The interior capture of life. Le Corbusier and André Malraux

Abstract Le Corbusier and André Malraux, two important characters from the cultural scene of the 20th century, were contemporaneous. Their thoughts are built by unlinking from from chronological and local points of view. The resemblance found in several manifestations during their lives show the existent affinity between these two authors, contributing to a more sharp definition of modernism, associated, partially, to their tight relationships to plastic arts. Writings from both authors and architectural projects from Le Corbusier – Mundial Museum, Mundaneum and Museum of Unlimited Growth- will be observed in order to map the existent affinities between the two authors. However, life’s pragmatic circumstances often oppose what uses to be in accordance. André Malraux’s classification of the Villa Savoye, while he was Minister of the Cultural Affairs, aimed to save one of Le Corbusier’s masterpieces. Nevertheless, this action banned the architect the possibility to transform the Villa Savoye into a new program (in a first approach) and, finally, excluded him the possibility of authorship of the rehabilitation project, which was subsequently entrusted to an architect working in the National Monuments bureau. This suspected moment of friction between the two authors shall be motive of observation