I paid a visit to Corbusier’s Firminy complex—about 45 minutes outside of Lyon by regional train—and spent most of my time out of the rain in the church of Saint Pierre, which was begun in 1961 and only completed in 2006. I was suitably awed. As always in a Corbusian construction, I caught frequent whiffs of his students…this time most strongly Koolhaas and Miralles. The concrete’s modern smoothness only enhanced the intended effect and rendered the project that much more relevant to a contemporary architectural sensibility. Brightly colored daylighting and sculpturally canted prisms puncture a deceptively complex curvilinear cavern, which in turn envelopes a raised ground constantly evolving between topography and floorscape as one processes around and through. I’m including an interior and exterior view here, with the incising green lightbox as a hinge between the two.
I paid a visit to Corbusier’s Firminy complex—about 45 minutes outside of Lyon by regional train—and spent most of my time out of the rain in the 
