World Heritage Corb: Le Corbusier's Dominican monastery in France is considered one of his most important works, and is next in our series revisiting the 17 buildings by the architect that have been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List (+ slideshow).
Sainte Marie de La Tourette is built on a steeply sloping site near Lyon in France and was one of Le Corbusier's last completed buildings in Europe. Design work began in 1953, and it was constructed between 1956 and 1960.
Photograph by Fernando Schapo
The building is raised on pilotis ? a recurring characteristic in Le Corbusier's work ? with horizontal strips of windows that are intended to provide equal light for the rooms inside. Xenakis worked extensively on the layout and design of the windows, as he did at the architect's projects in Chandigarh, India.
Related story: Alicja Dobrucka photographs Le Corbusier's "random and eccentric" La Tourette

Flat roofs covering access ramps and cloisters are covered with grass ? a feature Le Corbusier said was important in his work to compensate for the green space covered by the building.
Photograph by Oliver Martin Gambier
The building has a complicated plan, but the majority of its inhabitable spaces are divided across three main levels. The lowest provides access to the church, and houses a refectory and chapter house.
The second floor contains the public entrance with reception rooms and a porter's lodge, as well as study rooms, a library, an oratory, and...