From March 18 to May 3, 2025, the Fondation Le Corbusier is organizing an unprecedented exhibition of drawings from the architect’s travels at Maison La Roche, spanning from 1907 to 1933.
Through around thirty original and rarely shown works, the Fondation Le Corbusier and exhibition curator Danièle Pauly offer a glimpse of the architectures, places, cities, women, and men captured on paper by the architect during his study travels.
Le Corbusier, Bargello, 1907 © FLC/ADAGP 2025
From Tuscany, the first journey of the young Charles-Edouard Jeanneret in 1907, to his « useful journey » to the Orient, the sketches capture the essence of what Le Corbusier’s gaze chose to retain, thus questioning the places he traversed, their depth, and their thickness.
He continued through Italy and Turkey, culminating in Greece, where Athens and its Acropolis inspired countless travel notebooks filled with watercolors, graphite drawings, and simple sketches of a few lines that appear as documents informing the architect’s observation methods.
Le Corbusier, Acropole, 1911 © FLC/ADAGP 2025
Later, from 1929 to 1933, his research took him to Latin America and the Maghreb. These journeys of maturity brought about a true aesthetic and philosophical transformation in Le Corbusier, consolidating his architectural doctrine. His drawings testify to his unique way of perceiving architectures, their histories, and their inhabitants.
The exhibition presents original works and reproductions of his notebooks and also utilizes other media such as slide shows of photographs taken during his travels and books where architectural concepts dialogue with his travel drawings.
The World at the Tip of a Pencil
Le Corbusier’s Travels
1907-1933
From March 18 to May 3, 2025
Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On March 19 at 2:30 p.m.
Guided tour by Danièle Pauly
Maison La Roche
10 square du Docteur Blanche
75016 Paris
The Fondation Le Corbusier: A Leading Heritage Actor
Maison La Roche – Galerie © FLC / ADAGP / Frederic Betsch
Established in 1968, the Fondation Le Corbusier’s primary mission is the conservation and dissemination of the architect’s work. As the legatee of all of Le Corbusier’s assets, it preserves the majority of his drawings, studies, and original plans, as well as an important collection of written and photographic archives. The Foundation ensures respect for the moral rights over the entirety of Le Corbusier’s work worldwide.
Based in the Maison Jeanneret, the Foundation also manages Maison La Roche, Le Corbusier’s Apartment-Studio in Paris, and the Petite maison on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
As part of its mission to enhance and transmit the architectural heritage of the 20th century, our agency Architecture de Collection regularly engages in dialogue, interaction, and collaboration with the Fondation Le Corbusier.
Camille Buzon
