Longwave radiation corresponds to the thermal energy (heat) that surfaces exposed to sunlight (shortwave radiation) reflect, or emit back to their immediate surroundings. The sunlight reflected from the glassy, concave facade produced temperatures as high as to 93°C on the sidewalks a few blocks away, forcing gusty down drafts capable of raising cyclists in the air. The recorded temperatures fried eggs, melted car tires, and, most importantly, threatened human lives. “London’s ‘Walkie Talkie’ skyscraper reflects light hot enough to fry an egg,” The Guardian, September 3, 2013. See ➝.
Le Corbusier to P. N. Thapar, December 9, 1951, Fondation Le Corbusier P2-17-183.
Lina Bo Bardi, "Arquitetura e Natureza ou Natureza e Arquitetura,” September 27, 1958, Instituto Lina Bo Bardi and Pietro Maria Bardi Archive, São Paulo. All translations are by the author, unless otherwise noted.
Le Corbusier, Sketchbook “Album Punjab Simla I,” February 25, 1951, Fondation Le Corbusier W1-5-18.
Le Corbusier Sketchbooks, Vol. 2, 1950–1954 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press and New York: Architectural History Foundation, 1982), E18: 330.
These “machines” were filters, humidifiers, and disinfectors, mechanized systems for air exchange. Le Corbusier, The Radiant City (New York: Orion Press, 1967), 40, 42.
Le Corbusier, Sketchbook “Album Punjab Simla I,” February 25, 1951, Fondation Le Corbusier W1-5-18
Le Corbusier, Precisions sur un état present de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme (Paris: G. Crès, 1930), 64.
Le Corbusier, Sketchbooks, 403.
For more on the influence of Dr. Randhawa and André Missenard, see Silvia Benedito Atmosphere Anatomies: On Design, Weather and Sensation (Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2021).
The grille climatique is a matrix composed of meteorological data, bio-climatic challenges, and design corrections for comfortable conditions. Various iterations were developed from 1951 until 1956. The grille d’arborization was a matrix of tree species organized according to volume and canopy intensity, considering comfort in relation to the various public spaces’ uses and adjacent programs.
For more see Benedito, Atmosphere Anatomies.
Le Corbusier recognized that the architectural enterprise of designing-with-climate aligned with social justice objectives. Every individual and family, independent of its origins and social level, would have equal access to nourishing bio-climatic conditions in their corresponding block (Sector) of the new capital of India. The Sectors are self-contained “blocks,” including residential spaces as well as commercial spaces, health care facilities, offices, parks, and pedestrian areas.
Le Corbusier, Carnet Nivola I, Fondation Le Corbusier W1-8-100 and 101.
Le Corbusier, Carnet Nivola I, Fondation Le Corbusier W1-8-93 and 94.
Le Corbusier, Plans, DVD #11, Fondation Le Corbusier 05603.
Le Corbusier, “Arborisation de Chandigarh” (1952), Fondation Le Corbusier P2-2-10.
Le Corbusier, Sketchbooks, 748. “La Main // par des massifs alternés de cyprès en couronnes // chambre d’ombre noir.”
Le Corbusier, Nivola Sketchbooks I, Fondation Le Corbusier W1-8-87. Le Corbusier sketched the “Baradari” of the Diwan-i-Am, or the “Hall of Public Audience,” during his visit to the Red Fort in Delhi. His sketch emphasizes its shaded arches, the landscape to either side, and a water basin in the foreground.
Lina Bo and Carlo Pagani, “Sensibilità dei material,” Domus no. 201 (September 1944): 314–319, here 316.
Lina Bo Bardi, “The Architectural Project,” in Stones Against Diamonds (London: Architectural Association, 2013), 97. The French engineer and builder François Hennebique (1842–1921) was a pioneer of reinforced concrete construction. He developed the unified design of beams and columns as a single monolithic structural system used in the barrel factory: possibly the only example realized in Brazil.
In the essay “Architettura e natura: La casa nel paesaggio” (“Architecture and Nature: The house in the landscape”), Bo Bardi wrote: “A more realistic approach will restore the relationship between architecture and LAND–CLIMATE–ENVIRONMENT–LIFE, thus destroying any form of superficiality, prejudice, and decorativism.” Lina Bo Bardi, “Architecture and Nature: A House in the Landscape,” in Stones Against Diamonds (London: Architectural Association, 2013), 21-26, here 21, 22, 23 (emphasis in original). Originally published as "Architettura e Natura: La casa nel paesaggio," Domus no. 191 (November 1943): 464–71.
Lina Bo Bardi, “Propaedeutic Contribution to the Teaching of Architecture Theory: Nature and Architecture” (1957), in Cathrine Veikos, Lina Bo Bardi: The Theory of Architectural Practice (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), 67. Originally published as Contribuição Propedêutica ao Ensino da Teoria da Arquitetura (São Paulo: Habitat, Ltd., 1957), 67.
Bo Bardi drawing, June 10, 1977.
Bo Bardi, “Architecture and Nature,” 22.
This was in homage to the communities being displaced by large hydropower projects in the São Francisco River valley.
Lina Bo Bardi, in “SESC Pompéia” Leaflet History, SESC Pompéia São Paulo (2006), 14. See ➝.
Bo Bardi, “The Architectural Project,” 98.
Bo Bardi, “The Architectural Project,” 100.