Dunlap, Richard Stockton
(2014)
Reassessing Ronchamp: the historical context, architectural discourse and design development of Le Corbusier's Chapel Notre Dame-du-Haut.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
This dissertation provides a reassessment of the design documents and historical
discourse concerning Le Corbusier's Chapel Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp.
Chapter 1 provides historical background for Le Corbusier’s acceptance of the
commission, and resituates the primary literature on the Chapel within its original
context: a tense ideological conflict between the French Dominicans and the Vatican
hierarchy, who had placed the principal patrons and their chosen architect under
covert surveillance. Chapter 2 presents a comprehensive review of the secondary
literature on the Chapel, providing chronological evidence that Le Corbusier’s
explanations of Ronchamp have exerted a predominant influence upon this discourse
since the Chapel's inauguration in 1955. Chapters 3 and 4 present an exhaustive
content analysis of the portion of the primary literature on Ronchamp published
between 1953 and 1955, highlighting the considerable discrepancies that these texts
contain. Upon the basis of this review, I suggest that there is sufficient warrant to be
skeptical about the canonical explanations of the Chapel's design, which first appeared
within these texts. The study concludes in Chapters 5 and 6 with a renewed
investigation of the extant archival materials pertaining to the initial phases of Le
Corbusier’s design work for the Chapel. I argue that the canonical explanations of
Ronchamp have overlooked many early drawings that played a fundamental role in the
architect's creative process, and, on the basis of these discoveries, propose a revised
sequence of design development for the first three phases of work within the atelier.
An alternate explanation of Le Corbusier's creative process is also proposed, based
upon a revolutionary approach to architectural design that he developed after the war,
which, I suggest, he did not wish to disclose to his professional peers or to the public.
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