Le Corbusier: Villa Savoye

Le Corbusier:
Villa Savoye
Le Corbusier:
Le Modular
Le Corbusier:
Maisonettes
The ideal cellular apartment
Swiss Pavilion
Maisonettes, 1932
Le Corbusier:
Rooftop as open space
Le Corbusier:
Philosophy
Written by Le Corbusier in 1931:
“On the day when contemporary
society, at present so sick, has become
properly aware that only architecture
and city planning can provide the exact
prescription for its ills, then the time
will have come for the great machine to
be put in motion and begin its
functions.”
from LeCorbusier, The Radiant City, 1933,
translated 1967, pp. 143.
Le Corbusier:
Contemporary City Plan
Le Corbusier:
Contemporary City
Comparison
Le Corbusier:
Contemporary City Plan
The Contemporary City as described by
Le Corbusier:
“The air is clear and pure; there is
hardly any noise. What, you cannot see
where the buildings are? Look through
the charmingly dispersed arabesques of
branches out into the sky towards those
widely-spaced crystal towers which soar
higher than any pinnacle on earth.
These translucent prisms that seem to
float in the air without anchorage to the
ground—flashing in the summer
sunshine, softly gleaming under grey
winter skies, magically glittering at
nightfall—are huge office blocks.”
Le Corbusier:
Contemporary City Plan
City Center
Le Corbusier:
Problems
of Paris
Written by Le Corbusier in 1931:
“Paris is truly in danger; for if Paris doesn’t move, Paris will become senile.
“No more evasions. No more saying: we’ll finish the program begun by Louis XIV
little by little… It is terrifying! Every day, Paris takes another step towards
petrifaction: people are allowed to rebuild their great buildings on the same sites, on
the same old streets. Are there no young men anymore? Is there no program
anywhere?… Are we beaten, vanquished, on our knees. Unable to help ourselves? We
are being ruled by cowardice!
“The figures tell us that nothing is impossible; what must be done can be done. The age
of architecture has begun… What is needed, in Paris, is order.
“The building of the Radiant City can be a joyous adventure, an active, productive
task carried out with enthusiasm, with faith, with a love of beauty, with an
architectural grandeur inspired by the new programs, and on a new scale of
greatness!”
from LeCorbusier, The Radiant City, 1933, translated 1967, pp.
102-3.
At the center of his City of Three Million was a group of cross-shaped
skyscrapers, 50 to 60 stories high, placed far apart in expanses of greenery, like
“towers in a park”
“These skyscrapers,”Le Corbusier airily explained, “will contain the city's
brains. Everything is to be concentrated in them: banks, business affairs, the
control of industry.”
Based upon clearance of most of the Parisian landscape (a few historic
monuments were to be kept), and the erection of twenty-four steel and glass
skyscrapers that would house the business and artistic elite.
Old "decrepit" structures from the past had to be cleared away.
Workers were placed at the edges of the city in modern apartment structures,
based on the Domino, close to their workplace--the factory.
Most of the land, around eighty-five percent, was left to natural landscapes and
playgrounds.
Le Corbusier:
Plan Voisin, Paris
Le Corbusier:
Plan Voisin, Paris
5% of the area would
be built upon, 95% is
free.
As Corb described it,
“The slums are cleaned
up, their value
enhanced.”
Note on the left the use,
for the first time in the
world, of the multi-level
intersection (1922).
Le Corbusier:
Plan Voisin, Paris
The Plan Voisin, created in the 1920s. Notice the Ile de la Cite to the right.
Algiers
Algiers