Created as a microcosm of Brazilian life and culture, Maison du Bresil is a significant example of Le Corbusier’s high-density residential design. Inaugurated in 1959, it is one of twenty-three international residences at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, located in the heart of Paris. As the “House of Brazil”, the building acts as both a residence hall for Brazilian academics, students, teachers, and artists, and as a hub for Brazilian culture, by providing exhibition spaces and archival resources. Notably, the building has provided residence to famous Brazilians, such as the renowned journalist Barroso Zózimo do Amaral.

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Wolfsburg Cultural Center, located approximately 230 kilometers west of Berlin in Wolfsburg, Germany, was constructed from 1959 to 1962. It was designed by Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto. Aalto was born in Kuortane, Finland and studied architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology, graduating in 1921.

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Colònia Güell was a workers’ colony located in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, presently a town of around 7,000 inhabitants 20km outside Barcelona. The area was a manufacturing suburb that grew rapidly around the turn of the 20^th century. In 1898, Antoni Gaudi was commissioned by Count Eusebi de Güell, who wanted to provide a place of worship for the booming suburb, to build a Church. It was never actually completed because the money ran out as a result of economic hardships. When work stopped in 1915, only the crypt was completed, though it is nevertheless listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site. In 2002, a restoration was carried out by architect Antonio González Moreno who was widely criticized for allegedly mistreating Gaudi’s work.

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Iconic for its floating steel roof and brightly colored panels, the Pavillon Le Corbusier is the last building Le Corbusier designed before his death in 1965. Completed in 1967, the building stands as a testament to Corbusier’s renaissance genius as an architect, painter, and sculptor. It does so both intentionally, as it is an exhibition space for his life’s work, and naturally, as it is a building masterfully designed. Interestingly, the building diverges in some ways from the style responsible for his renown – concrete, stone, uniform repetition, etc. It celebrates the use of steel, with which he explored prefabrication and assembly, and a freedom through modularity, in which the plan is completely open but infinitely adaptable.

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