Wooden model 1:1 realized by ItalDesign in 1986, reproducing the Maximum-Car designed by Le Corbusier in 1928.
Le Corbusier, alias Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (1887-1965) was a painter and sculptor, an industrial designer, an architect and city planner: transgressive and prophetic, he imported the basic concepts of industrial mass production in its architecture and revolutionized the very concept of design. The designs of his buildings all reflect his intense concern with the automobile. Yet, inspired industrial designer that he was, Corbusier tried his hand only once at the design of an automobile, the one which the Italdesign gave shape to. In 1935 the project was taken up and developed in order to participate in a contest held by the Société des Ingénieurs de l’Automobile for the design of a “people’s car”, a two seater, top speed 80 kph, costing less than 8000 francs, based on average production of twenty cars a day. Out of the 103 proposals arrived to the contest, the one by Le Corbusier was the most innovative and more realistic. At the first place was the comfort, a design development from the inside out (when form follows function). The result was that all the possibilities of monobloc shell were used to expand the space inside, and from this comes the integration of wheels in the body, the adoption of the rear engine; the emptied front, with an improved aerodynamic penetration and greater space inside; the excellent visibility. These are features similar to the ones applied to some post-war cars which would be sold in large numbers.
