Renault unveils dramatic concept honouring Le Corbusier

Groupe Renault's industrial design team is marking the 50^th anniversary of the death of Le Corbusier by designing and creating a project for a 21st century car inspired by the architect's modernist principles and theories, a conceptual prequel to the modern automobiles. The result is the dramatic looking Renault Coupe Corbusier concept car.

The ideas of simplicity, a visually and aesthetically pleasing structure, geometric elegance and mastery of light guided the designers in the creation of the Coupe Corbusier concept car, and Renault insists it has no relevance to future projects. Instead, the concept offers Renault's creative staff more leisurely moments of exploration.

The concept is on display at Villa Savoye, a modernist villa on the outskirts of Paris. To commemorate 50 years since Le Corbusier's death, France's Centre des Monuments Nationaux, a government body that manages and maintains historic buildings and sites owned by the state, is putting on an exhibition at Villa Savoye called 'Cars for living: the automobile and modernism in the 20^th and 21^st centuries'.