100 Images Project: Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, Le Corbusier, 1955

The chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp (1955), sometimes referred to as 'Ronchamp,' is etched in history as one of the finest examples of architect Le Corbusier's work and is one of the most important examples of twentieth-century religious architecture.

The building itself, though powerful and complex, is a comparatively small structure enclosed by thick walls, with the upturned roof supported on columns embedded within the walls. In the interior, the spaces left between the wall and roof, as well as asymmetric light from the wall openings serve to further reinforce the sacral nature of the space and buttress the relationship of the building with its surroundings. Admittedly departing from Corbusier's own principles of standardisation and the machine aesthetic, the chapel is a site-specific response that provided a placement of the structure within the horizon visible on all four sides of the hill and the sites historical legacy as a place of worship.