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M+, Hong Kong, © F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris - SACK, Seoul, 2021
Le Corbusier 柯比意
Concrete Light 混凝土標柱燈
designed circa 1952, made circa 1953
This concrete lamp, designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier in the early 1950s, was originally used as outdoor ground lighting in the planned Indian city of Chandigarh. Eager to shape an image of a modern India, Jawaharlal Nehru commissioned Le Corbusier to develop a master plan for the city, the capital of a recently established state, just after the country gained independence. Chandigarh required all-new urban infrastructure, administrative buildings, housing, and public spaces. Along with furniture designed by Le Corbusier’s cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, the lamp represents the extension of a consistent architectural approach across multiple scales.
The lamp is massive, a sharply defined wave of concrete rising from a tiered rectangular base. Light spreads from under the crest. It shares its sculptural shape, materiality, and heft with Le Corbusier’s monumental governmental structures for the city, particularly the Legislative Assembly. The architect also used this lamp design in several other projects from this time period outside Chandigarh, including the Unité d’Habitation in Marseilles, putting the modernist city into direct dialogue with his output beyond the region. Like Jeanneret’s furniture, the lamps were eventually deinstalled and replaced by the government, allowing them to become collector’s items today.
The lamp is massive, a sharply defined wave of concrete rising from a tiered rectangular base. Light spreads from under the crest. It shares its sculptural shape, materiality, and heft with Le Corbusier’s monumental governmental structures for the city, particularly the Legislative Assembly. The architect also used this lamp design in several other projects from this time period outside Chandigarh, including the Unité d’Habitation in Marseilles, putting the modernist city into direct dialogue with his output beyond the region. Like Jeanneret’s furniture, the lamps were eventually deinstalled and replaced by the government, allowing them to become collector’s items today.
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