Le Corbusier applies Calvinism to architecture

The “Unité d’Habitation” in Berlin, Germany—an urban living space representative of Corbusier’s vision of Calvinist architecture.

Regardless of our views on cultural transformation, Calvin’s influence today continues to subtly manifest itself in surprising places. Modern architecture rarely comes to mind in connection to Calvin, but Calvin’s doctrines and their application in the work of Calvinist architects after him have directly affected the way we build churches and even cities in the West. Perhaps the most fascinating architectural influence Calvin has had is on the work of Le Corbusier, the renowned Swiss architect of the 20th century.
For Calvin, worship is so centered on the sacraments and the preaching of the word that any sensual distractions must be eliminated. Worship points beyond itself towards the transcendent, spiritual word incarnate, which is in Heaven. However, in the sacraments, a certain element of the transcendent is present. The Calvinist church architect has the task of focusing the space he works with on that transcendence, emphasizing Scripture while simultaneously taking care not to give too much attention to the Eucharist (bearing in mind the excesses of the Roman Catholics).

Le Corbusier’s face featured on a bill from Switzerland

The infamous iconoclasm of the Reformation is a good example of the fervor with which Calvinism looked to achieve this focus, based on the stipulations of the second commandment. The bare, simple arrangements of English and then Puritan meetinghouses as well as the designs of Huguenot temples in France also point to a cultivated asceticism designed to convey the word of God as purely as possible.
It is this purity that attracted Charles Edouard Jeanneret, or as he came to call himself, Le Corbusier. Born in Switzerland in 1887 to Calvinist parents, Le Corbusier became one of the most renowned architects of the 20th century, especially in the area of urban planning. Le Corbusier was a modernist, which means that he was fundamentally concerned with determining and implementing the basic principles of a universal architecture. Like his contemporary, the linguist Saussure, who was looking for the basic building blocks of all language, Le Corbusier wanted to find and capture the transcendent ideals of architecture. To achieve this, he believed that the sober beauty of reason and mathematics needed to take precedence over any sense-indulging art form. Instead of gloss and ornamentation, a clear form needed to be present. In his rejection of the sensual, Le Corbusier was looking for the transcendent ideal much in the same way his Calvinist predecessors organized their churches around Scripture.
Le Corbusier’s model in his search was Purism, an artistic movement he wished to translate to architecture. He describes Purism as seeking “to conceive clearly, execute loyally, exactly, without déchet [waste]…” and as needing to “banish all deceptive techniques for the benefit of clear conception.” It is here that his Calvinist roots, with their insistence against images have the most effect. The same focus, what Mark Taylor calls the “will-to-purity,” in Calvinist worship echoes in Le Corbusier’s secular desire to see architecture reflect, or, to a certain extent, incarnate the forms governing nature and the universe. To obscure with decoration is “idolatrous” for Le Corbusier on the same basic principle as it is for Calvinists: it directs us elsewhere than the spiritual and the transcendent.
Skyscrapers and apartment buildings, mundane as they seem to us, formed a part of this ascetic program. Their bare architecture equips them to point humans to the absolute principles that Le Corbusier sees as undergirding our lives. Even at Covenant, the equally barren backsides of Founders, Mac, and Andreas bear traces of Le Corbusier’s theories. No doubt their Reformed occupants are glad to know Calvin has had a hand in their educations and in their living space.