Le Corbusier's Maison CurutchetInterestingly enough, Le Corbusier flew to Buenos Aires with the master of flight, Antoine du Saint Exupery. He gave a few lectures there and later on his return to Paris drew up on his own initiative a series of urban proposals for Buenos Aires. Nothing happened until a surgeon, Dr.Curutchet, sought his services for the design of his house and clinic at La Plata, Argentina. The book charts the design of this transitional house which sits right in the phase shift from the smooth purist villas to the rough tectonic gestures of his postwar years. It was aslo the model for his urban ambitions for Argentina, like the Citrohan protoype for Europe in the twenties. It is also the first modular building. The book offers a context and the detailed process of the design from the atelier in Paris to the remote site. Le Corbusier never saw the site nor the finished house. The book provides an appraisal of the work of a relevant architect. This house encapsulates almost all of his salient principles, ie, The Five Points. Two essays by the author explore the spatial and formal qualities of the house, from his post-purist painting compositions to promenade architecturale. It is more than a guide book and provides an insight into Le Corbusier's design process. It also helps belie the notion that Le Corbusier was an arrogant formalist who could not tolerate suggestions or collaboration. |
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Amancio Williams architect Argentina Argentinean aspects atelier Aujame aximanual baldaquin bathrooms bedroom brise-soleil Buenos Aires building building's built busier casa chorizo Citrohan client clinic complete composition concrete construction Corbusian Corbusier FLC Corbusier to Curutchet Corbusier's architectural Correspondence Le Corbusier Cubisme Curatella-Manés Curtis Curutchet Collection design process Dom-ino Dossier Correspondence elements exterior Ferrari Hardoy FLC EI 17 Fondation Le Corbusier front frontal garage ground floor Guido Di Tella Hoesli Ideas and Forms important Jerzy Soltan Jorge Kurchan La Plata later letter living areas living room located Maison Cook Maison Curutchet meters modern Ocampo Oeuvre Complète open shaft painting pan-de-verres Paris park Paulo Prado photographs pilotis Plan de Buenos plane Plata poetic professional promenade architecturale purist ramp relationship residence Ringuelet sequence Silvetti space spatial stairs street façade structural Tella tion two-bay Ungar Unité d'Habitation urban Vers une Architecture vertical vestibule Victoria Ocampo Villa Savoye visual volume