Few architects have embodied the hopes and disillusionments of the industrial age as Le Corbusier did, and with the possible exception of Adolf Loos and Frank Lloyd Wright, none has scandalized and outraged his contemporaries to quite the same extent. For much of Le Corbusier`s life, sarcasm and slander were his bedfellows, for he was of one of few architects whose widespread fame made him a household name. Between Fallet House, built in 1906-07, and his posthumous projects, Le Corbusier`s unremitting production spanned six decades, and never ceases to amaze. Le Corbusier constructed 75 buildings in 12 countries, and took on 42 major city-planning projects. He left behind 8,000 drawings, more than 400 paintings and pictures, 44 sculptures and 27 tapestry cartoons. He wrote 34 books, totaling some 7,000 pages, and hundreds of articles; he gave lectures and has left behind some 6,500 private letters, in addition to his voluminous business correspondence.
Le Corbusier came of age at a time when cars and airplanes were becoming a common means of transportation, thus he was one of the first professional architects to ply his trade on several continents at once, looming as an internationally recognized architect well ahead of the pack. But thanks to the process of photogravure and the modern press, he also became a public figure whose controversial observations and declarations often caused a stir. This all-round man, always eager to cultivate his public persona, encompassed all of the tensions of the 20th century, but at the same time he bequeathed a body of work unique in its complexity. He was also a man of great personal loyalty. The friendships that he formed in his hometown would accompany him throughout his entire life. His mother, Marie-Amelie Jeanneret-Perret, and his musician brother, Albert, remained lifelong confidants, as well as correspondents, along with the writer William Ritter. His close ties with his earliest friends, Leon Perrin and Auguste Klipstein, were long-lasting, as were the friendships he would strike up later, with artists such as Fernand Leger and Louis Soutter.