Reviews (1)

A must have book for fans of Le Corbusier.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading this book. It is well written in a style that is easily understandable. It is direct and to the point, no intellectual abstactions or highly theoretical tangents. I foundit to be a thorough and inspiring history of Corbusier's creative life frombeginning to end. Curtis provides many insights into the very early yearsof Corbusier's development. B&W photos of buildings, drawings andmodels follow the text and illustrate points being made by the author.Also, several unique color photos of projects are included. I find thisbook clear, concise and extremely informative; it will always have a placeon my bookshelf. I wish there was a hardcover version. ... Read more

Book Description

As Robert Fishman writes of three of urban planning's greatest visionaries, Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, they 'hated the cities of their time with an overwhelming passion. The metropolis was the counter-image of their ideal cities, the hell that inspired their heavens.' ... Read more

Book Description

The pavilion designed by Le Corbusier for the Philips Company at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair showcased a spectacle that remains a landmark in multimedia production. The pavilion's nearly two million visitors encountered no typical display of consumer products; instead they witnessed a dazzling demonstration of cutting-edge technology in the service of the arts. This totally automated bombardment of color, voice, sound, and images was broadcast within a space of warped concrete shells, orchestrated by Le Corbusier and his colleagues into a cohesive 480-second program. The talents and efforts that went into this project, and the interaction of the personalities behind it, make for a fascinating tale that bridges architecture, music, and marketing--one that has never been told, perhaps because the building was dismantled after the fair. In this book, Marc Treib looks at both this remarkable collaboration and the significance of the Philips project, which can be viewed as a pioneering quest into the production of postmodern art or even as a prototype of virtual reality.

Achieving for the first time his goal to use electronic media for a synthesis of the arts, Le Corbusier collaborated with the composer/architect Iannis Xenakis, the filmmaker Philippe Agostini, the graphic designer and editor Jean Petit, and the composer Edgard Varèse, whose distinguished piece Poème electronique was composed for this project. Treib explains in vivid detail the idea and development of the building design--based on the geometry of the hyperbolic paraboloid--and how this ambitious vision materialized through an innovative system of precast concrete panels, engineered by H. C. Duyster. Treib also describes the working methods of the collaborators, depicting, for example, Xenakis's frustration with designing under Le Corbusier's shadow and the tensions suffered by the Philips artistic director coordinating his company's business interests with Le Corbusier's and Varèse's artistic aspirations.

This wide-ranging investigation into the Philips project also examines the role of rhythm, cinematic montage, spatialized sound, and the composition of Varèse's music. The result is an engaging exploration of artistic collaboration in the 1950s, set against the political and cultural context of a world exposition, and of the realization of ambitious architectural ideas. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

'Poem Electronique' in detail
This book tells the story of the world's first fully automated multi-media experience. The Phillips pavillion at the 1958 Worlds Fair was unusual in that it didn't merely showcase the company's products---Philips demonstrated the technological feats they were capable of through an eight minute display of light, film, color and sound known as 'Poem Electronique.' Two of the key figures in the story are, of course, the architect Le Corbusier and the composer Edgard Varese; anyone interested in either of these two would enjoy this book. Those familiar with Varese's music from this project would be especially interested to learn the context in which it was originally set. Iannis Xenakis also appears here as Le Corbusier's assistant. Anyone interested in Xenakis would enjoy this book as it is after completion of the 'Poem Electronique' that music becomes his primary focus. The book is well-researched, well-written, and well-presented. There are many many illustrations, which help---through them we get a better idea of what the 'Poem Electronique' experience was like, we get to see how the designs for it progressed on paper, and we get to see the constructions as they were being put together. This book examines a very unique meeting of art and technology, one that can neve again be experienced as originally intended. ... Read more

Book Description

Le Corbusier Venice Hospital

Edited by Hashim Sarkis

This volume explores an unbuilt yet iconic project by Le Corbuiser and its visual representation. The Venice Hospital is the uncontested epitome of the “mat, ”or carpet, building type —a low sprawling structure developed in the late fifties and sixties that is making a strong comeback in contemporary architecture. ... Read more

Book Description

Le Corbusier's first trip to the United States in 1935 is generally considered a failure because it produced no commissions. The experience nevertheless had a profound effect on him, both personally and professionally. Sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Le Corbusier promoted his ideas through a lecture tour, exhibition, and press conferences, as well as in meetings with industrialists, housing reformers, New Deal technocrats, and editors. His lectures were watershed events that advanced the cause of European modernism. Yet he returned to France empty-handed and published a bittersweet account, Quand les cathales ient blanches: voyage au pays des timides (When the Cathedrals Were White: Journey to the Country of Timid People), which faulted America for lacking the courage to adopt his ideas.

In this first major study of Le Corbusier's American tour, Mardges Bacon reconstructs his encounter with America in all its fascinating detail. Through extensive archival research and interviews, she presents a critical history of the tour as well as a nuanced and intimate portrait of the architect. Drawing on the methods of microhistory, she also considers how small ordinary events affect larger biographical, architectural, and cultural developments.

Bacon notes that Le Corbusier's dialogue with America was drafted within a spirited European discourse on amcanisme. She contends that the trip validated his concept of a "second machine age" that would unite standardized industrial methods with a new humanism. Le Corbusier's subsequent work, she suggests, reflected an "Americanization," evidenced by the introduction of tension structures and the textured skyscraper conceived as an integrated system with functions articulated. She also defines Le Corbusier's role in the debate over New York City high-rise public housing.

Appearing here in print for the first time are color reproductions of the pastel drawings that illustrated Le Corbusier's American lectures. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The Ronchamp Chapel is a boldly expressive free-form structure that says as much about enlightened patronage as it does about the genius of Le Corbusier, a seminal figure whose work usually celebrated pure rationality rather than the mystery and emotion on conspicuous display there. While the church hierarchy supported Corbu's poetic vision wholeheartedly, local inhabitants and bureaucrats at first hated this masterpiece enough to deny it water and electricity. Only when architectural tourists came in large enough numbers to bolster their economy did they relent. The chapel is just one of the modernist icons that preeminent architectural photographer Ezra Stoller documented in a career that spanned more than half a century. Now retired, Stoller has been reassembling his work for permanent (rather than periodical) publication. The Ronchamp Chapel is one of a series published by Princeton Architectural Press that presents individual buildings in depth in a small-size volume. The photographs are not only stunning, they have particular documentary value in that Stoller shot them when the buildings were new--in this case, 45 years ago.

The series has been designed for relative affordability, and its subjects are well chosen. Each volume includes a very brief preface by Stoller setting out his relationship to the building and a fairly short critical, historical, analytical essay. Buttressed by about a dozen endnotes, the essays occupy a middle ground between informal and scholarly writing. They are followed by 50 to 60 duotone photos and a few plan drawings. This is an expert look at an extraordinary building and well worth readers' serious attention. --John Pastier ... Read more

Reviews (1)

architecture
Hi My favorate book is architectural book ... Read more

Book Description

Architectural poetry in the machine age

Born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) adopted his famous pseudonym after publishing his ideas in the review L’Esprit Nouveau in 1920. The few buildings he was able to design during the 1920s, when he also spent much of his time painting and writing, brought him to the forefront of modern architecture, though it wasn’t until after World War II that his epoch-making buildings were constructed, such as the Unité d’Habitation in Marseilles and the Church of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp. ... Read more

Book Description

The acclaimed French designer Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) worked in the studio of Le Corbusier in the late 1920s together with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. The famous Corbusier furniture pieces are the result of this unique collaboration. A facsimile reproduction of Charlotte Perriand's 140 page Livre de Bord, her sketchbook during the years 1927-1933, is the centrepiece of this publication.Arthur Rüegg's introductory essay brings to life in text and image those pioneering years. His precise and detailed commentaries inspire an appreciation and understanding of the richness of each drawing. A 16 page dossier of illustrations recreates the famous 1929 Salon d'Automne and the original furnishings of Villa Church. ... Read more

Book Description

In this strikingly original book, Simon Richards analyzes Le Corbusier's concept of self, reappraises the architect's motives as an urban planner, and arrives at a new understanding of his intellectual relations with other members of the twentieth-century avant garde. Richards shows how Le Corbusier's ideas contradict now dominant ways of thinking about the city, and he focuses attention on the ways the concept of self can influence the shape of the built environment.Although Le Corbusier never explicitly defined his idea of self, Richards finds extensive evidence of it in the urbanist's writings and work. Richards argues that Le Corbusier was indebted to Enlightenment philosopher Blaise Pascal, who believed the individual should withdraw from society and meditate in solitude on the nature of God and self. Le Corbusier's cities were designed accordingly-to separate people in cell-like apartments for the purpose of spiritual self-exploration. Richards explores Le Corbusier's position in twentieth-century intellectual life in the light of this fresh understanding, and he identifies a previously unrecognized alignment between the thought of Le Corbusier and of such figures as Albert Camus and Georges Bataille. ... Read more

Book Description

The Unite in Marseille (1945-1952) was a pioneering achievement at a time when social housing in the post WWII years posed an immense problem. Freed from restrictive regulations for the first time Le Corbusier was able to put into practice his concept of modern social housing. A milestone of modern architecture and subject of controversial debate, the Unite in Marseille continues to attract numerous visitors and students of architecture. ... Read more

Book Description

No other architect since Palladio has exercised such an immense influence as Le Corbusier. As with Einstein and Picasso, Le Corbusier made an impact that was felt within but also outside his special discipline. Through numerous buildings, urban projects, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and publications, he succeeded to develop a unique poetics of machine and metaphor, revolutionizing the way people see, use, and make architecture. More than a modern architect, Le Corbusier was the architect of modern life.

The present monograph discusses Le Corbusier's oeuvre in a concise global manner in relation to the revolutionary developments of the century in which it was born. It shows how Le Corbusier worked within the context of new philosophical ideas; the avant-garde culture; the social, economic, and political movements; and new technology, achieving more than a delicate balance-- a synthesis. But it demonstrates also that Le Corbusier was a creator who conceived, enticed, and shaped many of these developments. As well as being the architect of the twentieth century, Le Corbusier is a prototype of human creativity.
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Reviews (1)

An evocation of Le Corbusier
A rather slight but very appealling work on Le Corbusier. Tzonis has distilled the rich and varied work of this master of Modern Architecture into a beautifully organized book. He covers Corbu's life from his humble origins in the Swiss Alps to the international influence his ideas would have on architecture. There are many illustrations of his buildings and evocative sketches from Corbu's journals, but this is less a study than it is an evocation of Le Corbusier.

Yet, Tzonis questions some of Corbu's positions especially in regard to his relationships with Stalin and Mussolini, making it seem that Le Corbusier was less an idealist and more a totalitarian when it came to his urbanistic visions. When Le Corbusier proposed the Plan Voisin for Paris, he paid homage to King Louis XIV, noting that only a despot could have carried out such grand visions.

Tzonis also discusses the important role Corbu's early travels had in shaping his views, particularly his "Journey to the East." It is here that he found many of the forms which he would reduce to a "kit of parts" that he employed over and over again in his later work, finding new meanings and many rich combinations. ... Read more

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A bit of history...
Le Corbusier had been working for some time on his Modulor system using these French decimal measurements but without much success. Then one of his collaborators, Py, said: "Isn't the height we are working with rather a French height? Have you ever noticed that in English detective novels the hero is always six feet tall?" Le Corbusier continues: " We then applied this standard. To our delight, the graduations of a new Modulor, based on a man six feet tall, translated themselves into round figures in feet and inches". (hardly surprising when you consider that this is a natural system of measure.). ... Read more

Book Description

In 1952 Le Corbusier was commissioned "to dwell in the silence of men of prayer and study and to construct a church for them". The result was his impressive Convent of La Tourette, marking a significant step in modern religious architecture. Beginning with the rectangular form common to the Cirstercian monastic tradition, he created a building whose stark form contrasts beautifully with the organic elements of the interior court and the grasslands surrounding it.

The church itself is a model of simplicity, the cement has been left rough and the well located sources of light evoke a feeling of silence and reflection. The order's precept of prayer, study and reflection is aptly mirrored in the architecture. This guide provides a wealth of plans, details, photographs and information on this building which today is also a conference centre.

In cooperation with Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris. ... Read more

Book Description

Le Corbusier (Switzerland 1887–1965) set up his studio in Paris in 1922, and designed houses that could be mass-produced to conform to a new machine aesthetic incorporating his trademark five points of architecture. During World War II, he started building the Unité d'habitation, houses which were a rejection of his earlier industrial forms. ... Read more

Book Description

Alongside Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe and Louis Kahn, Le Corbusier was one of the great architects of the 20th century. In this monograph the author approaches his oeuvre from a new and unconventional angle. He analyzes in great detail Le Corbusier's designs to reveal the geometric structures which give each building its unique sense of harmony. Through informative texts and fascinating drawings, the relationship between the logical, constructive and intuitive dimensions in Le Corbusier's architecture emerges anew. ... Read more