Wonder: Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France

Architect: Le Corbusier, 1954

Nominator: Chris Harding, BDP

Totally free architecture. No programme other than the service of the Mass – one of the oldest institutions.Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier’s rural chapel at Ronchamp is my favourite building. I first saw a picture of Ronchamp before studying architecture. The white plastic shapes and giant upturned roof (which I later discovered was inspired by a crab shell picked up on Long Island in 1946) looked like nothing I’d seen before.

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