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Le Corbusier

General Comments December 22nd 2011

Looking around at the sofas that are available on the commercial market today, in particular the leather sofas, it is hard to deny that most of them have been influence by the Corbusier sofa design. Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, was not only an architect, but he was also an architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, as well as being named one of the pioneers of what we now call modern architecture.

Born in Switzerland he soon became a French citizen in 1930 with a career that spanned 5 decades. Not only did he contribute to furniture design, he was responsible for the construction of buildings in central Europe, India, Russia, one building in North and several in South America.

Charles originally adopted his nickname “Le Corbusier” in 1920 which is an altered version derived from his grandfather “Lecorbésier” as a pseudonym as it was his belief that anyone has the ability to reinvent themselves.

With regards to office furniture, Charles was famous for saying "Chairs are architecture, sofas are bourgeois." which is a philosophy that has stuck with designers to this day. It was in 1928 that Le Corbusier began to experiment with furniture and recruited the help of Charlotte Perriand, a fellow architect to join his studio. One of his most famous chairs that Le Corbusier produced was the Basculant (LC-1) which has become an iconic chair even today. By looking at the chair, it does not seem as if it was made for the domestic market, but for the commercial sector. The chair can be used as a conference chair, meeting room chair, waiting room chair or reception chair.

The most iconic sofa that he made, which has influenced many leather sofas in its design is the LC-2 and LC-3 respectively. This black leather sofa or white leather sofa has been remade by various manufacturers and is just as popular today as it was when it was first produced.

Le Corbusier image 1Le Corbusier image 2

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