All that Jean-Louis Cohen does is informed by his double identity as an architect and historian. His research focuses on the way architecture is influenced by broader sociopolitical contexts, urban development, and cultural exchanges. His 2011 book Architecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for the Second World War upends the conventional belief that World War II was a static period for architecture, instead proposing that it precipitated the modernist movement.

Cohen’s recent lecture, titled “Memory Erased/Regained: Marseilles At War” and held in collaboration with the British School at Rome, expanded on this idea, drawing on new research to show how these ideas hold true for Marseilles during and after the Vichy regime. Reflecting on his time at the Academy, he noted, “The short month I have spent within its walls has been extremely productive.… I have left with forty thousand words of writing.”

Cohen has authored numerous books on Le Corbusier, including Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes (2013), which accompanied a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as Mies van der Rohe (2007) and Casablanca, Colonial Myths, and Architectural Ventures (2002), among many others.