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Le Corbusier's Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveaue was most essentially a statement to that effect, deliberately upsetting accepted aesthetic modes (Gronberg 1992; Gronberg 1998).
Critics and colleagues saw the "machine for living" that Le Corbusier created as an installation at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris, 1925, as an abandonment of aesthetic principles and roundly shunned both the structure and Le Corbusier (Gronberg 1992). Seeing modern life more as an extension of the efficiency and productivity of the office rather than the personalization and decorations of a traditional home, the living space that Le Corbusier presented was very minimalist and truly belonged more to the school of modernism -- which hadn't even really solidified -- than Art Nouveau (Gronberg 1992; Gronberg 1998). As striking as this departure was, the backlash from critics is somewhat understandable.
The stance that was taken against Le Corbusier and the vehemence with which he and his work at the Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau is also understandable for another reason; namely, Le Corbusier's aggressive and passionate personality. More precisely, it was not that fact that Le Corbusier had such passion or aggression, but really the fact that this passion and aggression were aimed against much of the traditional art world that made him so unpopular...
Most of what the art world celebrated, perhaps especially in Paris, Le Corbusier saw as meaningless and self-congratulatory fluff (Gronberg 1992). This can clearly be seen in his comments on the museums of the day, the only one of which he found worthwhile and truly worthy of the title of "museum" being the one that contained everyday "banal" objects from past periods of human history rather than non-functional works of "art" that only had aesthetic value (if that) (Gronberg 1992, pp. 58). The Ovaillon de l'Esprit Nouveau was a statement in the exact same vein, asserting the importance and the primacy of functionality as an aesthetic principle.
It is easy to say that an individual artist might have been ahead of their time, so much so that the phrase has become entirely hackneyed and all but meaningless. In Le Corbusier's case, however, it is incredibly apt and true. The Pavillon de l'Esprit evokes far more modern lines and sensibilities than its contemporaries, and the emphasis on efficiency and functionality was also a very prescient and observant commentary on the emphasis in modern life.
References
Gronberg, T. Designs on Modernity: Exhibiting the City in 1920s Paris, Manchester University Press, 1998.
3) Gronberg, T. 'Speaking Volumes: The Pavillon de l' Esprit Nouveau', Oxford Art Journal, 1992, Vol.15, no. 2, pp. 58-69
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