Le Corbusier (1887–1965), born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret in Switzerland and a French citizen from 1930, was an architect, urban planner, painter and writer, and one of the pioneers of modern architecture. In 2016, seventeen of his projects in seven countries were listed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Villa Savoye in Poissy (1931) sums up his Five Points of Architecture: the house stands on pilotis, with a free plan, a free façade, ribbon windows and a roof garden. After the Second World War, the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille (1952) stacked two-level flats along interior "streets" in rough-cast concrete, béton brut, and is often named as the first inspiration for brutalism. Notre-Dame du Haut at Ronchamp (1955) has thick curved walls under a concrete roof shell, with daylight entering through a thin gap and deep, scattered windows. Sainte-Marie de La Tourette near Lyon (1960) is measured with his Modulor, a system of proportions based on the human body. He also planned the city of Chandigarh and its Capitol Complex. Le Corbusier's buildings and books remain a starting point for students, though his politics and city plans are still debated.