The Shift of Le Corbusier

In the 1930's, Le Corbusier's architecture moves from the machine-à-habiter with its precise walls to a modernism using vernacular materials within his own idiom of design. Le Corbusier equates these two realities, the modern and the vernacular, in a juxtaposition where both are taken out of their familiar context, creating a surreal condition. This sort of surrealist device would be well known to Le Corbusier, particularly because of his association with Paul Dermée, an advocate for Surrealism and editor of L'Esprit Nouveau, also edited by Le Corbusier and Amédéé Ozenfant. In this Chapter, Le Corbusier's use of juxtaposition between the vernacular and the Modern is examined in the Errazuriz House, DeMandrot House, and Pavilion Suisse. This work of Le Corbusier's would be well known to Breuer, particularly the De Mandrot House that Breuer visited in 1931. Breuer's familiarity with Le Corbusier's work and his own exposure to Surrealism in Paris of 1924 would lead to his own use of Surrealist ideas.