The National Museum of Western Art as a prototype for a Museum of Unlimited growth

In this essay I would like to look at how the Museum of Unlimited Expansion (M.U.E.) prototype was established, how it changed and how it was realized in the National Museum of Western Art (1955, N.M.W.A?/inaugurated: June, 1959), and also to touch on the relationship with the period that three Japanese architects, Kunio Mayekawa, Junzo Sakakura and Takamasa Yoshizaka were present as apprentices in Le Corbusier's Paris atelier and subsequently assisted in the design of that museum. In addition to the Main Building of the N.M.W.A, the Sanskar Kendra City Museum in Ahmedabad (1951, inaugurated on the 1st April, 1957) and the posthumously completed Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery (1958, inaugurated on the 6th May, 1968) in India were also designed and realized as prototypes for a Museum of Unlimited Expansion. Other museum projects include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Paris (1931), the Center for Contemporary Art in Paris (1935), the Philippeville City Museum project proposal in Algeria (1939), the International Art Center at Erlenbach in Frankfurt, Germany (1963) and the Museum of the Twentieth Century (Musée du XXe siècle) in Nanterre, Paris, France (1965). Buildings that embody ideas of the World Museum and the M.U.E. are also present in Le Corbusier's series of urban design projects - such as in the Pan Macia in Barcelona, Spain (1933), the Rive gauche de l'Escaut in Antwerp, Belgium, the University City in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1938), the St. Die in France (1945), the Berlin Urban Design Project proposal for the international design competition in Germany (1958), etc., - and are positioned to form the cultural nuclei of those projects. Taking these examples, the M.U.E prototype can be considered as one of the few prototypes that Le Corbusier constantly explored in his work. Amongst various prototypes of that nature, the model Le Corbusier conceived of for museums was the Museum of Unlimited Expansion (M.U.E.). Starting with the conception of the World Museum as part of the 1929 Mundaneum project, Le Corbusier continued to develop and refine that concept. The Main Building of the National Museum of Western Art (N.M.W.A.) completed in 1959(Fig. 1), was also designed as a M.U.E prototype.