Le Corbusier works named as UN world heritage sites

Le Corbusier - an influential but controversial figure

The UN's cultural organisation has listed 17 works by pioneering Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier as world heritage sites.

Le Corbusier spearheaded the modern movement after World War One, using iron, concrete and glass in a new focus on bold lines and functionality that did not appeal to everyone. The sites are in seven countries.

The High Court building in Chandigarh

They include La Cite Radieuse in Marseille, Maison Guiette in Antwerp and the Indian city of Chandigarh.
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) said the works reflected "a new architectural language that made a break with the past".

La Maison Guiette in Antwerp, Belgium

The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo

Le Corbusier House at the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, Germany

It said sites such as the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo and the House of Dr Curutchet in La Plata, Argentina, reflected how the Modern Movement sought to meet "the challenges of inventing new architectural techniques to respond to the needs of society".


Ten of the sites are in France and include the Dominican monastery of La Tourette near Lyon and La Villa Savoye near Paris. Others are in Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Argentina, Japan and India.

Le Corbusier was born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1887, and adopted French nationality in 1930, dying there in 1965.