The Le Corbusier Galaxy: František Sammer and a global network of avant-garde architects

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Martina Hrabová

The Le Corbusier Galaxy

František Sammer and a global network of avant-garde architects

Martina Hrabová

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English

Routledge
31 March 2025

History of Art & Design Styles; Architecture: professional practice; History of architecture; European history; Civil engineering, surveying & building

Drawing on the author‘s discovery of an unknown, long-forgotten collection of photographs in an Indian ashram, this book offers an exciting, new view of the international community of young architects who served as Le Corbusier‘s assistants in the inter-war years. A collection of some 500 snapshots, assembled by the Czech architect František Sammer between 1931 and 1939, had been stored unnoticed for more than 70 years in an unlikely location – the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. Sammer was one of Le Corbusier‘s closest assistants from the early 1930s. Later, Sammer worked in the Soviet Union, Japan and India. During, and after, his time in Paris, he personally took or collected these photographs, which he then deposited at the ashram when he left to fight in World War II. The images offer a remarkable view of the international community of people who worked in Le Corbusier’s atelier in the 1930s. Among those featured in the photographs are Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane West (the first American woman to work for Le Corbusier), Gordon Stephenson, Antonin Raymond, Junzo Sakakura and Josep Lluís Sert. Given the travels and international background of these individuals, the photographs are from different countries around the world, including the USSR, England, France, Czech Republic, Greece, USA (Tennessee, Montana, California and New Mexico), Japan and India. The Le Corbusier Galaxy successfully brings together serious archival research with a fascinating narrative, and it captures the human dimension of modern architecture, which is all too often neglected in today’s accounts.

By: Martina Hrabová
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 276mm, Width: 219mm,
Weight: 540g
ISBN: 9781032678580
ISBN 10: 1032678585
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 31 March 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Foreword by Mary McLeod Introduction Author's Note Letter for the Reader Part 1: The Research Diary Part 2: The Le Corbusier Galaxy ‘Livre noir’ Sammer’s photograph collection 35 rue de Sèvres, Paris, 1931 The family from the atelier Architect-photographer Summer 1931 In the gravitational field of the galaxy The Depression as a bonding agent A professional in a crew of amateurs, 1932 The female element On marriage Urban planning Leaving 35 rue de Sèvres, Spring 1933 Spain and the Maghreb West Kirby CIAM IV The architects brigade from Paris: ‘The Le Corbusier Group’ Moscow Merging with the masses 35 rue de Sèvres outside Paris The Grand Tour, Autumn 1934 A Life worth living The Land of 1,001 Sakakuras The Soviet Union, 1935–37 Paris, January–February 1937 Japan revisited India Real war Great Britain, 1946–1947 Returning The galaxy reflected in the ‘Livre noir’ Part 3: Escursuses Excursus 1: Great Britain, 1931 Excursus 2: Spain and the Maghreb, 1933 Excursus 3: Japan, 1935 Excursus 4: The Caucasus, summer 1936

Martina Hrabova is an art historian who specializes in the history of modern architecture. She obtained her PhD in art history from the Charles University in Prague, where her dissertation addressed new findings on Le Corbusier‘s connections with the former Czechoslovakia. She is a recipient of numerous grants and fellowhips, including a Fulbright Fellowship, a French Government grant and the Canadian Centre for Architecture Visiting Scholarship. She has published articles in JSAH, Room One Thousand and Art/Umění. The Czech-language edition of her book Galaxie Le Corbusier received the prestigious 2022 Josef Krása prize for the best art book in the Czech Republic. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Art History at Palacký University in Olomouc.

Reviews for The Le Corbusier Galaxy: František Sammer and a global network of avant-garde architects

""This is an astonishing piece of research, full of detail and new material that will fascinate expert historians of modern architecture. It is a significant addition to the field and part of a trend to research architects who passed through the atelier at the rue de Sèvres."" Tim Benton, Professor Emeritus of Art History, The Open University ""This book will clearly make a major contribution to our understanding of Le Corbusier and the way that his office worked."" Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Profesor of Art History, University College Dublin ""Martina Hrabová’s book offers splendid new insights into the world of Le Corbusier’s atelier and the many extraordinary young assistants who worked for him there. What makes this book especially intriguing is that it presents a previously unknown photographic record of the ""galaxy"" around Le Corbusier, mostly in the guise of informal snapshots. This deeply personal record offers the reader a compelling look at modernism’s heady years and those who made it."" Prof. Christopher Long, Professor of Architectural History, University of Texas at Austin ""Hrabová’s book is unique in its subject matter and there are really no competing works. It moves the focus away from Le Corbusier, as important as he remains, to the young people in the atelier who helped make the interwar work so exciting, including women! The book covers material not covered in other publications and places a greater emphasis on the personal friendships that were forged in Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret’s atelier and their lasting impact on careers and architecture."" Mary McLeod, Columbia University, Professor of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP ""In her new book, Martina Hrabová charts a circuitous search for the more nuanced meaning of modern architecture in the period between the two World Wars. She deftly explores the documentary, historic and social significance of the photographs concealed for close to eighty years in the remote locality of an Indian ashram. Thanks to the author’s informed and empathetic approach, the reader of this highly original book gets to discover anew the contribution of some architects whose own role in the service to modern architecture is at long last revealed to be of an undeniable international significance."" Irena Žantovská Murray MArch, PhD, HonFRIBA