of the building’s surfaces.The study was an opportunity to find evidence indicating whether the contemporary description of the wall colour as a non-colour white corresponded to physical reality.The notion‘Weiss,alles Weiss’(‘white,everything white’),celebrated as‘an expression of values and of the times’(Hammann,1930),will be identified as a cultural construct that stands in contradiction to the actual materiality of the buildings of the period.We must rewrite the colour history of Modern Movement architecture.The‘White Cubes’were never white.