A study of Le Corbusier’s Nôtre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp as a twentieth-century pilgrimage chapel
Creators: name: McKay, Frances Sherry
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: The completion of Nôtre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp, by Le Corbusier in 1955 provoked much comment and conjecture as to its significance to the post-World War II era. It is a French Catholic chapel of deceptively primitive appearance built by a Swiss Calvinist architect who was often reported as an agnostic and popularly associated with visionary and industrial building schemes. Although various subjective interpretations of the chapel exist in secular and religious journals, no single account of the chapel records the complex interaction of personality, institution, history, and contemporary aims which are suggested in the chapel's forms. This prompted an investigation of Nôtre-Dame-du-Haut as a twentieth-century pilgrimage chapel. Consequently, this study set out to explore the relationship between French Catholicism and the architectural theory of Le Corbusier as it is expressed in this small country pilgrimage chapel. The format of a traditional monograph was adopted to facilitate a comparison between traditional architectural solutions and those discovered at Nôtre-Dame-du-Haut. The study is divided into seven chapters - background, commission, plan, construction, acoustics, ornamentation, and light - elements which are shown to be especially cogent in the history of the design of this church. Each chapter is an analysis of the relationship between client and architect, and between traditional practices and twentieth-century architectural innovations. Each chapter reaches its own conclusion as to the contribution made to the pilgrimage tradition at Nôtre-Dame-du-Haut, and the possible significance of that contribution to the patron and to the architect. An extensive number of Le Corbusier's published writings and journals were available from the University of British Columbia library. Among them were two books about the chapel and "Les Oeuvres Completes". These supplied good visual material. Plans, letters, and documentation of the chapel previously unpublished were obtained from the Le Corbusier Foundation in Paris. Correspondence between Marcel Ferry, originally involved in the commission, and Abbe Bollé-Reddat, first and current resident priest at Nôtre-Dame-du-Haut, offered significant and new information. Writings by members of the French Catholic Church, including published personal journals of ecclesiastics associated with the project, were also available from the University of British Columbia library. Interlibrary loan supplied references not found locally. Journals, periodicals, and contemporary newspaper accounts, as well as general survey books on church architecture and Le Corbusier, profferred insightful background information. In conclusion, the thesis considers the pilgrimage chapel of Nôtre-Dame-du-Haut in its architectural and religious contexts to see to what extent these are reflected in the chapel's design. The study suggests that Le Corbusier attempted, in a highly conscious way, to accommodate tradition and a particular section of contemporary religious thought into his design of the chapel. It also suggests that he did so without compromising his personal architectural philosophy.