Seated Nude

1932

Stalin rejects his Palace of the Soviets

For the international competition for the Palace of the Soviets, planned on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Le Corbusier proposed a complex with an arch from which the main hall's roof was suspended. To his distress, Stalin chose a massive neoclassical tower crowned by a statue of Lenin.

1933

The Athens Charter of CIAM

Le Corbusier's planning concepts formed the basis of the Athens Charter, adopted at the fourth CIAM congress in Athens.

1935

First visit to the United States: skyscrapers “much too small”

Le Corbusier visited the United States for the first time. Asked by reporters about New York's skyscrapers, he replied that they were “much too small”, and wrote a book on the trip, When the Cathedrals Were White: A Journey to the Country of the Timid, about the lack of boldness in American architecture.

1935

Publishes The Radiant City

In a new book Le Corbusier described the Radiant City of standardised apartment blocks, where homes would be allotted by family size rather than income, and industry, housing and commerce kept to districts of their own. The war intervened before any units could be built.

1936

Rio de Janeiro: the Ministry of Education building

On a lecture tour of South America, Le Corbusier worked on the design of the Ministry of Education in Rio de Janeiro (architects Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer). At his suggestion its office tower received full glazing and external sun-breakers, one of the first experiments of the kind.