A quantitative comparison between the formal complexity of Le Corbusier's pre-modern (1905-1912) and early modern (1922-1928) architecture

Architectural historians are divided over the question of whether or not Le Corbusier’s early, Arts and Crafts (or Art Nouveau) style chalet designs are formally related to his later, more famous, designs for Modernist villas. While there are multiple stylistic differences between Le Corbusier’s early and later works, the question remains, are the houses really so different in terms of their formal complexity? The present paper uses computational means to mathematically answer this question for the first time. Recent research has shown that computational methods can be used to determine a series of quantitative results for the visual complexity of five of Le Corbusier’s Modernist houses (completed between 1922 and 1928). In this paper five of Le Corbusier’s early, pre-Modern house designs (completed between 1905 and 1912) are analysed using the same computational method. With these two sets of data available for testing, a detailed comparison of the mathematical difference between the works is constructed. Ultimately, this paper concludes that there are strong correlations between the formal complexity and design strategies found in these ten canonical works.