Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (1887-1965), better known as Le Corbusier, is a heroic figure in the history of architecture. Widely considered as “the architect of the 20th century”, his career meets all the characteristics that define modernity.

Le Corbusier visited Spain for the first time in May 1928. An exceptional propagandist of his own work, he came invited by the Sociedad de Cursos y Conferencias to give two lectures at the Residencia de Estudiantes; one on “Architecture, Furniture and Works of Art”, and the other under the title “A House-a Palace”. Both lectures continue to be a milestone in the history of the Residencia de Estudiantes, as they were in its day for the young group of architects lead by Fernando García Mercadal in Madrid.

As Le Corbusier’s book Une maison-un palais, whose draft was read during the second conference, the exhibition revolves around a series of works and projects carried out during those years. The architecture of the house is represented by the Cook House, Villa Stein, and the two houses built at Weissenhof Siedlung in Stuttgart; the public institutions, by the Palace of the League of Nations in Geneva; and the urban projects, by his proposal for a Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants and its application in Paris, in the so-called Plan Voisin. A sequence in different scales that allowed Le Corbusier to understand the concept of inhabiting not only as a private function but also as a public one.

All these works and projects are related to a time of extraordinary creativity in Le Corbusier’s career, when, besides working on his architectural and urban projects, he managed to dedicate his time to painting, furniture design, the writing of controversial books, and to developing an intensive propaganda work in favour of modern architecture, in a multiple and reciprocal enrichment among them.