PIERRE JEANNERET | ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

PIERRE JEANNERET ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1896 in , Pierre Jeanneret graduated from the Geneva School of Fine Arts in 1921 and moved to this same year. Since then, he became his cousin ’s closest associate and he is perhaps better known for this collaboration. Together, in 1926, they wrote a manifesto explaining their architectural aesthetic vision, entitled ‘Five Steps Towards a New Style of Architecture’. With this book they created a new type of architectural work, breaking with old methods seen then as archaic. Their ‘’ designed in 1929 is the three-dimensional manifestation of this piece of writing.

Some of their most famous buildings are the Villa Roche in 1923, the Swiss Pavilion at the Cite Universitaire in Paris in 1931, the in and the Cite Refuge in Paris in 1932.

DESIGNING FURNITURE

In 1929, he collaborated with Le Corbusier and for an exhibition at Paris’ Autumn Salon. Here, he exhibited cutting-edge furniture such as tubular steel chairs, stools and a set of shelves, of which he often drew the first blueprints and was frequently involved in the more technological elements. Indeed, Pierre Jeanneret was also a distinguished famous furniture designer, heading modern design in the twenties and thirties with Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand.

THE PROJECT OF A LIFE

But above all, their greatest oeuvre lasted fifteen years. Jeanneret worked in India as Chief Architect and Designer of urban redevelopment in , which then became a cornerstone for modern architecture. Most famously built here was the Gandhi Bhawan building, on the campus of Punjab University, which evokes a lotus flower floating on the water. Jeanneret stayed on in the city after everything was finished as an advisor to the local government. He designed chairs for their offices and number of private homes, too. Ever since, he remains in this country the most famous of the Jeannerets. PIERRE JEANNERET | ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

LITERATURE

1938 / Îlot insalubre no 6, collaboration with Le Corbusier, Paris, . / Complete Works, 1934-1938, Published by Max Bill, Girsberger Edition, Zürich, Switzerland.

1934 / Complete Works, 1929-1934, published by Willy Boesiger, Girsberger Edition, Zürich, Switzerland.

1931 / Petition to Monsieur le président du Conseil de la Société des Nations, collaboration with Le Corbusier, Paris, France.

1928 / Petition to la Société des Nations, collaboration with Le Corbusier, Paris, France

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