This well-argued, analytic text provides a greater understanding of spatial issues in the field of architecture. Re-interpreting the fifteenth century demonstration of perspective, Lorens Holm puts it in relation to today’s theories of subjectivity and elaborates for the first time the theoretical link between architecture and psychoanalysis. Divided into three sections, Brunelleschi, Lacan, Le Corbusier argues that perspective remains the primary and most satisfying way of representing form, because it is the paradigmatic form of spatial consciousness. Well-illustrated with over 100 images, this compelling book is a valuable study of this key aspect of architectural study and practice, making it an essential read for architects in their first year or their fiftieth.
Introduction / Peter Serenyi.Pt. 1. The formative years: 1887-1918. Origins (1944) / Maximilien Gauthier ; Origins, youth, travels (1968) / Stanislaus von Moos ; The beginnings of Le Corbusier?s education, 1902-07 (1971) / Paul Turner.Pt. 2. The mechanical analogy. Le Corbusier?s The engineer's aesthetic: mass-production houses (1922) / Marcello Piacentini ; Architecture in France: Le Corbusier-Saugnier (1922) / Paul Westheim ; The new house (1926) / Sigfried Giedion ; Progressive building in Paris: 1918-1928 (1960) / Reyner Banham.Pt. 3. History and modernity. The Mundaneum (1929) / Karel Teige ; Le Corbusier (1937) / Walter Curt Behrendt ; The mathematics of the ideal villa: Palladio and Le Corbusier compared (1947) / Colin Rowe ; Conclusion: Functionalism and technology (1960) / Reyner Banham.Pt. 4. The metamorphosis of form. Garches to Jaoul: Le Corbusier as domestic architect in 1927 and 1953 (1955) / James Stirling ; Ronchamp: Le Corbusier?s chapel and the crisis of rationalism (1956) / James Stirling ; Le Corbusier?s changing attitude toward form (1965) / Peter Serenyi ; Formal and functional interactions: a study of two late projects by Le Corbusier (1966) / Alan Colquhoun.Pt. 5. The modulor. Modulor (1954) / Peter Collins ; Le Corbusier?s modulor (1963) / Rudolf Wittkower.Pt. 6. The sociological context. Le Corbusier: the architecture of tomorrow? (1926) / Steen Eiler Rasmussen ; Lived-in architecture (1969) / Philippe Boudon ; Le Corbusier at Pessac (1972) / Brian Brace Taylor ; Le Corbusier, Fourier, and the Monastery of Ema (1967) / Peter Serenyi.Pt. 7. The city. A plan for a contemporary city (1922) / Waldemar George ; Le Corbusier and the ?pack-donkey's way (1929) / Cornelius Gurlitt ; From the City for 3 million inhabitants to the Plan Voisin (1968) / Stanislaus von Moos ; The city of dialectic (1969) / Kenneth Frampton ; Chandigarh (1969) / Norma Evenson.Biographical data.
Published in 1923, Toward an Architecture had an immediate impact on architects throughout Europe and remains a foundational text for students and professionals. Le Corbusier urges readers to cease thinking of architecture as a matter of historical styles and instead open their eyes to the modern world. Simultaneously a historian, critic, and prophet, he provocatively juxtaposes views of classical Greece and Renaissance Rome with images of airplanes, cars, and ocean liners. Le Corbusier's slogans--such as "the house is a machine for living in"--and philosophy changed how his contemporaries saw the relationship between architecture, technology, and history. This edition includes a new translation of the original text, a scholarly introduction, and background notes that illuminate the text and illustrations.
Journalist Flint recounts the life and times of the legendary architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, aka Le Corbusier, and provides illuminating details of his most iconic projects.
Le Corbusier's assistant and fellow architect remembers his mentor in a series of concise and poetic reflections. Le Corbusier's Hands offers a poetic and personal portrait of Le Corbusier—a nuanced portrayal that is in contrast to the popular image of Le Corbusier the aloof modernist. The author knew Le Corbusier intimately for thirty years, first as his draftsman and main assistant, later as his colleague and personal friend. In this book, written in the mid-1980s, Wogenscky remembers his mentor in a series of revealing personal statements and evocative reflections unlike anything that exists in the vast literature on Le Corbusier. Wogenscky draws a portrait in swift, deft strokes—50 short chapters, one leading to the next, one memory of Le Corbusier opening into another. Appearing and reappearing like a leitmotif are Le Corbusier's hands—touching, taking, drawing, offering, closing, opening, grasping, releasing: "It was his hands that revealed him.... They spoke all his feelings, all the vibrations of his inner life that his face tried to conceal." Wogenscky writes about Le Corbusier's work, including the famous design of the chapel at Ronchamp, his ideas for high-density Unités d'Habitation linked to the center of a "Radiant City," and his "Modulor" system for defining proportions—which Wogenscky compares to a piano tuner's finding the exact relation between sounds. He remembers the day Picasso spent with Le Corbusier at the Marseilles building site—"All day long they outdid one another in a show of modesty," he observes in amazement. He adds, speaking for himself and the others present, "We were inside a double energy field." And Wogenscky writes about Le Corbusier more personally. "I have spent years trying to understand what went on in his mind and in his hand," he tells us. With Le Corbusier's Hands, Wogenscky gives us a unique record of an enigmatic genius.
One of his very few built projects in the Americas, Maison Curutchet is a fascinating representation of Le Corbusier's stylistic transitional period, bridging his late 1920s purism and the maturity of his later work in India. Like Casa Malaparte, this book offers an in-depth analysis of a single building through original documents, drawings, and photographs.
In this study of Le Corbusier's American tour, Mardges Bacon reconstructs his encounter with America in all its fascinating detail. It presents a critical history of the tour as well as a nuanced and intimate portrait of the architect.
Pioneering manifesto by founder of "International School." Technical and aesthetic theories, views of industry, economics, relation of form to function, "mass-production split," and much more. Profusely illustrated.
