Three Women

1928–1930

Visits to Moscow: Meyerhold, Eisenstein, the Vesnins

For the Tsentrosoyuz project Le Corbusier came to Moscow in 1928, 1929 and 1930. He met Tairov, Meyerhold and Eisenstein, admired the Soviet avant-garde — the Vesnin brothers, Ginzburg, Melnikov — and began a friendly correspondence with Alexander Vesnin.

1930

Marries Yvonne Gallis and becomes a French citizen

Le Corbusier officially married Yvonne Gallis of Monaco, whom he had met in Paris in 1922. That same year he became a French citizen.

18 December 1930

Married: Yvonne Le Corbusier

1931

The Plan Obus for Algiers

Le Corbusier drew up a plan for Algiers: a concrete viaduct carrying housing across the whole city above the old quarters, without demolishing them. It provoked discussion but never came close to being built.

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.