Le Corbusier's Daily Routine

Le Corbusier was a pioneer of modern architecture, with buildings like the Villa Savoye and the chapel at Ronchamp. His daily routine kept the architecture for the afternoon. Every morning he painted, drew and wrote on work he showed to no one but his wife.

He was up at 6:00 AM for calisthenics, then made coffee and breakfast with his wife, Yvonne. He credited these private mornings with the deeper meaning of his architecture. At 2:00 PM sharp, an hour his assistants learned was holy, he arrived at the atelier on the rue de Sèvres and handed the morning's sketches to others to develop, as Currey first told it on his Daily Routines blog.

It suits anyone whose paid work depends on ideas they can only find alone. Designers, makers and consultants who start every day in other people's requests will recognise the problem.

You get a whole morning for your own practice, then an afternoon for handing it to people who can build it. Try one morning with no email until a set hour. The chart starts the atelier at 2:30 PM, and the evening and the 11:00 PM bedtime are our estimates.