This week, France in Focus is shining a spotlight on the father of modernist architecture, on the 60th anniversary of his death. Franco-Swiss master Le Corbusier laid the foundations for a new epoch, with his revolutionary 1923 book "Towards an Architecture" acting as a blueprint for architects to this day.

Le Corbusier is best known for his avant-garde urban housing projects, like the Cité Radieuse building in Marseille. The UNESCO World Heritage site attracts over 70,000 visitors a year.

Outside of France, he created large-scale cities like Chandigarh in India, and inspired renowned architects Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa when building the new Brazilian capital Brasilia.

But his architectural aesthetic was not always showered with praise, with critics calling his urban housing projects soulless. Over the last decade, evidence has also surfaced showing that Le Corbusier had alleged ties to fascist groups and spent time with the French collaborationist regime in Vichy during World War II.

FRANCE 24's Jennifer Ben Brahim looks at what made Le Corbusier one of the most revered but also reviled architects of the 20th century.