Carpenter Centre - Information and Le Corbusier Elements

A lot of pictures of different aspects of my matrix building the Carpenter Centre by Le Corbusier.

The Carpenter Centre for Visual Arts is situated at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is the only building designed by Le Corbusier in the United States. Le Corbusier designed it in collaboration with the Chilean architect, Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente, with the building being completed in 1962.

The building was constructed in response to a donation by the Carpenters, and today houses the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies of Harvard University as well as housing the Harvard Film Archive, the largest collection of 35mm films in New England. The building is essentially a cubic volume with interior diagonal studios extending out in opposite directions, intersected by a S-shaped ramp that rises from the center of the 3rd level leading to Quincy St on one side and Prescott St on the other. The building is in direct bold contrast to its neo-classical surroundings, standing out with a distinct modernist style and associated geometry. The building's floors and levels are attached to grids of concrete columns on the interior forming the majority of the structural building element, with open plan areas creating open free flowing spaces utilizing the mass and space of the building interior. Other influential Corbusian elements is the use of cylindrical piloti, the play of dark and light by the use of simple grid like windows, the elevation of the building from the ground, the mixture of curves and orthogonal lines in the building's exterior form and has been described as a building that encompasses a vast majority of Le Corbusier's theories.

Addresses of pictures:

http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/396d2b90.html

http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/0480fa9b.html

http://sdngnet.com/Gallery2/v/USA-2005-Mini/Boston/album06/Boston_Harvard_University_Carpenter_Centre_for_the_Visual_Arts_by_Corbusier_14_Mini.jpg.html

http://praxismakesperfect.tumblr.com/post/3054039093/carpenter-centre-le-corbusier-by-hagen-stier

http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/b293027b.html

http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/86b76d24.html

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/carpentercenter/interesting/

http://www.archlab.tuwien.ac.at/~carpent/carpenter/texte/story/carp2.html