d-1930s, marked by the influence of Fernand Lger, who remained one of his few good friends. The war yearsWorld War II and the German occupation of France interrupted his activity as a builder and a traveller and his 20-year association with Pierre Jeanneret, who, unlike Le Corbusier, had joined the French Rsistance. Although he was prepared to work with the Vichy government, there was little building being done at the time in France, and his only activities were painting, writing, and reflection. Le Corbusier's thoughts during this time led to the elaboration of the first bases of the "Modulor" concept, a scale of harmonic measures that set architectural elements in proportion to human stature. This theory was finally perfected in 1950, and Le Corbusier used it in designing all his subsequent buildings, wishing them to incorporate "a human scale." By the time the war ended, Le Corbusier had welded the attacks launched against him by representatives of traditional architecture into a myth. He had become, for the public, the Picasso of architecture, and, for architecture students, the symbol of modernity.The second periodLe Corbusier thought that he would finally be able to apply his theories of planning in the reconstruction of France. He prepared in 1945 two plans for the cities of Saint Di and La Pallice-Rochelle. At Saint Di, in the Vosges Mountains, he proposed regrouping the 30,000 inhabitants of the destroyed town into five functional skyscrapers. These plans were rejected, but they subsequently circulated throughout the world and became doctrine. Le Corbusier was bitter, however, and his bitterness increased when he was named a member of the jury of architects for the construction of the United Nations building in New York City instead of being asked to design it himself.At last, thanks to the unlimited support of the French government, Le Corbusier was given the opportunity to construct a large (private) housing complex; he was...
