It only took a moment in front of one façade to understand what Le Corbusier was searching for here: bringing the building closer to the people who would experience it. He fragments it. Breaks it apart. Creates small moments to inhabit. Staircases, openings, lecterns. Perched on top of the hill, this object could easily feel detached from the landscape, almost imposed upon it. Yet these fragments make it intimate. Approachable. They invite occupation and appropriation. They give a human scale to the great sloping walls, softening what might otherwise feel like a single, monolithic form.
Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France.