World Heritage Corb: Maison Guiette in Belgium was Le Corbusier's first commission outside of France, but is one of the lesser-known of his 17 buildings that have been added to UNESCO's World Heritage list (+ slideshow).
Belgian artist and art critic René Guiette asked Le Corbusier to design his studio-cum-residence in Antwerp, after seeing the architect's Pavilion de L'Esprit Nouveau ? a temporary structure installed in Paris in 1925.
The pavilion was created for the Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs ? an exhibition dedicated to the display of decorative arts that is largely considered the launchpad for the Art Deco movement. Guiette wrote to Le Corbusier immediately after seeing it. His house was completed in 1927, just a few years before Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye in Poissy, France ? a key work of the Modernist movement. Both structures are from the "white villas" series that defined the architect's early career.
...