Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier®
Le Corbusier's universal colour system, the Polychromie Architecturale, inspires with its timeless colour palette and noteworthy combinability. We exclusively offer light switches, sockets and operating controls worldwide in the 63 original colours of Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier®.
Colour overview
All 63 colours are tested and approved by the licenser, Les Couleurs Suisse AG. To represent the impressive colour depth true to the original, our products are hand-painted using a special process. This creates the special matt surface.
Colour creates atmosphere
Le Corbusier focused on harmony of colours and the effect colour has on people and space. To this day, his Polychromie Architecturale has been an important source of inspiration for the professional design of rooms and buildings. The special feature: the 63 Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier® are perfectly matched to each other and can thus be combined harmoniously throughout. Due to this remarkable property, the colours display an extraordinary effect in every room. For architects, interior designers and designers, the Polychromie Architecturale is a reliable tool for secure colour design.
"Mankind needs colour to live."
Le Corbusier (1887–1965) is one of the most important architects of the 20th century. To this day, Le Corbusier's work has had a substantial influence on architecture and design. For Le Corbusier, colour was just as important as layout or form for his buildings and designs. Inspired by the balanced colours of nature and based on his experiences as an architect and artist, Le Corbusier created his Polychromie Architecturale as a colour theory that is permanently valid. This unique systems comprising 63 colours was developed by the Swiss artistic maestro in two stages. He created the first colour palette in 1931, the second in 1959.
The varieties of colours
Le Corbusier created his system of architectural colours as a tool for architects, interior designers and designers. His timeless colour keyboards have not lost any of their freshness even after 90 years.
The 1931 colour palette includes 43 colours in 14 series. Each series consists of one solid colour and up to four graduated brightenings. The original coding of the Le Corbusier colours starts constantly with "32xxx" – the series are identified by the last three digits. In addition, Le Corbusier created twelve colour keyboards. They have names such as space, sky, velvet or landscape and create different atmospheric moods.
In 1959 Le Corbusier expanded the Polychromie Architecturale with 20 more intense colours and an additional colour keyboard. Le Corbusier's extraordinary experience as an architect and painter is also reflected in this combination of colourful and achromatic shades and different brightness values.
Production with a system
The exclusive LS 990 range in the colours of Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier® is hand-lacquered and made to order. Covers and frames form
the basis for the paintable parts. Each item is ordered using its own reference number. Complete the item code with the respective three-digit
JUNG colour code. Together these form the complete reference number. The hand-lacquered units are manufactured to order. The delivery
time is ten weeks after receipt of order.
Lightness coefficients of the Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier®
Building an accessible home goes beyond alleviating restricted mobility issues; it also entails ensuring that visual information is highly perceptible - easy to use for everyone independent of age and health.
To address accessibility to visual information for those with limited vision and colour perception, it is important to pair high-contrast colours that have differing saturation levels with varied lighter shades. Designers would then require the lightness coefficients (LC) of individual colour shades used in the colour combination of their design. These lightness coefficients indicate how much light is reflected from a colour which shows how light a colour appears. A brilliant white switch has the LC of 100, for example, while a switch in dark black has an LC of 0.
The LS 990 range in Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier® is able to achieve a harmonious combination of aesthetics and a contrast-rich design that helps improve both orientation and space perception. It is also in accordance with the regulation of DIN 32975 on the design of visual information in public spaces.
Electrical installation in Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier®
With the LS 990 and LS 1912 switch ranges, we transport the architectural colour design of the Les Couleurs® Les Corbusier® into the field of electrical installation.
Les Couleurs® network partners
Strong partners, high-quality products, perfect interplay: on the basis of the Polychromie Architecturale from Le Corbusier, the certified Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier® partners produce outstanding products that can combine harmoniously with each other throughout.
Background knowledge about the Polychromie Architecturale
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