The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier is a World Heritage Site consisting of a selection of 17 building projects in seven countries by the Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier. These sites demonstrate how modern movement architecture was applied to respond to the needs of society and show the global reach of an architectural style and an architect. Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (1887–1965), known as Le Corbusier, was an architectural designer, urban planner and writer who was one of the pioneers of what is now referred to as modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and acquired French nationality in 1930. He designed buildings all over the world, and he was an important representative of the 20th-century modernist movement, which introduced new architectural techniques to meet the needs of the changing society. He revolutionised urban planning and was a founding member of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM).
Modern architecture, also called "the modern movement", is an architectural movement that was prominent in the 20th century. Modern architecture developed from the principles of functionalism (i.e. that form should follow function) and minimalism, resulting in constructions with little ornament, usually built with recently developed techniques and newly available materials (particularly glass, steel, and concrete). The properties that comprise this site are of various building types and include individual houses, apartment buildings, a factory, a chapel, a monastery, a legislative assembly, a museum and a cultural centre. The group of sites was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2016, during the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Istanbul. __TOC__
Nomination history In 2006, France nominated a list of 14 properties designed by Le Corbusier to its tentative list. Other sites from 5 countries were also nominated and submitted as a serial site along with the French entries. In 2009, the WHC decided to postpone their review of the properties until 2012. They asked for a better justification for both the selection of the sites and Le Corbusier's influence on architecture. The International Council on Monuments and Sites, which advises UNESCO on cultural World Heritage site nominations, also noted that "the omission of both the urban planning schemes and the public buildings at Chandigarh is a serious gap" in the nomination. In 2011, a modified nomination consisting of 19 sites was submitted, but this was deferred by the WHC so that the justification of the "outstanding universal value" point could be improved. In 2015 the nomination was further modified to only 17 sites, but now included the Capitol Complex in Chandigarh. This was accepted by the WHC and the site was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2016, during the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Istanbul.
The properties chosen were deemed to represent an "outstanding response to some of the fundamental issues of architecture and society in the 20th century" and to have "had a significant influence over wide geographical areas". The site as a whole was deemed to meet criteria 1 (masterpiece of human creative genius), 2 (important interchange of human values over a span of time) and 6 (directly associated with ideas of outstanding universal significance) of the selection criteria for cultural sites.
In 2025, the WHC noted that the conservation status of all the sites is "generally satisfactory", with maintenance/restoration continuing in various sites, and future restoration planned in other sites. They also requested that the next review be done by December 2026.
Sites + Name Picture Location UNESCO ID
Property area Coordinates Description Maisons La Roche et Villa Jeanneret Paris, France 1321-001 La Roche-Jeanneret house is a pair of semi-detached houses in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Maison La Roche was designed for Raoul La Roche to display his collection of Cubist and Purist works of art. Maison Jeanneret was designed for Albert Jeanneret (Le Corbusier's brother), his wife and their two children. The properties house the museum and offices of the Fondation Le Corbusier.
In the La Roche house, Corbusier implemented what he called the "architectural promenade", which says that architecture is designed to be appreciated in motion, not from a privileged vantage point. Spatial continuity is achieved through numerous openings and the elimination of partitions and doors that usually divide space. There is also the use of architectural polychromy derived from purism, which contributes to the perception of space. In the Jeanneret house, an "inverted plan" reverses the traditional layout of the house. The garden is on the terrace instead of the ground floor, while the floor meant for the living and reception areas is moved to just below the roof terrace. In both houses the facades are not load-bearing, which allowed the addition of the long ribbon windows. Petite villa au bord du lac Léman Corseaux, Switzerland 1321-002 Villa "Le Lac" Le Corbusier is a residential building on Lake Geneva in Corseaux, designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, between 1923 and 1924. The building was designed for Le Corbusier's parents, and makes use of three of Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture: the free plan, the roof terrace, and the "ribbon" window. One side of the house faces the lake, while there are fences on the other three sides. The lake-facing facade, is clad in aluminium sheeting and is traversed almost its entire length by a horizontal ribbon window. The garden terrace also has a small studio. In the house the bedrooms are clustered around the main living area in the east of the house, while the kitchen, bathroom and toilets are clustered in the west. Cité Frugès de Pessac Pessac, France 1321-003 Cité Frugès de Pessac is a housing development located in Bordeaux, that was commissioned by the industrialist Henri Frugès in 1924. It was intended to function as worker housing and designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, who were responsible for the master plan and individual buildings. The architects treated the site as an experiment in the standardisation of building construction. The houses were designed on a basic architectural type called B1L, composed of two levels of one and a half bays each. To avoid repetition, one or more extra bays were added which lead to five different types of houses. Maison Guiette Antwerp, Belgium 1321-004 Maison Guiette, also known as Les Peupliers, is a house in Antwerp, designed by Le Corbusier in 1926 and built in 1927. It was the studio and living quarters of René Guiette, a painter and art critic. The ground floor includes the living room (away from the street), the kitchen and pantry. The first floor has the master bedrooms at the front and the children's bedrooms at the rear, with the bathrooms between them. The second floor includes the maid's room, a storage room and a studio. Since this was Corbusier's first commission abroad, it represents European recognition of his work. Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung Stuttgart, Germany 1321-005 This listing comprises two buildings of the Weissenhof Estate, a housing estate in Stuttgart. It was built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition, an international showcase of modern architecture. Corbusier created a marked distinction between the load-bearing structure and the partitioning elements of the houses, to which he applied his Dom-ino construction system. The house has a cubic form, with the presence of visible stilts and a recessed basement. Villa Savoye et loge du jardiner Poissy, France 1321-006 Villa Savoye is a villa and gate lodge in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris. It was built between 1928 and 1931 using reinforced concrete. The house is a simple parallelepiped with four equal faces, raised on stilts and capped by a roof terrace and a solarium. Features that are common with other works by Le Corbusier include the elimination of the ground floor, the raised section on stilts, the emphasis placed on glazed surfaces and the use of polychromy to erase the texture of the materials used.