Le Corbusier and the Continual Revolution in ArchitectureSwiss-French architect Le Corbusier dominated twentieth-century architecture much the way Picasso dominated painting. His outstanding achievements, his vision of a harmonious machine civilization, his paintings, drawings, sculpture, architecture, city planning, and writing together compose a portrait of the architect as "protean creator."Le Corbusier and the Continual Revolutionin Architecture is a fascinating study of this genius. Taking into account recent scholarship and new theories of architectural change, noted architectural historian Charles Jencks traces the personal and professional development of Le Corbusier. In association with the Purist painter Ameacute;deacute;e Ozenfant, he gained fame in the 1920s, publishing the journalL'Esprit Nouveauand four seminal modernist tracts:Towards a New Architecture, The City of Tomorrow, The Decorative Art of Today,andLa Peinture Moderne (Modern Painting).Jencks demonstrates the influence of these classic texts by way of the architect's major projects of the period: Villa La Roche, Workers' Housing at Pessac, the Plan Voisin for Paris, Villa Stein, Villa Savoye, and the steel furniture, including the famedgrand confortandchaise longue. Through the 1930s and into the 1940s Le Corbusier embraced a new worldliness that included not only hand-built masonry but also an awakened sensuality and a shift in politics; after World War II, he embarked on yet another transformation, this time towards a new brutalist mode that saw the realization of the controversial Uniteacute; d'Habitation and the truly revolutionary chapel at Ronchamp. Le Corbusier and the Continual Revolution in Architecturepresents over two hundred illustrations including architectural drawings, plans, and photographs, as well as paintings, sketches, and publication facsimiles. With this illuminating collection of images and his revealing and provocative text, Charles Jencks has produced a compelling and comprehensive analysis of the twentieth-century master who stayed well ahead of his followers to reinvent the art of architecture over and over again. Architectural writer and designer |
Contents
Art has no business resembling a machineIbid p 114 | 15 |
Dress Rehearsal in a Small Town | 16 |
His spirit has created the geometryLCs previous arguments of Purism | 37 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Allen Brooks architect argument artist attack Auguste Perret basic beauty became become brise-soleil building century Chandigarh Chaux Chaux-de-Fonds CIAM city planning Classical concrete construction Corbu Corbusier Corbusier's cosmic create creative Cubism culture curves décoratif d'aujourd'hui decorative Dom-ino drawings Edouard elite facade Fallet forms French friends functional garden geometry grid Gropius harmony idea ideal idealistic industrial L'Art L'Eplattenier L'Esprit Nouveau La Chaux-de-Fonds landscape later LC's Le Corbusier letter living machine Maison metaphor Modern Architecture Modernist Modulor monument nature Nietzsche Nietzschean Open Hand opposite Ozenfant painting Paris Parthenon Perret Pessac Picasso Pierre Jeanneret political Post-Modern Purist quotes revolution Ronchamp roof sculpture space spirit structure struggle style Swiss symbol T. S. Eliot tion Tourette tragic truth ture Unité urban Vers une architecture Vichy Villa Villa Savoye wall Walter Gropius women words writing young Jeanneret Yvonne Zarathustra