H. Allen Brooks, during twenty years of painstaking research, has unearthed an extraordinary wealth of letters, diaries, family records, school reports, and unpublished sketches and drawings that document, beginning from birth, every facet of the formative years of the twentieth-century's most influential architect and urbanist. For the first time we learn what made Le Corbusier the person, and the designer, that he was.

Le Corbusier's Formative Years examines, drawing on precise data, every aspect of Le Corbusier's education from preschool through his training as a designer of ornamental watch cases and his early studies in decoration and architectural design. As a young man he traveled extensively, studying in Paris and Berlin before returning home to La Chaux-de-Fonds to teach and practice architecture, interior decoration, and furniture design.

Finally, in 1917, he moved to Paris, where, after several unsuccessful years as an entrepreneur, he turned his talents to writing, painting, architecture, and urban design.