Œuvre complète: the open book

The book Le Corbusier et Pierre Jeanneret œuvre complète 1910-1929 is commonly seen as the repository of buildings and projects, the presentation of an ordered, documented series of events. However, it is worth examining the implications of this view of the book. The article begins by analyzing the process that led to the selection of the examples, going beyond mere chronology to illustrate the logic behind the sequencing of the chosen projects. In particular, it examines the cases of the Atelier d’artistes (1910) and of all the houses Le Corbusier designed in his native Chaux-des-Fonds between 1907 y 1914. The article seeks to understand why it was decided not to include any of the houses in the book and why, instead, it started with such an apparently “minor” work. Since some of the material published in Œuvre complète had previously been published, originally in the journal L’Esprit Nouveau in an article called “Houses in series”, the article traces the links –both in terms of form and content– between the two publications.