he source for his Prcisions sur un tat prsent de l'architecture et de l'urbanisme (1930; "Reflections on the Present State of Architecture and Urbanism") and a trip to Moscow, where he was able to make contact with avant-garde constructivist architects and won the competition for the Centrosoyuz building (1929-35).Le Corbusier constructed two other important buildings during this period, the Salvation Army Hostel in Paris, with its attempt at a "breathing" glass wall conceived as an unopenable glass surface equipped with an air conditioning system (a technological and financial failure), and the Swiss Dormitory at the Cit Universitaire in Paris (1931-32). In the latter structure he set the dormitory area apart from the common services areas located in a separate building. The two segments were connected by a stairway tower. Surfaces were left largely unfinished, and, for the first time, the massive pillars took on a sculptural value. At this point Le Corbusier's rational functionalism began to be balanced by a desire for expression.The end of the 1930s saw such especially famous projects as the masterplans for Algiers (1938-42) and Buenos Aires (1938); the building for the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro (1936); and an infinitely expandable museum for Philippeville (1938), in French North Africa. There was also a trip to the United States (1935), where Le Corbusier was already famous.Le Corbusier's diverse activities corresponded to a chosen life-style. He was not ateacher, like his colleague Walter Gropius, but the boss, who shut himself up alone in his office while his collaborators, who had come from all over the world and some of whom would later become famous, worked outside in the long hall that served as a studio. Le Corbusier came to his office only in the afternoons. His break with Ozenfant, in 1925, had not interrupted his painting career, and he usually spent his mornings painting at home. He was, by the mi...
