Hmmm, well I am always slightly agitated by the term "before his time". Le Corbusier was really very much a man of his time. The 1920s was a time of great advancement in architecture. The buildings of architects like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe have influenced world architecture ever since. Their architecture shared the abstract aesthetics of Modern paintings and sculptures.

Kasimir Malevich, "Black Square and Red Square" 1915


Constantin Brâncuşi, "Bird In Space", 1923.


Also, some high fashion of the time also was influeneced by this new aesthetic purity.

Paul Poiret dress 1923. Navy-blue and red silk faille, gold metallic bullion buttons


Red and Blue chair designed by the Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld in 1917.


Table by Gerrit Rietveld, 1922


Zig Zag chair by Gerrit Rietveld, 1932-34.


Table lamp by Gerrit Rietveld, 1925.


Mies van der Rohe's famous Barcelona Pavilion. 1928/29.















The white leather "Barcelona chairs" were designed specifically for this building. They became very famous in the 1950s when they were produced by the American furniture maker Knoll International. In the 1990s, they became very popular again.


Mies was the director of the Bauhaus school shortly before it was forced to close due to pressure from the Nazis. Hitler considered Modernism to be degenerate. Mies emigrated to the United States in 1937.