When the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp showed its face in 1955, it shocked the architectural world. That Le Corbusier-for many modern architects, the embodiment of the prophet of rationalist architecture-had designed such an aberration was difficult for most of his followers to comprehend or accept. James Stirling, in an article in the Architectural Review, echoed the Modern Movement's general distrust of the master's expressionist venture. The poet of the right angle had completely abandoned the 'orthogonal'! Despite this, Le Corbusier's church has ended up as one of the undisputed masterpieces of 20th century architecture, and is, in the words of William Curtis, "a building whose spatial mystery is unparalleled in modern times" .

In 2006, when the Italian architect Renzo Piano was commissioned to design some additions and adjustments around the chapel, a second scandal erupted around Ronchamp. The Le Corbusier Foundation, supported by a cast of excellent architects and historians, orchestrated a bitter campaign to prevent the construction of the new pieces, considered as an aggression to a place that - as a modern heritage site - should, according to them, be preserved in perpetuity in its original state. Hostility to the project led Piano to introduce several changes to his proposal, including moving the new pieces to a distance from the south façade of the church that was more or less double that initially planned...[+]