This study is about Le Corbusier's early years of loarning and training at La Chaux-de-Fonds. It is an attempt to show how Le Corbusier's groundwork was laid which characterize his work throughout the life. Charles Edouard Jeanneret was trained as a watch engraver and wished to be a painter. C. L'Eplattenier was to play a decisive role in shaping the young introspective boy's future. He encouraged Jeanneret's habit of the close study and observation of nature. Jeanneret was not the product of an established school, but instead made the unusual choice of educating himself. He found two indispensible sources of inspiration in study the past and in contemplating nature. His four years of self-education consisted of extensive reading, summer travels and winter layovers in larger cities-Vienna, Paris, Berlin-while sketching in museums or apprenticing local architects-Pellet, Behrens-. All these impressions then blended together to become part of a comprehensive source book of knowledge and imagination of the later Le Corbusier. A largely self-taught man, he never stopped making notes, drawing and writing, always aspiring to a clearer understanding of the meaning and underlying principles of objects and architecture. Jeanneret's five villas in La Chaux-de-Fonds are barometers which show the sequences of his development and change as an architect. In 1917, being thirty, he uprooted himself from his hometown to get a wider range of opportunities and moved to Paris. By that time Jeanneret was almost ready to blossom into Le Corbusier It was during this formative years of his life that Le Corbusier established the working method, mind-set and philosophical basis that determined the course of an architect in the making.

• 류전희(숭실대학교 건축학부) | Ryu, Jeon-Hee (School of Architecture, Soongsil University)