ROAD TO WORLD HERITAGE

Selected from Le Corbusier’s extant work in eleven countries and on four continents, the sites of seven countries on three continents built over a period of half a century attest, for the first time in the history of architecture, to the internationalisation of architectural practice on the scale of the entire planet.
The seventeen sites together provide an outstanding response to fundamental issues of architecture and society in the 20th century. All these sites were innovative in their way of illustrating new concepts, all had great influence in vast geographical areas, and together they propagated the ideas of the modern movement throughout the world.

Criterion (i): The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier represents a major creation of human genius that provides an outstanding response to certain fundamental issues of architecture and society in the twentieth century.

Criterion (ii): The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier is evidence of an unprecedented exchange of influences, developed on a worldwide scale over half a century, in relation to the birth and development of the Modern Movement.
The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier revolutionised architecture, demonstrating in an outstanding, pioneering manner the invention of a new architectural language breaking with the past.
The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier marks the birth of three major trends in modern architecture: Purism, Brutalism and sculptural architecture.
The global dimension achieved by Le Corbusier’s architectural work on four continents is a new phenomenon in the history of architecture and bears witness to its unprecedented impact.

Criterion (vi): The series represents a “new spirit” which reflects a synthesis of architecture, painting and sculpture.
The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier is an outstanding reflection of the attempts of the modern movement to invent a new architectural language, to modernise architectural techniques, and to meet the social and human needs of modern man.