Windows amputation The early century assist to the amputation of the wonderful and effective bourgeois window, cutting with the

complements that make possible a nuanced control of relations between inside and outside.

There are a big amount of studies about the “fenetre en longueur”, and the discussions between Perret and Le

Corbusier about the windows shape has been largely analysed, but I don’t know any work considering that

derogatory abandonment.

Le Corbusier Perret

Our study distinguishes three orientations and a breakdown in the consideration that Le Corbusier gave to

the window filters looking through the windows he designs for his buildings.

- Firstly, until 1929, LC groups the purist villas with large bare steel and glass windows.

- There is a jog between the years 1929 and 1933 where observation, travels and problems with customers

force him to considerer the solar protection and to start with the brisoleis’ design

- A second orientation, the obsession of the neutralizing wall, overlaps slightly with the chronology of the

above, and makes crises in the second half of the thirties. The second phase of this orientation extends in the

forties and fifties with the penance imposed by the previous errors.

- Finally, in the fifties, at age 65, LC really starts worrying for thermal comfort.

1923-29 Villas of naked windows

All villas from this era are conceived as manifestos, such as monuments engendered by an illusion, the

purism of strictly pictorial source. With the ”fenetres en longueur" or large rectangular stained glass

windows the only concern of the architect is the drawing of cold formed steel carpentry.

Le Corbusier in his late thirties is a self-taught who "scorns what unknowns". In this case of the tradition

of comfort home, he thinks he has nothing to learn from the bourgeois window.

His interest seems limited to light, but in these interior spaces he only cares about their hygienist and

quantitative components: much more light and if possible reaching all corners.

The metalwork draws beautiful geometric compositions but the absence of filters shows the least concern for

the comfort.

He knew blinds, he had used them in Pessac, but consided them unimportant and probably very annoying for

the minimalist composition. The case of the Ville Savoie is paradigmatic. The great window is formed by two

large sliding glass doors opening face the terrace has a southeast orientation.

His office had provided, at least there, a roller blind. The detail was ready, or better a succession of them but the

first budgetary squeezes made that only protection disappear, the unique in all of the “purist villas”, and the

living room was dazzled by the Sun, wrapped in an excess of light and overly sensitive to the winter cold.

1928-33 Critical years

“In the autumn of 29 LC abandoned, almost overnight, his faith in the destiny of purism in the

interests of polymorphous sensuality which would brighten up his art with an unmatched plastic

exuberance”. LE CORBUSIER Kenneth Frampton Ed. Akal Arquitectura Madrid 2000 (París 1997) - pág. 75 But the damage

was already done; architects half around the world had taken this geometric minimalism as a guide.

There is a crisis in treatment of gaps. Three external events may have driven the transformation of

their facades:

- The trip to Barcelona and Morocco

- The pressure from disgruntled customers

- The technical and economic impossibility of neutralizing wall

.

Le Corbusier visits Barcelona from 15 to 17 May 1928. In a sketch (4.7) LC draws the front patio with its galleries

and writes: “interieur à Barcelone: Tout en verre avec volets roulants" (Carnet C11, 1928)

The Clarté building originally had enormous roller blinds. It is possible that the handling difficulties lead to the

placement of different types of awnings only after a year.

“It is obvious that by 1930 he has becoming concious of what he had done, what environmental qualities had

been mislaid in his attempts to abolish de load-bearing wall. He was to discover, now, any number of good

reasons ‘to fill this space up again when it has been given to me empty.’ […] To fill it up with curtains to exclude

sun and staring eyes, […] or to start thickening up the glass membrane with sun-breakers on the extrerior […]” THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE WELL-TEMPERED ENVIRONMENT Reiner Banham Ed. Architectural Press, London 1969 - pag 155

These quote mixes solid and holes virtues and not explicitly recalls the traditional window, but it is clear that all that the bourgeois window had was missing in the “pan de verre”. The misunderstanding continue a couple of decades because LC formally adopted brisoleil spectacular but does not solve the exact adaptation to each situation, does not allow the user intervention and takes no comfort beyond sunscreen. Housing for the Plan Macià in Barcelona (1932) fitted with a large sun protection louvers as moving brisoleils.

The obsesion for neutralizing wall “Reason dreams produce monsters”

Some thoughts may explain Le Corbusier scorn for traditional filters. The architect, little knowing of the

builders tradition, faces problems with abstract thinking that shuns the case and looks for the concept. That

mentality leads him to reject different solutions for each climate and place to propose a new general solution:

"Every country builds houses for its own climate. In this time of international penetration of scientific

techniques, I propose: a single building for all nations and climates, the house with the exact breath "PRECISIONS

Le Corbusier Ed Apostrophe Barcelona 1999 Collection: Poseidon - page 85

Double glazing in

Maison Jeanneret

Le Corbusier is already used to build forms based on the expressive possibilities of a building systems that did

not yet exist. Why not building a simple windows to be reasonable when ready neutralizing windows?.

His elementary idea involves wrapping buildings with a double skin of glass, inside which injects an air at the

precise temperature to reach desired comfort without significant losses. The solution does not take into

account the thermal losses through the outer pane of glass, defect that made three or four times more

expensive than air conditioning systems that those used in the United States then.

"This development had been assessed in 1930 by the American Blower Corporation who concluded that the

system consumed four times more energy than air conditioning systems already on the market at that time”LA

CASA ERRÁZURIZ DE LE CORBUSIER Y PIERRE JANNERET: BASES PARA UN PROYECTO EJECUTIVO Claudio Vásquez Zaldívar UPC 2007 – pág 800

In the Villa Schowb in 1916, LC builds up a high double glazed, in which central space introduced,

apparently, a heating pipe. It is the closest Le Corbusier will be from the neutralizing wall. THE ARCHITECTURE OF

THE WELL-TEMPERED ENVIRONMENT Reiner Banham Ed. Architectural Press, London 1969 – page 61

"According to a technique which long before had become standard in the construction of factories of clocks,

the Villa Schwob is equipped with double glazing and heated by a forced air system with pipes embedded in

the walls“LE CORBUSIER Kenneth Frampton Ed. Akal Arquitectura Madrid 2000 (París 1997) - page 16

Images from Claudio

Vásquez Zaldívar UPC 2007

– page 802 y 806

Project of duoble glazing in maison Guiette in Bélgica 1926. First version non built. fig V-84

Still in two later projects constructed large double glazings, but the space between them seems occupied by

gardening elements as if it was a greenhouse.

But actually LC never built a neutralizing wall. The projects for Soyuz Center included one, but was not build.

The amazing thing is that with that contempt of "transitional" techniques limitations, is willing to design large

simple windows where it is seen a clear need for a neutralizing wall. He prefers to save the image of the future

than making a minimal concession to habitability. This is the case of the Cité Refuge and Swiss Pavilion where

reality forces him to be confined to a single glass wrapping which makes uncomfortable its occupants life.

Studio behind the huge window Swiss Pavilion(above) and main façade of the Pavilion (left).

The Cité Refuge, the closest building to his outlandish ideas, front glasses were fixed and ventilation was

entrusted to a mechanic system, who was always insufficient. His occupants life, those called "refugee" is

hardly describable.

Le Corbusier went on to suggest using a white mole to test the suitability of the environmental conditions.

This fact reveals his lack of understanding towards the reaction of users, especially mothers with children

stuffed into the tiny cabins.

The villas provoked widespread protests over construction problems and lack of comfort. At Stern House, the

South front windows show no sunscreen in the original photos. Apparently a few years after the shutters were

added, as the picture shows. (probably in 1936, because of his change of ownership)

Deprotection of the facades of all

holes forced more or less radical

interventions that Le Corbusier

never fully accept, and that lasted

the rest of his life.

The painful penance

In these years of transition, Le Corbusier put awnings on some of his buildings. We have already mentioned

the ones on Clarté building, added soon after its construction.

In 1948 LC is offered as an advisor for the restoration of the Cité Refuge whose facade had been completely

destroyed. Their concerns are purely aesthetic. Repeated protests by officials and passengers, even the

allegations after first occupation have not affected him. However, he is forced to form three horizontal bands

on each floor, the lower will be opaque, the average fixed glass and the top operable glass. LA CITÉ DE REFUGE DI LE

CORBUSIER Brian Brace Taylor Officina Edizioni, Roma 1979 The addition of a small brisoleil will be practically useless.

Le Corbusier called his cousin Pierre Jeanneret to carry construction. He gratefully accepts, and acknowledges

that "the Cite de Refuge est, je crois, well malade et en plus sur certains né bad points" LA CITÉ DE REFUGE DI LE

CORBUSIER Brian Brace Taylor Officina Edizioni, Roma 1979 – pág 151, Carta a LC 30 Abril 1948).

From 1948 to 1957 Le Corbusier is reluctant to accept that the curtain wall in the Swiss Pavillion must be

replaced and protected by a rolling shutter. The high temperatures, the flight of students and a verdict from

the ministry, go over his architectural authorship claims.

Swiss Pavilion

1951 Discovering comfort

Is not until the beginning of the fifties when comfort is a stated goal in his works.

Apparently Corbu recognized, or known, the importance of comfort and

environmental design driven by his wife's comments and, almost certainly,

forced by his fights. “C’est un problème dont je me suis aperçu à un moment

donné. C’est encore ma femme qui m’a attiré l’attencion sur cette question. Un

jour elle m’a dit que c’est une caserne chez moi. Je lui est dit:”mais pourquoi

donc?” Tout un coup en réfléchissant, c’etait un dimanche soir nous etions

ensemble tous les deux, j’ai dit: mais c’est l’éclairage qui fait ça¡ Il y a trop

d’éclaraige partout, il y a une lumière trop intense, des lieux trop brutaux” […]

J’ai compris. Qui a dit ça autrefois? C’est Archimède, je crois. J’ai decouvert la loi

de l’eclarage” Des entretiens avec le recteur Maillet 1951

In the 1951/52 LC built the Cabanon for his own wife, with only two windows: 70cm wide and equipped with internal shutters.

“J’ai un château sur la Côte d’Azur qui a 3,66 mètres par 3,66 mètres. C’est pour ma femme, c’est

extravagant de confort, de gentillesse...“ explains Le Corbusier.

In 1952 LC wrote in the detail for Maison Jaoul (1951-55) " fermeture a l’interieur par store perrier ou volets

type Cap Martin ”. The last ones were placed. LE CORBUSIER AND THE MAISONS JAOUL Caroline Maniaque Princeton Architectural

Press, New York 2009 - pág 66 detalle FLC 30649.

Combine the swing window with the folding shutters. The size control, fragmentation of the facade panel with

hole and solid and the presence of the shutter for a better control of light, thermal and noise insulation, show

the beginning of comfort concerns. If in 1930 LC breaks with purism, the truth is that he needs twenty more

years to understand environmental design bases. At 64 old: My God, such long and difficult career training for

architecture!

The neutralizing wall, after Le Corbusier

Finsbury Health Center, Tecton 1935 Rinascente, Franco Albini y Franca Helg 1961

The idea of the neutralizing wall has some interesting features that have been subsequently developed.

The simplest is the association of the fluid conducting thermal energy with the facade. It is reasonable

because the facade is the result of a deal with the public space and unlikely to change its place with the

years. Moreover, the energy will be brought where it is most needed, at the perimeter of the building.

That idea is applied immediately in buildings as projected by the Tecton group in Britain or some years later

as the Rinascente in Italy.

Lloyd’s of London, Richard Rogers 1980

The other advantage is the elimination of the cold radiation, retaining transparency. Keeping the inside glass

warm means significantly improve the thermal comfort of people who are near the façade for hours. But as

we have seen, the problem are outward thermal losses that may be very large. The current solution is the

more effective glass with U under 1.3.

In 1980 Rogers designed Lloyd's headquarters façade solution closer to the intentions of the neutralizing wall.

The glass facade is used as a channel but also to temper inner layer temperature. But the air circuit is

reversed, as in tertiary buildings heat input usually exceed the losses, the indoor air is forced to pass through

the luminaries to refrigerate them and then through the air between glaziers in order to heat the inner layer.

New Parliamentary Building, Westmister, London 1989 Michael Hopkins and Partner

In his definition of neutralizing wall Le Corbusier admits that its layers can be made of glass or other

materials.“Como no hay necesidad de que los cuatro lados de la casa sean de vidrio, construiré unos

paneles de vidrio, unos paneles de piedra ( […] ladrillo, productos artificiales de cemento u otros) y unos

paneles mixtos” PRECISIONES Le Corbusier Ed. Apóstrofe Barcelona 1999, Colección: Poseidón – page 74

This means that the external layer can be made of an opaque material and, why not, thermal insulation.

Conclusions

As explained by William Curtis, Le Corbusier replaced the academic training by his travels. This self-

taught training was oriented towards successive topics according to the closest influences. By this way

he passed through epidermal considerations, worried about the exterior ornamentation and illustrated

by ruskinian drawings in his trip to Venetia, to the structure as the soul of the building when reading

Choisy and works with Perret. Travelling gave him a vision of architecture as something necessarily

monumental: "I'm obsessed with building big (Trip to East, page 41). When it’s time to build, it is painting

standards which dictate his criteria and don’t understand the role of comfort in the quality of the

architecture.

Only at the end of his life he was aware of the brutality of its initial approach: "With thirty-two years I

was in L'esprit nouveau" fervor, loyalty, recklessness, but also value, accepted risk. [...] Youth is the

hardness, intransigence, purity" (Les Dernières oeuvres, page 167).

The immense success of this immature self-taught but incredibly convincing is undoubtedly one of the

main drivers of the destruction of traditional filters, in favour of an absurd minimalism of pictorial origin.