Your basket is currently empty!
Biographies
Norbert Bézard
(1896-1956)
Born in Sarthe in 1896, Norbert Bézard worked as a baker, farm labourer, beekeeper and gravedigger, as well as working for a time in the Renault factories... A self-taught man, he wanted to bring life to the countryside and to his village, Piacé. Committed to the farmers' cause in the early 1930s, he and a militant group drew up the broad outlines of an agrarian reform. It was at this time that he met the internationally renowned architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965).
From this meeting, a collaboration and a solid friendship were born.
As a unique example, Bézard wrote a text on the Co-operative Village for his friend's book "Les Trois établissements humains", published in 1945... Their friendship continued until Bézard's death in July 1956. In the last years of his life, Bézard worked as a ceramist and painter. He received the admiration and, once again, the support of Le Corbusier. Among other things, he produced a series of ceramics for the Chapelle de Ronchamp. The architect would describe him as a man who was "hard, lively, acute, bursting with health, raging madly against the imbecilities of life, showing small, sharp fangs when he laughed or shouted".
Norbert Bézard in brief
- 7 June 1896: Birth of Norbert Bézard in Loué (Sarthe) to Marie Deromet and Alphonse Bézard.
- 1917: Escapes the Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne rail disaster and the atrocities of war.
- 1920: Married Célestine Ménager.
- 1932: Meets Le Corbusier. Contributes to the journals Prélude and Plan.
- 1937: Member of the steering committee of the 5th CIAM (International Congress of Modern Architecture). In charge of the report on rural town planning.
- 1938: Publication of the book Des canons? Des munitions? Merci, des logis S.V.P.! to which he contributed.
- 1939: Death of his wife Célestine Bézard.
- 1942: Marries Suzanne Rond, a primary school teacher in Marquette (Nord), then in Parcé (Sarthe).
- 1945: Publication of Les trois établissements humains, a book he contributed to. Moves to Paris. Works for Renault for a while. Works as a painter and ceramist.
- June 1956: Died in Paris.
Le Corbusier
(1887-1965)
Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, also known as Le Corbusier, was one of the 20th century's leading architects and town planners, as well as being an outstanding painter, sculptor, man of letters and polemicist. He revolutionised architecture worldwide and contemporary urban planning by inventing a new visual language - purism - based on "simplicity of form, organisation and rigour". He never wavered from his duty as an effective thinker about well-being, which "is to try to bring modern man out of misfortune, out of catastrophe; to bring him into happiness, into the daily joy of harmony".
His main achievements include
- Villa Savoye, Poissy (1928-1931)
- the Marseille housing unit (1945-1952)
- the Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp (1950-1955)
- the Couvent de la Tourette, Eveux-sur-Arbresle (1953-1960)
- the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge (Massachusetts) (1959-1963)
- Chandigarh (1950-1965)
Le Corbusier in a few dates
- 6 October 1887: Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, is born in the Swiss town of La-Chaux-de-Fonds to Marie-Charlotte-Amélie Perret and Georges-Edouard Jeanneret.
- 1912: Construction of the Villa Jeanneret-Perret (first self-build).
- 1915: Design of the Dom-ino house (a low-cost building system with a reduced structure).
- 1919: Founding of L'Esprit nouveau, an art and architecture magazine that was published until 1925.
- 1923: Publication of the book Vers une architecture, which made him a household name.
- 1926: Housing in the modern Frugès districts of Pessac.
- 1928: Participates in the creation of the CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne).
- 1930: Marries Yvonne Gallis.
- 1950: Publication of Le Modulor, in which he explains his theories.
- 1951: Travels to India, where he sets up a number of establishments.
- 27 August 1965: Le Corbusier dies in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin while swimming in the sea.