1425314

Le Corbusier and the Problems of Representation
Author(s): Luis E. Carranza

Source: Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 48, No. 2 (Nov., 1994), pp. 70-81
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of
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Le Corbusier and the Problems of Representation
Luis E. CARRANZA, Harvard University
By reading the graphic, architectural, and assess his attitudes toward women in gen- capitalist hostilities . . . freedom and irre-
photographic records of the work by Le Corbusier
eral and within the context of his architec-
sponsibility if not immorality."4 Male
through a feminist lens, we can see that it is
loaded with codes and systems of meaning that ture. To do this, however, we must painters occupied and represented in their
reflect his attitudes, and those of society, about understand the "traditional" view of works places unavailable to "respectable"
women's place within the context of his modern
women, such as bars, brothels, and the
women within the spaces of architecture,
architecture. By giving us a glimpse into his
subconscious, these clues disturbingly confirm the relationship between the architectbackstage.
and
what has always been insinuated, that Le his objectification of women, and the Women in the 1800s did not look,
Corbusier objectified and had an aversion toward
women. The canonization of his oeuvre has placement of himself in relation to the
but rather were the object of the gaze of the
rendered this and subsequent related work world, specifically the one he created.' flaneur, a man who moved throughout the
problematic through its gendered associations city observing, but never interacting, and
and meanings.
"consuming the sights through a control-
The Spaces of Femininity ling but rarely acknowledged gaze, directed
as much at other people as at the goods for
THE UTILITARIAN AND FUNCTIONALIST AS- Within the context of urban life in nine-
sale."5 For women to go out into the male
pects that have traditionally set architec-
teenth-century France, Griselda Pollock
public realm created many difficulties. As
ture apart from the fine arts have alsodiscusses the depicted distinctionsJules in Michelet points out, these included
made it difficult to engage architecture painting of the spaces that women werebeing
al- mistaken for a prostitute or being re-
within a feminist critique. The multiva- duced to a mere spectacle. If a woman en-
lowed to occupy and those that they were
lence of meanings held by an architectural
forbidden. She argues that the work tered
of a restaurant alone, "all eyes would be
object and the silence contained in its walls
Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt illus- constantly fixed on her, and she would
are precisely the elements that seem to pre- overhear
trated the spaces traditionally occupied by uncomplimentary and bold con-
vent critique by comparison with what womenis jectures."6 This could be seen as a conse-
as being very different from those
possible with painting or sculpture. The spaces depicted exclusively by men, asquence
ex- of a particular public arena that
spatial qualities of architecture also obfus-
emplified in the work of Edouard Manetallowed bourgeois men to seduce or pur-
cate issues related to femininity because, as
and other Impressionists. These femalechase working-class women. In contrast to
we know, the self-referentiality of space women's firmly defined position, a man, or
painters primarily dealt with the spaces
negates any type of ideological transmis- flaneur,
and subjects that fell into the category of was allowed to lose himself in the
sion, including its determination domestic
as social life and, as such, never
crowd, gaze voyeuristically, and act in com-
gendered. The gendering of space, as I will plete freedom. The middle-class or respect-
exceeded the status of "mere" genre paint-
later show, occurs through the typological able woman, on the other hand, was
ings.2 The spaces occupied and represented
and socially constructed assignment of by these women were not simply relegatedcompartmentalized in the private realm
spaces, which are based primarily on to domestic interior scenes, but rather within
rep- which, on their return from the ex-
gendered stereotypes that have dominated
resented the positionality in discourseterior
and or public world, the men acted with
western thought. For these reasons, socialto constraint in accordance with their socially
practice, ordered by sexual politics
evaluate architecture as being specifically
and the economy of looking and beingacceptable roles as fathers and husbands.
gender-based, we must examine the archi-seen, in which their femininity was mani- The division of space across gender
fested.3 In the case of Cassatt and Morisot,
tects and the types of decisions that they lines had already been defined in architec-
make, before and after the creation of ar-
these spaces were a direct influence oftural
the terms by Renaissance architect Leon
chitecture, that allude to a particularlytransformation of the city into a place Battista
for Alberti in his treatise, I Libri della
gendered portrayal or positioning of consumption and specularity. Women Famiglia,7 in which he similarly delegates
women through their architecture. By em- were positioned within the realm of the the place for women as the house and the
ploying this framework, we can begin ex- place for men as the public world: "It
private spaces that were, as Pollock sug-
amining the works of Le Corbusier to would hardly win us respect if our wife
gests, "spaces of sentiment and duty from
which money and power were banished busied
... herself among the men in the mar-
Journal ofArchitectural Education, pp. 70-81, ketplace, out in the public eye. It also
placefs] of constraint." Men, on the other
@ 1994 ACSA, Inc. seems somewhat demeaning to me to re-
hand, occupied the public spaces of "daily
November 1994 JAE 48/2 70
main shut up in the house among women honor."'0 The distinction of male and fe- Vivante, for example, render everyday ex-
when I have manly things to do among male scopophilia and the politics of look- periences and objects accessible to the
men, fellow citizens and worthy and dis- ing creates and reinforces the spaces of reader by presenting them not only as frag-
tinguished foreigners .... The character of femininity. A woman remains within the mentary but as "corresponding to the ex-
men is stronger than that of women.... socially acceptable realm of the interior or perience of culture in the society of
Women, on the other hand, are almost all in socially sanctioned environments to media.""11 Under closer examination, we
timid by nature, soft, slow, and more use- find that these photographs do indeed
avoid being seen (as a prostitute) and to
ful when they sit still and watch over our avoid seeing (as an act of perversion bypresent the contemporary cultural situa-
things."8 In this case, as in Pollock's ex- having men too much on her mind). tion; however, they also provide us with a
ample, gender lines mirror economic divi- The materialization of these beliefs window into his subconscious. An explora-
sions: Men tend to business because of can clearly be seen manifested in the archi- tion into Le Corbusier's process of con-
tecture and in the positioning of women tinuous editing of photographs-erasing,
their shrewdness, and women stay at home
because of their timidity and inabilitywithin
to it, particularly in its representa- removing from context, reframing, choos-
deal with financial transactions. Alberti tions, shown by the work of Morisot and ing, composing, and constructing-reveals
also notes that, whereas the exterior worldCassatt. How, then, is one to read an ar- many indications in these images about Le
is the realm of labor for men, the home ischitecture that attempted to break with Corbusier's aversion toward women.12
their place of constraint, away from busi-past architectural traditions? Is Le What we find is that Le Corbusier follows
ness transactions or work. Corbusier's oeuvre truly innovative in a and repeats architectural conventions or
In Alberti's treatise, the female gazeconceptual restructuring of these tradi- standards that attempt to control the im-
or look is equated with spying and is there-tions, or does it maintain and reproduce age of women and nature through privileg-
fore condemned. Alberti claims that a
the ideology and patriarchal hegemony ing the position of men/architecture over
woman should be more eager to know within the innovative restructuring of his women/nature. However, at the time of
what happens in her own house, as she
buildings? As discussed earlier, to ascertain representation, Le Corbusier reveals traces
should be guarding the man's possessions,the ideological intention of the architec- of himself and the role he envisioned for
rather than outside its walls, noting that a it is necessary to examine the decisions women as well as their position within his
ture
woman who spies "too much on men may made by its architects that determine these architectural and artistic production; in
be suspected of having men too much on qualities. In Le Corbusier's work, this can other words, the representations of archi-
her mind, being perhaps secretly anxious clearly be found in his architecture and his tecture reveal the classical structure of pa-
whether others are learning about her own
representations of it. triarchal oppression working within
character when she appears too interested traditional architectural representation.
in them."' In the dichotomies between the There is a dichotomy inherent within
flaneur and the women in Alberti's trea- Le Corbusier and the Problems the work of Le Corbusier that dialectically
tise, scopophilia (pleasure in looking) can in Representation pairs the figurative work (drawings, photo-
shed some light as to the problems in- graphs, sculptures, etc.) in contrast to the
volved in the look. For Sigmund Freud, Beatriz Colomina refers to the photo- architectural production. This juxtaposition
the act of seeing objectifies the person ob- graphs of Le Corbusier as representing a similarly can be read as the clash between
served by subjecting him or her to a curi- new reality about the ways in which he the irrational unconscious of the former and
ous and controlling gaze. This gaze, used them, not only to represent, butthe rational consciousness of the latter.
generally associated with sexual pleasure rather, as modern advertisement had done, Through this pairing, however, it is also
and stimulation through sight, portrays a to construct a text. For Le Corbusier, the possible to analyze the work in terms of the
double standard in its social context. The photographs of architecture and machinesuniversalizing aspirations of a utopian mod-
male flaneur is expected to use the gaze as that he included in many of his publica- ernism that placed a tremendous stress on
he travels through the city. For the women tions helped him assess a portrayal of his the purity of the visual signifier. An investi-
in Alberti's treatise, however, looking is own architecture and his relation to it. The gation into this quality of the work by Le
regarded as perverse and irreconcilable photographs that Le Corbusier used in Corbusier elucidates what Jacqueline Rose
behavior for a "lady of unblemished Vers une Architecture and in L 'Architecture refers to as the sexuality in the field of vi-
71 Carranza
ernist avant-garde, whose means of artis- prejudices can be seen as influencing the
tic dissemination consisted primarily of work that he produced. In Le Corbusier's
elements of the mass media, the transfor- drawings, paintings, and sculpture, we can
mation of conventions through which ar- see three things that are of interest regard-
chitecture and its images were transmitted ing his portrayal of his relationship to
was altered to suit the systems of mass pro- women. The first is his inability or lack of
duction and mass dissemination of infor- desire to portray women, indicating his
mation. This transformation profoundly opposition toward the feminine. In much
altered the course of architecture and, be- of his work, we can find a masculinization
cause of his abilities to manipulate this of women (as in Nude Female, 1931 [draw-
newly formed medium, of the reception of ing 65 from Le Corbusier Secret (LCS)]).'5
Le Corbusier himself. Nevertheless, the im- These women are portrayed as large and
pact that this had on architecture trans- muscular, and their stereotypical long hair
formed the way that we now see, learn, and hides what appear to be male faces. The
create architecture-that is primarily based fact that they are women is revealed by the
on images. A critical engagement with the titles of the pieces and by the exaggerated
figurative work therefore immediately be- breasts. We also find, in his earlier work, a
gins to inform the architectural work. The lack of portrayal of the otherness, women's
semantic purity of the architectural genitals, which becomes problematic by
signifier, as Le Corbusier would describe presenting us with an unconscious fear of
the arrangement of forms that made archi- what is not there and, ultimately, what
tecture, would inform the purist qualities that absence represents. In this early work,
1. Le Corbusier, Nude Female, 1931. ? 1995 Artists Rights
Society (ARS), N.Y./SPADEM, Paris. of the villas as being completely self-refer- until about, 1940, the positioning of
ential. Through investigations into the women in the pictures prevents Le
sion, showing that the "image [can be held] irrational and subjective quality of his un- Corbusier from having to deal with
accountable for the reproduction of norms" conscious artistic work, however, psycho- woman's "lack" of a phallus (as in Two
and that the scrutiny of the image "adds the analytic theory can be mobilized to analyze Women, 1932 [plate 17 from A Marriage of
idea of a sexuality that goes beyond the issue the particular and limiting opposition be- Contours (AMC)]'6 and Two Nude Women,
of content to take in the parameters of vi- tween male/architect and female that the 1928 [drawing 15 from LCS]). In his later
sual form (not what we see but how we see rational and objective quality of the archi- work, we find not only that he portrays
it)."'3 The figurative work provides us with tecture, seen to be devoid of meaning, this "lack," but that he portrays it in a very
the articulation of a particular language of maintains. This investigation similarly can graphic manner-illustrating the vulva
patriarchy that is present within his repre- describe the persistence of the typical fe- and its void (as in Woman with Candle and
sentation of architecture. By studying such male patriarchal oppression present w;thin Two Figures, 1946 [plate 30 from AMC]).
representation, we find, on the one hand, his architectural production. The earlier work perhaps is introduced by
the reproduction of the language or ideol- a fear of the feminine otherness and thus a
ogy of patriarchy. This is achieved through fear of castration, and in the later work,
a series of particularly gendered conventions Le Corbusier and Women the otherness is fetishized to remove this
that position women, both as users and cre- fear and show it as an anatomical occur-
ators, within the margins of artistic or archi- Le Corbusier saw women as inferior and rence.17 These images reveal two things.
tectural production. On the other hand, the disregarded them in his architectural pro-
First, these portrayals and their disruption
photographs, through their manipulations, duction. For example, when Charlotteof traditional modes of representation
echo the predominant system of architec- Perriand approached Le Corbusier about point to a possible relationship between
tural representation. the author's sexuality, or his imaginary
joining his team as a furniture designer, he
Because of the position that Le immediately replied, "We don't embroider conception of it, and its representation in
Corbusier occupied in the emerging mod- cushions in my studio."'" This and similar the field of vision. This inability to repre-
sent can be equated to Freud's analysis of
Leonardo da Vinci, who was unable to rep-
resent the sexual act, and can lead to the I <
conclusion that Le Corbusier's drawings
allow us to "deduce the repression of li-
bido-a repression that [can throw] the '4)
great artist and investigator into something

approaching confusion."1" The second
thing that these images reveal is what
Laura Mulvey described as the artistic
fetishization of the female body. Le
Corbusier, like the artist Allen Jones,
whom Mulvey discusses, does not actually
show the female genitals; they are "always
concealed, disguised, or supplemented in
ways which alter the significance of female
sexuality."'9 In the images mentioned
above, the candle continually oscillates be-
tween the genital itself and its phallic dis- -roo
traction. The flame of the candle becomes,
2. Le Corbusie
in place of the phallus, a representation of
the scar, violence, and fear of castration;
yet, it serves to displace this fear, as "tradi-
tional" fetishistic objects do, through the
overvaluation of a mediating substitute.20
Through their placement in his
work, Le Corbusier visually objectifies
women by submitting them to (unreturn-
able) voyeuristic gazes, making them into
194AtssRgt oit (R) ..SAEPrs
objects of male desire. In many cases, the
drawings suggest a voyeuristic view of
women in which the point of vision sug-
gested by the drawings implies an abnor-
mal positioning of the artist-in many
cases as if he were hidden (as in Two Nude
Women at the Table, n.d. [drawing 54
from LCS], or Two Women, n.d. [drawing 3,L Corbusiers chi"s o nget (wih C.Ar t Peri..
47 from LCS]). In other cases, he portrays 1 r R s e R / D P .
the women caught "in the act" by his
voyeuristic activities (as in Woman and
Leaf, 1946 [plate 14 from AMC]). The
gaze of Le Corbusier, in these, dominates
these women by finding them in the act of
doing something "perverse" and by the po-
sition that he occupies in order to be the
subject of the gaze. This objectification of
73 Carranza
subjection. The sculpture Le Petit Homme
(1944) portrays a small man whose penis
SN
wraps around him; the title, "the little
man," is a French vernacular expression for
the penis. This sculpture, as a libidinal sub-
conscious representation, give us a glimpse
of Le Corbusier's image of himself.24 Simi-
larly, many of his drawings and paintings
portray the men as dominating women.
L Zeynep Celik, for example, argues that Le
Corbusier's depiction of Algiers in the
cover sketch for Podsie sur Alger as a goat-
headed well-endowed woman caressed by a
hand, perhaps that of the architect, shows
.. . ...
the mastery over the feminized body of the
colonialized territory-the prostitute and
the conquered.25 In Composition, 1959
(drawing 170 from LCS), containing a
Ift
similar motif, we find a naked woman with
the backdrop of the city, seen depicted
from a boat, as would have been the case
with Algiers, awaiting the arrival of the
colonizer. The colonizers are portrayed as
bulls, a traditional metaphor for masculin-
4. Le Corbusier, Composition, 1959 ? 1995 Artists Rights
Society (ARS), N.Y./SPADEM, Paris. ity and virility, and the open door behind
the woman signifies her as welcoming their
women by the male gaze is clearly evident was precisely what Olympia did not pos-arrival. Another set of paintings and
in the photograph of Charlotte Perriand sess. She failed to occupy a place in the dis-sketches portrays women in relationship to
on the Le Corbusier and Perriand chaise course on woman [of the nineteenth traditional fetish objects-in one case,
longue, where she is made into an acces-century]."22 Although Perriand is arrangedropes (as in Two Bathers and Dog, ca. 1931
with the correct amount of distance and
sory of the furniture. By allowing the skirt [plate 13 from AMC]). This depiction por-
to flow downward, her legs are revealedheight (not as close or as high in relation trays a need to be able to control women,
and thus fetishized and shown as objects ofto the viewer as Olympia), she appears toon one hand, and emphasizes, on the other
desire. However, most important, Perriand reveal herself to the viewer in an unknow- hand, the role of the fetishistic object,
never acknowledges the viewer.21 Unlikeing way by the natural falling of the skirt.which serves subconsciously as a sadistic
Manet's Olympia, the photograph does not In contrast, Olympia appears to object topunishment for the lack of the phallus.26
depict an opposing gaze confronting theher viewing and hides herself from us
photographer, but rather shows a voyeur- while, at the same time, she dares us and
istic scene: the unknowing woman and theconfronts our look. The photograph ofLe Corbusier: Photographs
photographer, and audience, that looks atPerriand offers us, as in the traditional of a Male Architecture
her. If we compare both, we see in Olym-nude paintings, an "infinite territory on
pia a recalcitrance about the traditionalwhich spectators are free to impose their Issues similar to the ones previously men-
representation of a woman who not onlyimaginary definitions."23 tioned in relation to the paintings and
confronts and resists our gaze, but one Finally, we can see that Le Corbusier's drawings can be found in many of the
who "turns, inevitably, on the signs of portrayal of men reinforces stereotypes andphotographs attributed to or composed by
sexual identity .... [For] sexual identity
attitudes about male virility and female Le Corbusier. By presenting a single view-
point, the camera or photograph implies a the front facade, usually the one with the
constructed look that can be related to main entrance to the building, as the main
facade. This picture, obviously one of im-
scopophilic drives as well as to the desires
of the subconscious. We find that Le portance in L Architecture Vivante because
I..
Corbusier's photographs show the impor- of its size and prominence in the book, fo-
tance of men and the masculine in archi- cuses specifically on the side that houses
tecture through the positioning of women the cars. In this case, Le Corbusier has "muFn '? ?
within their socially constructed "rightful gone against traditional representation and
place" in the house, showing the (male) portrayed the most important aspect of the
gaze as one of the driving forces that con- villa: the machines. The priority for Le
trol his architecture.27 Corbusier is to show where the machines
5.S
Le Corbusier constantly asserted that will be located, and by doing so, he disre- (Ed
(AR
the house was a machine for living. The gards the living occupants of the house.
reference of the machine was used not only Similarly, the picture that "synthesizes" his
for the house, but also for painting and life architecture, the first plate in L Architecture In
itself. His own carefully constructed im- Vivante, is of an airplane; the caption Co
age, for example, was that of a "machine" claims that architecture-and, by implica- cr
or a mass-produced human being: He al- tion, the machine-is not simply a lan- gr
ways wore a black suit, white shirt, and guage of forms, but rather is something pl
"owl" glasses. There is no doubt that the that must stand in harmony between na- be
machine also became the generating ele- ture and human creation. In this case, the pu
ment in Le Corbusier's architecture. The machine dominates nature, however. The sc
curvilinear shape on the ground level ofairplane, according to Freud, represents ar
the Villa Savoye, for example, was ob-the male organ, not only by its shape, but gr
tained as a result of the maximum turning also by the means that "enable it to rise in ci
radius of a car. This insistence on the ma- defiance of the laws of gravity."30 This a
chine can be equated with the phallus anddomination of nature is also depicted by je
masculinity. The machine, in FreudianLe Corbusier through the siting of the to
terms, represents all that is male: activity
buildings themselves as removed from na- sh
ture-as phallic fetishized objects in the
and power. By claiming that his houses se
were machines, Le Corbusier, therefore,landscape-yet the relationship that they eg
assigned to them a gendered distinction as have with nature is one of visual control. Co
male, because a "regular" house would beThis is most evident in the Villa Savoye, en
passive by nature and therefore female.28 Inwhere the windows frame the landscape se
some of the photographs, man is specifi- and allow man, in a mechanical or photo- ph
cally translated by Le Corbusier as a ma-graphic way, to analyze and therefore con- te
chine. The small modeling figurine thattrol it visually. Even objects that are clearly sp
inhabits the Maison Cook, for example, iscontextualized-for example, the photo- al
the machine that inhabits these spaces and graph of the Villa Shwob in L'Espirit de
the one that also points or focuses our gazeNouveau or the photograph of New York m
to the windows, corresponding to, accord- in the "Architecture or Revolution" chapter ki
ing to Colomina, the mechanical eye of the of Vers une Architecture-are decontextu- T
film camera.29 Another photograph shows alized to show the machine's importance th
one of the Villa Savoye's side facades, la-over nature and to reinforce the fact that ar
beled as the main facade, deviating fromman (phallus) is superior to and dominates th
traditional architectural representations ofwoman (nature). T
75 Carranza
7. Entry hall of the Villa Savoye, from L'Architecture Vivante
(Editions Albert Morance, 1931). ? 1994 Artists Rights Society
(ARS), N.Y./SPADEM, Paris.
6. Page from L'Architecture Vivante (Editions Albert Morance,
1927), depicting the juxtaposition of the library and the kitchen
of the Maison Cook. ? 1994 Artists Rights Society (ARS), N.Y./
SPADEM, Paris.
placement of the objects, the loaf of bread,

and the fish, are obvious signs that they
were carefully placed and not necessarily
scenes from everyday life. The kitchens are
completely devoid of any life with the ex-
ception of these objects. These photo-
graphs, as within pornographic depiction,
use fetish objects that allow the viewer to
enter safely into the feminine space, archi-
tectural or visual, by disavowing the threat
or the memory of castration. In both pho-
tographs, the main elements-the bread, 8. Rear elevation of the Villa Savoye, from L'Architecture Vivante
the fish, the creamer, the teapots-serve a (Editions Albert Morance, 1931). ? 1994 Artists Rights Society
fetishistic function by their shape and their
character. The teapot, for example, can be
said to represent the phallus through the ground, which to Colomina signifies the Throughout many of the photo-
shape and placement of the nozzle. The passage of the man through the space, graphs, the male gaze, used to position and
fish is a standard metaphor, according to symbolizes the female genital orifice, control women, can be seen as the creative
Freud, for the male organ. The fan, as a which can only be opened by the male force behind the architecture. One of the
machine, contains the element of activity key.33 In Le Corbusier's eyes, modern ar- more problematic photographs is of the
and control over nature, and therefore rep- chitecture or his own architecture, is the Immeuble Clarte. In it, we see a woman in
resents man. The open door in the back- realm of men. the interior of the house looking at what
appears to be her husband on the exterior,
denoting the spaces of femininity and mas-
culinity as discussed by Pollock. However,
there is a third figure: a voyeur, hidden in
the shadows and intently looking at the
woman. He objectifies her, and she does
not return his gaze. The third figure creates
a voyeuristic space that resembles Robert
Doisneau's Un Regard Oblique (1943); the
woman becomes the object of the "joke"
played by the photographer, the voyeur,
and her husband.34 As in Doisneau's photo-
graph, Le Corbusier's photograph places
the real scopophilic power in the margins.
The woman, whose look is concealed from
the viewer, becomes the object of the
voyeur's vision. The male gaze, as in Un Re-
gard Oblique, is the centered focus of the
9. Kitchen of the Villa Savoye, from L'Architecture Vivante
photograph, regardless that it comes from
(Editions Albert Morance, 1931). ? 1994 Artists Rights Society the margins. Mary Ann Doane, who elabo-
rates on Doisneau's photograph, argues that
by negating and framing the woman's gaze,
the spectator's pleasure is created. The
woman becomes the butt of a "dirty joke."
In both photographs, according to Freud's
standards, the joke is played by the fact that
"the object of desire-the woman-must
be absent and a third person (another man)
must be present to witness the joke . . . the
person to whom the smut is addressed.""35
For the joke to work, the third spectator al-
luded to is the viewer of the photograph
and this person must be male. The joke in
both photographs operates "as the struc-
tural exclusion of woman."36 This power of
the privileged male viewer over the woman
reinforces what was found in Le Corbusier's
drawings and paintings.
The architectural promenade in the
Villa Savoye can similarly be read as an ele-
ment that serves to objectify woman as she
traverses space. In the movie L'Architecture
d'aujourd'hui, directed by Pierre Chenal in
collaboration with Le Corbusier, we see a
10. Kitchen of the Villa at Garches, from LArchitecture Vivante
(Editions Albert Morance, 1929). ? 1994 Artists Rights Society
woman walking through the Villa Savoye.
(ARS), N.Y./SPADEM, Paris. Colomina describes the sequence:
77 Carranza
... And it is there [the inside of the
house], halfway through the interior,
that the woman appears in the screen.
She is already inside, already con-
tained by the house, bounded. She
opens the door that leads to the ter-
race and goes up the ramp towards
the roof garden, her back to the cam-
era. . ... Her body is fragmented,
framed not only by the camera but by
the house itself, behind bars.... The
woman continues walking along the
wall, as if protected by it, as the wall
makes a curve to form the solarium,
the woman turns too, picks up a
chair, and sits down.... But for the
camera, which now shows us a gen-
eral view of the terrace, she has disap-
peared behind the plants. That is, just
11. Exterior balcony of the Immeuble Clarte, from L'Architecture
Vivante (Editions Albert Morance, 1930). ? 1994 Artists Rights
at the moment when she has turned
Society (ARS), N.Y./SPADEM, Paris.
and could face the camera (there is
nowhere else to go), she vanishes.37
As we have seen previously, the cam-

era acts as a voyeur, following a woman
whose gaze never confronts us and who
therefore never acknowledges the viewer.
She is objectified by the camera. The archi-
tectural promenade, as described by this
film, becomes something like a fashion
ramp on which the woman is to be seen
"parading her goods"-her body as an ob-
ject of desire-as she travels through the
spaces of the house. Every level of the house
is allowed a view of the ramp. The woman,
Colomina claims, is framed by both the
camera and the house, in particular, the
mullions of the windows. The fragmenta-
tion of the female body in the film-in sec-
tion by the floor slabs of the house and in
elevation by the window mullions-shows
a sadistic objectification of the woman. In
both cases, the image and fragmentation
created by the house display and make into
12. Still from L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui, 1929, directed by
Pierre Chenal (with Le Corbusier). ? 1995 Artists Rights Society
a "punishing" fetish the mutilated female
body. This is not only a fragmenting and
punishing dislocation, but also one that can
be seen as an objectivizing one. By placing
the woman behind a grid of measurement
of the house and mullions (as Albrecht
Diurer had done in his 1525 woodcut of an
artist drawing a reclining model), Le
Corbusier has placed the woman in a visu-
ally controlled position. The fenetre en
longueur similarly becomes the controlling
device of nature by suggesting that the im-
age the viewer sees is framed by a rhythmic
grid, which Colomina has interpreted as
"the architectural correlative of the space of
the movie camera."38 By the same token,
however, the fenetre en longueur can be read
into, from the outside in, as in the photo-
graph of the Immeuble Clart6, where it
serves to frame for analysis the inhabitant of
13. Study at the Maison Church, from L'Architecture Vivante
the house who, in this case, is a woman. In (Editions Albert Morance, 1930). ? 1994 Artists Rights Society
contrast to this, the section of the film on (ARS), N.Y./SPADEM, Paris.
the Villa at Garches shows the architect

himself walking through the house. We see
becomes
him drive up to the house, walk through its window. The camera unaided, and there-
the spectacle that guides us
spaces, and ignore the daily occurrences ofthrough the house, whereas the man createsfore the architect as camera and machine
it. As soon as we see Le Corbusier's face in
and moves the narrative. We see the impor-for seeing, has provided this image. Le
Corbusier has looked at himself in the
tance that he has through his arrogance and
this segment, we see him as a film character
playing his part, which, according to the the way that he majestically traverses the Lacanian mirror and the Other that he has
spaces of the house. Le Corbusier becomes
system of visual relations, posits the impos- found is what he desires to be: a machine.
the
sibility of our voyeurism."9 In this case, we hero of the narrative; he is the one who
This is no ordinary machine, however; it is
see Le Corbusier playing the traditional has given life, through his genius, to an idea a machine for seeing. A machine that con-
role, within the economy of filmmaking, as that has become the architecture we now trols through its gaze by paralyzing time.
the mover of the narrative whereas the admire. Le Corbusier reinforces his role as the
woman in the Villa Savoye can be seen as The manifestation of these ideas-of
privileged viewer by becoming the em-
constituting a resistance to narrativization.man as machine, man as voyeur or privi- bodiment of seeing. As Christian Metz
Teresa de Lauretis writes that: the descrip- leged viewer, and Le Corbusier's own asso-points out, he does not identify with the
tion of plot construction is established "on ciation with both-can clearly be seen in aimage itself because the primary identifica-
the single figure of the hero who crosses thephotograph of the Villa Church. In it, we tion has already taken place in his child-
boundary and penetrates the other space. In find the standard remains that denote the hood, but rather he identifies with the
male qualities of the architecture: the hat process itself: the all-perceiving subject.42
so doing the hero, the mythical subject, is
constructed as human being and as male; heand the open books (perhaps referring to According to Jacqueline Rose, this identifi-
men as knowledgeable or academic).41 The cation begins the construction of the
is the active principle of culture, the estab-
lisher of distinction, the creator of differ-picture, however, reveals the traces of theimaginary ego:
ences. Female is what is not susceptible to architect himself as the one who frames the
transformation, to life or death; she (it) is
image and through whose eyes we see the [Placing at the point of identification
an element of plot-space, a topos, a resis-room. This is the camera that we see re- in the mirror, which sets up the ego
tance, matrix, and matter."40 The womanflected in the mirror next to the picture as an imaginary instance,] a specific
79 Carranza
Urbild or construct, therefore, which operating within the architectural system. naissance Florence, Rende Neu Watkins (Colomb
from then on functions as the in- The danger of this, of course, lies in the University
re- of South Carolina Press, 1969), p. 207.
9. Ibid., p. 210.
stance of the Imaginary, command-production of the stereotypes and ideolo- 10. Ibid.
ing both the illusionary nature of thegies created through a patriarchal system. 11. Beatriz Colomina, "Le Corbusier and
relationship between the subject andThis becomes especially problematic when Photography," Assemblage 4 (1987): 18.
the real world, and the relationshipwomen themselves continue these modes of 12. In this case, for example, I concentrated
on Le Corbusier's L Architecture Vivante (Le
between the subject and the identifi- self-identification and representation, re-
cations which form it as "I." The Corbusier and P. Jeanneret, Editions Albert
maining within the established codes and
Moranc6), in particular the early photographs from
canons of architectural representation,
confusion at the basis of an "ego-psy- 1927-1931, four to eight years after Vers une Archi-
chology" would be to emphasize the
without giving a second thought to their
tecture.
relationship of the ego to the percep-

origins and their implications. 13. Jacqueline Rose, Sexuality in the Field of
tion-consciousness system over and Vision (London: Verso, 1986), p. 231.

14. Mary McLeod, "Furniture and Feminin-
against its role as fabricator and fabri-
ity," Architectural Review (Jan. 1987): 43.
cation, designed to preserve the
Acknowledgments Nevertheless, Le Curbusier did hire Perriand
subject's precarious pleasure from after seeing her work at the Salon d' Automne of
1927.
impossible and non-compliant real.43
I wish to thank Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, K. 15. Le Corbusier Secret (Berne: Mussee can-
Michael Hays, D. Michelle Addington,
tonal de Beaux-Arts, 1987).
The mirror into which we see pro-
and an anonymous reader for their insight- 16. Richard Ingersoll, Le Corbusier: A Mar-
vides Le Corbusier with a coherent image
ful comments on earlier drafts of this riage
pa- of Contours (New York: Princeton Architectural
for self-identification. This view of his Press, 1990).
per. I especially want to thank Denise Ivy
imaginary identification with an object for 17. It is interesting to note that Woman, ca.
Dea, without whose criticisms and insights
seeing and its machine qualities againthis paper would not have been possible.1940 (plate 20 from AMC), shows a violent red
mark over the woman's genitals. This mark can be
points to their importance in his work. read as the violent and sadistic feature of castration
In conclusion, the work of Le
that Le Corbusier places on her. This drawing, in my
Corbusier reveals, through the drawings, opinion, marks the change in Le Corbusier's draw-
Notes
paintings, photographs, and built work the ings from an aversion to women's genitals to an
overfetishization of them. It is also interesting to
problems that he encounters in the repre-
1. I refer here to male architects as the "tradi- note that in Le Corbusier's life, 1940 marks the pro-
sentation of the feminine, his aversion to-
tional" gender for the profession. fessional separation between Le Corbusier and his
ward it, and the "fear" that it represents to 2. Griselda Pollock, "Modernity and the cousin, Pierre Jeanneret. According to Perriand, the
him. Having its basis on a patriarchal sys-
Spaces of Femininity," in Vision and Difference (New two complemented each other perfectly; Le
tem, the work reinforces the standards and
York: Routledge, 1988), p. 56. Corbusier and Jeanneret, she concluded in an inter-
3. Ibid., p. 66. view, "should not be separated." It should also be
rules set up by that system about the place
4. Ibid., pp. 68-69. For Pollock, the paint- noted that 1940 also marks the outbreak of the war
and behavior of and toward women in soci-
ings by Cassatt and Morisot show, in many in- and Le Corbusier's move from Paris.
ety. Through an analysis of the decisionsstances,
Le a clear distinction between the spaces of 18. Sigmund Freud, "Leonardo Da Vinci and
Corbusier has made about the depictionmasculinity
of and femininity through the use of a Memory of His Childhood (1910)," in The Stan-
his architecture, we can see not only thatboundary
it demarcation devices that separate the inte- dard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of
rior space, or feminine realm, from the exterior Sigmund Freud, Vol. II, trans. James Strachey (Lon-
is specifically gender-based, but also that it
space, or masculine realm. don: Hogarth Press, 1957), p. 72 (footnote). For
maintains the traditional modes of patriar-
5. Ibid., p. 67. more on this, see Rose, Sexuality in the Field of Vi-
chal oppression through the representation 6. Jules Michelet, La Femme, quoted in Pol- sion, pp. 225-233. Something similar to Leonardo's
of woman as spectacle, through the stereo-
lock, "Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity," p. 69. inability to portray the sexual act can also be seen in
7. This division was stated earlier in
typical gendered divisions of space as male Le Corbusier's drawing of Group Sex, 1934 (drawing
94 from
Xenophon's Oeconomicus, in which he describes LCS). In this case, as with Leonardo, the de-
that
or female, and through the continuation of
the god had "directly prepared the woman's nature
piction of the sexual act is inaccurate. The protago-
utopian ideals about the role of the archi-
for indoor works and indoor concerns" (VII, line
nists are portrayed as uncomfortable and undesired/
tect and architecture. By using these photo-
22). Later, the role given to women by theundesirable.
god is to Looking toward the viewer with anger,
graphs as precedents for contemporary the man
guard things brought into the house (VII, line 25). penetrating the woman does so through
works, nevertheless, these issues continue 8. Leon Battista Alberti, The Familywhat in would
Re- appear to be the anus. In both cases, this
failure can be seen as the failure to represent sexuality containing some elements with phallic significance);mestic Voyeurism," in Beatriz Colomina, ed., Sexual-
in the field of vision by two people who would have and last, woman as phallus (with elements that trans-ity and Space (New York: Princeton Architectural
been extremely gifted and qualified to do so. form her into the phallic image). Mulvey, "Fears,Press, 1992), pp. 98-100.
19. Laura Mulvey, "Fears, Fantasies and the Fantasies and the Male Unconscious," pp. 7-10. Le 33. Freud, "Symbolism in Dreams," p. 158.
Male Unconscious or 'You Don't Know What Is Corbusier's images clearly fall into Mulvey's second 34. It seems interesting to me that Colomina
Happening Do You Mr. Jones?'," in Visual and
category. completely disregards this portion of the photograph
Other Pleasures (Bloomington: Indiana University 27. In this paper, I concentrate on the earlyin her article in Sexuality and Space, even though the
Press, 1989), p. 7. work of the grands travaux of the twenties and the early photograph appears with the "voyeur" in
thirties because I feel that the early representations ofL'Architecture Vivante and in L'Architecture
20. The candle can also serve as an abject
symbol to Le Corbusier of women's genitals. Inhis
Pow-
work are the most "free flowing," unconventional, d'Aujourd'hui, Dec. 1933, volume 4. The cropped
ers of Horror (New York: Columbia University "pure,"
Press, and "uncontaminated" by experience. photo that Colomina used appeared later in the first
1982), p. 169, Julia Kristeva describes through the 28. According to Freud in his essay "Femi- version of the Le Corbusier Oeuvre Complete de
literature of Louis-Ferdinand Cdline, the horror and
ninity," when the girl discovers the anatomical dis-1929-1934 (Zurich: Editions H. Girsberger, 1935).
abjection by Celine of what she terms a decayed and between the sexes, she looses the enjoyment
tinction 35. Mary Ann Doane, "Film and the Mas-
derisive femininity in the image of a candle:
of her phallic sexuality and therefore rejects her masquerade," in Femmes Fatales (New York: Routledge,
"Women, you know, they wane by candle-light,turbatory
they satisfaction. With this renunciation, a cer-1991), p. 30.
tain is
spoil, melt, twist, and ooze!" ... The End of tapers amount of activity is also abandoned, which, 36. Mary Ann Doane, "Masquerade Recon-
a horrible sight, the end of ladies, too." according to Freud, leads the girl into passivity. To sidered," in Femmes Fatales, p. 40.
21. By this photograph, Le Corbusier clearly
Le Corbusier, the machine is clearly the territory of 37. Colomina, "The Split Wall," pp. 103-104.
shows that the woman is in no way his artistic the
coun-
male and a representation of masculine virility by 38. Colomina, "Le Corbusier and Photogra-
terpart, even though she may have been the force
itsbe-
inherent qualities of power and activity. phy," p. 21.
hind his furniture designs. She is relegated the role of 29. Colomina, "Le Corbusier and Photogra- 39. It is interesting that one review of the
woman in the traditional sense of the word phy," by Lepp. 18-21. film in 1931 sees the reinforcement of the film as de-
Corbusier-the object of the male gaze and his supe- 30. Sigmund Freud, "Symbolism in noting Le Corbusier's theories or goals that the
Dreams," in Standard Edition, Vol. 5, trans. Jameshouse is a machine for living as an airplane would be
riority over her. In this photograph, she abandons
her position as furniture designer to become the ob-
Strachey (London: Hogarth Press, 1957), p. 155. Seea machine for flying. See Pierre Chenal: Souvenirs du
ject of male desire. also Standard Edition, Vol. 5, p. 357. Cineaste (Paris: Editions Dujarric, 1984), pp. 32-33.
22. Timothy J. Clark, "Preliminaries to a 31. This almost inconspicuous detail, barely 40. Teresa de Lauretis, Alice Doesn 't: Femi-
Possible Treatment of Olympia in 1865," Screenvisible,
21/1 appears to be a mistake or an impromptu oc-nism, Semiotics, and Cinema, quoted in Mary Ann
(1980): 32. currence in the photograph. But knowing LeDoane, The Desire to Desire (Bloomington: Indiana
23. Ibid., p. 36. Corbusier's experience with cropping, decontextu-University Press, 1987), p. 6.
24. Ingersoll, Le Corbusier, p. 13. alization, and so on and his involvement in the setup
41. Whereas, in a different reading of the
25. Zeynep, Celik, "Le Corbusier, of the photographs, this hardly seems accidental.kitchen, the elements in it show the domesticity of
Orientalism, Colonialism," Assemblage 17 (1992):
Given the fact that there are at least two photographs women.
71-74. of the same view, probably taken on the same shoot, 42. Christian Metz, The Imaginary S
26. Mulvey, in relationship to Allen Jones,and that both depict the same scene (a woman, dif- Psychoanalysis and the Cinema, trans. C
claims that there are three aspects of fetishistic im-ferent in each case, entering through the back door)et al. (Bloomington: Indian University
ages: first, the woman with phallic substitute ("tradi-signals that this was obviously set up, planned, and 82), pp. 45-52.
tional," fetish image); second, woman minus phallus,definitely not accidental. 43. Rose, Sexuality in the Field of V
punished and humiliated (sadistic fetishism, still 32. Beatriz Colomina, "The Split Wall: Do- 171.
8 1 Carranza

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Le Corbusier and the Problems of Representation

Author(s): Luis E. Carranza

Luis E. CARRANZA, Harvard University

November 1994 JAE 48/2 70

November 1994 JAE 48/2 72

great artist and investigator into something

November 1994 JAE 48/2 74

placement of the objects, the loaf of bread,

November 1994 JAE 48/2 76

As we have seen previously, the cam-

November 1994 JAE 48/2 78

the Villa at Garches shows the architect

relationship of the ego to the percep-

tion-consciousness system over and Vision (London: Verso, 1986), p. 231.

November 1994 JAE 48/2 80

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