Le Cabanon

During a stay in villa E1027 designed by Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici, a friend of the architect, Le Corbusier met Thomas Rebutato who had just finished building L’Étoile de Mer, a nearby guinguette (little establishment providing food and music).

In 1951, Thomas Rebutato allowed Le Corbusier to build a log cabin abutting this lttle restaurant. The architect entrusted this work to Charles Barberis, a Corsican carpenter who prefabricated the wooden parts in Ajaccio and assembled them on site.

Le Cabanon was the culmination of Le Corbusier’s work on rational and functional living space reduced to a minimum. It was designed on the dimensions of the Modulor.

In 1954, Le Corbusier used the prefabricated elements of a builder’s hut to provide himself with a work space a few yards away from the Cabanon. Le Corbusier’s trusty assistant, Fernand Gardien, was responsible for insulating the walls with fibreglass and lining the interior with plywood.

Le Corbusier stayed there with his wife Yvonne every summer until her death in 1957 and afterwards by himself. In 1965, he died from heart failure while swimming at the foot of the Cabanon.

Recognized today as a manifesto of modern architecture, a replica of the Cabanon was made by Cassina and is regularly presented to the public at exhibitions. In 2016, the site of the Cabanon, the Builder’s Hut, the Camping Units and L’Étoile de Mer were placed on the World Heritage List, together with 16 other works by Le Corbusier.

The site is also part of the Cap Moderne complex, including Villa E1027 and its garden, now managed by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and open to visitors.