By contrast to the last post, this is a side chapel inside La Tourette Monastery by Le Corbusier.  This space, almost monochrome, quiet, is considerably taller than wide.  The unseen light streaming down from above eccentuates this verticality, a modern version of the tall, heaven-stretching gothic cathedrals.

This space is about standing still, not a roving eye surveying the landscape, but a still, standing individual looking from toe to head, earth to sky, trying to fix this place on earth, not looking for yet another place to go.

Photograph by Mark Gerwing, 1988.

a very quick watercolor of the gallery in the Roche-Jeanneret house by Le Corbusier in Paris.

This is an endlessly fascinating house for me, spatially rich and complex without being fussy or didactic.  A challenging program of public and private spaces is deftly handled with a series of unfolding levels.  The circulation is a bit overly dramatic, maybe even monumental, but the overall effect of the house is very interesting.

watercolor sketch by Mark Gerwing, 1995

Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp, Le Corbusier, 1950.

On a very cold and foggy morning, I made my trek, like countless architecture students before me, up the hill to Ronchamp. Instead of anticipating this audience with the great work by seeing the church from the valley, the fog and damp completely obscured the view.

Unlike the various descriptions of this building, my experience was not of a beautiful, plastic sculptural form, disposed in sunlight, on the green hilltop. With visibility down to about 30 feet, a walk around the building was odd and mysterious, with forms suddenly materializing into view, but without the context of the whole.

The interior was so quite and so still as just myself and my friend Tim were the only people there. It was stunningly cold, so the superintendent just left us on our own. So of course, contrary to the posted signs, we started taking photos, albeit a bit dark and shaky.

This is a photo of the south wall. The usually diffuse light was so dim, that only a silhoutte of light and dark was exposed.

Photo by Mark Gerwing, 1988.