Visual Paper: Le Corbusier's Carpenter Center at Harvard University

This essay examines Le Corbusier's Carpenter Center for Visual Art at Harvard University, highlighting its architectural design and significance within both global and local contexts. The building, housing galleries, studios, and the Harvard Film Archive, embodies Le Corbusier's five points of new architecture and is seen by some as an inverted version of Vila Savoye. The essay discusses the building's unique features, including its S-shaped ramp, pilotis, and rooftop garden, and how it stands in contrast to the surrounding Georgian architecture. The analysis includes the building's influence from architectural plastic themes and its connection to the Millowners Association Building in India, concluding that the Carpenter Center represents Le Corbusier's continuous testing and purification of architectural ideas.

Running head: THE CARPENTER CENTRE FOR VISUAL ART BY LE CORBUSIER
THE CARPENTER CENTRE FOR VISUAL ART BY LE CORBUSIER
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author's Note:

1THE CARPENTER CENTRE FOR VISUAL ART BY LE CORBUSIER
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of the building named The Carpenter Centre
For Visual Art situated in the Harvard University of the US. This essay has analyzed the design
of the building, the aim of the architect, namely Le Corbusier and the effect of this architecture
in the global and local perspectives. The Carpenter Centre houses the main gallery at the ground
level where the students showcase their artworks through exhibitions. This building also houses
the Visual and Environmental Sert Gallery on the third floor. Along with these, the building also
has the Harvard Film Archive. This famous building bears all the features of the designs of Le
Corbusier including his five pillars of new architecture which has made this building prominent
in the history of global architecture. Many of the scholars hold that this building to be an inverted
version of Vila Savoye and some see the similarities of this building with the Millowners
Association Building in Ahmedabad, India. This building is situated in the perfect setting of
Quincy and Prescott Streets. This building stands out prominently in the local context. From
different angle, the building has different presentation. These features of The Carpenter Centre of
Harvard, has helped this to stand out from the other buildings located in the same position and
directly oppose the Georgian style of architectural design. This essay includes the subtle aspects
of the design and identifies why the design is unique in its own way.

2THE CARPENTER CENTRE FOR VISUAL ART BY LE CORBUSIER
The Carpenter Centre For Visual Art is located in the Harvard University in Cambridge.
It is interesting as this is the only building that was actually designed by Le Corbusier in the
USA. This building has a compact and roughly cylindrical mass that is bisected by an S-shaped
ramp on the third floor. It is the home to the visual art of Harvard, and it has a large open studio
where the students can work as well as exhibit their art. Le Corbusier had designed this building
with the collaboration of Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente, a Chilean architect in the 35 rue de
Sevres of Le Corbusier. This building was completed in 1962 and became the palace of
showcasing the fusion of painting, photography, sculpture and film with architecture. This
particular Centre in the New England region holds the largest collection of 35 mm films where
the independent, silent and international films hold the screening. As mentioned before, it is the
one and only building designed by Le Corbusier in the United States has too many things to
admire1. The Auditorium section in the final design was reconciled with having a pinwheel effect
so that the two halves of the roughly cylindrical mass can meet at the vertical core housing an
elevator (See figure 2).
In the global context, the importance of The Carpenter Centre For Visual Art is critical as
this is the place where all types of art and art forms get infused. This particular place appears to
be an inverted version of Vila Savoye. This building embodies five point of architecture of Le
Corbusier from the exterior of the Carpenter Centre. These five points are the reflection of his
own technique which he referred to be the ‘five points of a new architecture’. These five points
are Pilotis that is the replacement of the supporting walls by a grid of reinforced concrete
columns bearing the complete structural load of the building2. Politis is the basis of the new
aesthetic. The second point includes the free designing of the ground plan which relates to the
absence of supporting walls. This means that the house will be unrestrained in its internal use.
The third point is the frees design of the façade to separate the exterior of the building from its
structural function and to set the façade free from the structural constraints3. The fourth point of
this design includes the horizontal window that cuts the façade along its entire length as well as
1 Vinson, Shaelyn J. "Exploring the Contemporary Use and Understanding of Precedent in Architectural Design via
a Comparative Analysis of Brunelleschi and Le Corbusier." (2016).
2 Shah, Mahnaz. Le Corbusier's Venice hospital project: an investigation into its structural formulation. Routledge,
2017.
3 Lorenz, Wolfgang E. "Complexity across scales in the work of Le Corbusier Using box-counting as a method for
analysing facades." CAADence in Architecture (2016).

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lights the rooms equally. Finally, the roof garden or the fifth façade on the roof to serve a
domestic purpose in one hand and provide essential protection to the roof made of concrete.
In the previous designs of the Carpenter Centre For Visual Art had created the problem of
disruption in the central mass which later solved by bringing the pinwheel effect so that the two
halves of the design are joined at the vertical core that may house an elevator. Le Corbusier has
highlighted an architectural promenade which runs through the center of this particular building
and connects the interior galleries, studios and the screening rooms to public spaces and the
campus within the building4. The Carpenter Centre For Visual Art has a centralized ramp having
a slow ascent through the building levels. The building has a large and open floor plate that is
supported by the iconic pilotis mentioned before allowing the open studio environments. It has a
degree of revealing the visitors to peer into the interior spaces through the separation of the
ramps and the floor plates (see figure 3). The flexible configuration of this building showcases
the works of the students. The Carpenter Centre For Visual Art has big horizontal openings as
well as the roof garden, the fifth pillar of Le Corbusier’s design gives scope for the external
connection.
The Carpenter Centre For Visual Art is located Quincy and Prescott Streets and
surrounded by the buildings of the Georgian style. This building stands out prominently in the
local context. From different angle, the building has different presentation. For instance, as seen
in the figure 4. the building from the Prescott Street it looks like the curved studio space, from
the brise-soleil, it is placed perpendicular to the direction of the central portion of the ramp and
make the narrow ends visible from the street5. From the Quincy street, the building reveals its
ondulatoires which interferes with the curve of the building less than the view of brise-soleil do
on its opposite side (see appendix 1). On the ramp from the Quincy street before entering the
building, the grids and rectangles and square of the windows, studio spaces and brise-soleils can
be seen.
The concept of The Carpenter Centre For Visual Art of Le Corbusier was actually
inspired by the architectural plastic themes from the year 1945 and started some initial
4 Leatherbarrow, David. "Introduction: The Project and Projects of Modern Architecture." Companion to the History
of Architecture (2017): 1-7.
5 Goldschmidt, Gabriela. "Manual Sketching: Why Is It Still Relevant?." In The Active Image, pp. 77-97. Springer,
Cham, 2017.

4THE CARPENTER CENTRE FOR VISUAL ART BY LE CORBUSIER
investigations such as domino. This building can be contrasted with the Millowners Association
Building in India which too was formed with blocks of different height in the open plane,
wrapped in marquee as well as accessible through a ramp sculpture. In case of The Carpenter
Centre, Le Corbusier has used the central nucleus as a cubical volume which ends in the curved
workshops at every end of the diagonals. This set is crossed by the S shaped ramp breaking with
the orthogonal geometry of its neo-Georgian environment. Therefore, it can be concluded that
each of the steps that the architect has used in the design process is the method of his testing new
ideas as well as to purify the older. This is the reason why the building attracts the architect and
designers around the world till today.

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References:
Goldschmidt, Gabriela. "Manual Sketching: Why Is It Still Relevant?." In The Active Image, pp.
77-97. Springer, Cham, 2017.
Leatherbarrow, David. "Introduction: The Project and Projects of Modern
Architecture." Companion to the History of Architecture (2017): 1-7.
Lorenz, Wolfgang E. "Complexity across scales in the work of Le Corbusier Using box-counting
as a method for analysing facades." CAADence in Architecture (2016).
Shah, Mahnaz. Le Corbusier's Venice hospital project: an investigation into its structural
formulation. Routledge, 2017.
Vinson, Shaelyn J. "Exploring the Contemporary Use and Understanding of Precedent in
Architectural Design via a Comparative Analysis of Brunelleschi and Le Corbusier." (2016).

6THE CARPENTER CENTRE FOR VISUAL ART BY LE CORBUSIER
Appendices:
Appendix 1.
Appendix 2.

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Appendix 3.
Appendix 4.

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