A sister of Provence
Almost two decades ago, the studio
mounted an exhibition at the twelfth
century Cistercian abbey of Le Thoronet —
one of the ‘Three Sisters of Provence’.
Titled Leçons du Thoronet and comprising
fourteen specific perspectives — light,
mass, junction, surface, repetition, rhythm,
geometry, vista, scale, proportion, context,
landscape, circulation and order —
the exhibition drew on Le Corbusier’s
description of the abbey as a building
where every detail ‘represents a principle
of creative architecture’. These photographs
trace a parallel set of creative principles
in one of Le Thoronet’s two sibling
foundations — Sénanque Abbey.
Photography
Max Gleeson