Saint-Pierre ( en,
Saint Peter
Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...
) is a
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
building in the commune of
Firminy,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. The last major work of
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
, it was started in 1973 and completed in 2006, forty-one years after his death.
History
Designed to be a
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
in the model city of
Firminy Vert, the construction of Saint-Pierre was begun in 1971, six years after Le Corbusier's death in 1965. Due to local political conflicts it remained stalled from 1975 to 2003, when the local government declared the mouldering concrete ruin an "architectural heritage" and financed its completion. The building was completed by the French architect
José Oubrerie, Le Corbusier's student for many years.
It has been used for many different purposes, as a secondary school and as a shelter. As the
secularist
Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations.
Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...
French state may not use public funds for religious buildings, Saint-Pierre is now used as a cultural venue.
Impact on architecture
In the
World Architecture Survey The World Architecture Survey was conducted in 2010 by '' Vanity Fair'', to determine the most important works of contemporary architecture. 52 leading architects, teachers, and critics, including several Pritzker Prize winners and deans of major ar ...
of 2010, by
Vanity Fair magazine, the building was ranked as second in the rankings of the top structures built in the twenty-first century, receiving four votes. American
deconstructionist architect
Peter Eisenman
Peter Eisenman (born August 11, 1932) is an American architect. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his writing and speaking about architecture as well as his designs, which have been called high modernist or deconstructiv ...
asserted in his response that this building is the most important structure built since 1980.
[Tyrnauer, Matt, ''Architecture in the Age of Gehry'', Vanity Fair, Number 600, August, 2010, p.156-167]
See also
*
World Architecture Survey The World Architecture Survey was conducted in 2010 by '' Vanity Fair'', to determine the most important works of contemporary architecture. 52 leading architects, teachers, and critics, including several Pritzker Prize winners and deans of major ar ...
References
* vishal
External links
Le Corbusier in FirminyGuide to the Le Corbusier Correspondence and Photographs on the Design for l'Eglise de Firminy 1964*
City of Firminy website on Saint-Pierre
Le Corbusier buildings in France
Monuments historiques of Loire (department)
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