It’s an impressive feat. As with the Château de Maulnes in Burgundy and the Garabit viaduct in the Cantal region of France, the Saint-Pierre church in Firminy pushes the boundaries of architecture to our great delight. But when you look at the architect’s CV, it’s easy to see why. He designed the Cité Radieuse in Marseille, the Couvent de la Tourette near Lyon and the Villa Savoye in Poissy. Quite simply, Le Corbusier revolutionized his art. In this, his umpteenth masterpiece, the architect juggled a cube, a cone and his genius, quietly cooking up an edifice that continues to fascinate architects and the curious the world over.
Église Saint-Pierre de Firminy, 33 meters of a true masterpiece of modernity
Starting with a square plan and evolving into a hyperbolic volume, ending with a circular dome truncated on one side… Fascinating, but not easy to put down on paper. We agree. The piece reaches a height of 33 metres and thus takes the form of a pyramid ending in a cone with its apex cut off. Quite a program, then. But if that’s all it was! Le Corbusier’s genius was to make the walls literally speak. But how? By allowing you to enjoy an 11-second echo within the walls. Excellent! The interior lighting also changes in appearance, thanks to the various openings that filter the light. The most emblematic of these is the Orion constellation that pierces the building’s eastern façade.
A building full of mystery and surprises, it takes up the foundations of an ancient myth, the squaring of the circle: inscribing a circle in a square, playing with these two incompatible shapes. But it’s also, and above all, a metaphor for heaven and earth, where the square symbolizes earth, matter and stability, while the circle represents heaven, spirit and infinity. “Construction is about holding things together. Architecture is to move.” That’s a good way of summing up the situation, quoting the main man involved, our beloved Corbusier.
A prodigious project requires laborious construction…
This was the last project on which Le Corbusier, assisted by José Oubrerie, worked until his death in 1965. The story begins in 1961, when he was commissioned to design a religious building for the Firminy-Vert district. But construction was delayed time and time again by legal and financial problems. It wasn’t until 1973 that the first stone was laid, but construction was interrupted for the first time in 1978. 26 long years later, construction resumed, to be completed (finally!) in 2006, 45 years after the architects’ first pencil stroke.
Today, the building is divided into two levels: a glass-fronted base serving as an exhibition space, and an upper level housing the chapel proper. The site is open to visitors. Entrance fees are €8 (full price). ..