Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier, pseudonym of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Grisnato, was a neutralized Swiss-French architect, urban planner, painter and designer, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1887. Considered one of the most innovative and incisive personalities in the history of contemporary architecture and a master of the Modern Movement, he pioneered the use of reinforced concrete for architecture, designing revolutionary private residences such as Ville Savoye in France. He invented modern housing solutions such as the Unitées d'Habitation, planned cities inspired by utopian visions such as Chandigarh, and designed furniture pieces that have become part of popular Western culture today. A member and founder of the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture moderne, he fused architecture with the social needs of the average man, proving to be a brilliant thinker about the realities of his time. Some of his buildings have been added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites because they are considered "a testimony to the invention of a new architectural language that marks a break with the past." He died in 1965, in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.