Le Corbusier: Ideas & Forms (ARCHITECTURE GENERALE)
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Architecture
Le Corbusier: Ideas & Forms (ARCHITECTURE GENERALE) Details
Review "Impressive ...Any committed bibliophile should splash out on this new, seductively hefty tome. ...A succinct over-view of one mans' determination to change the world ...We are fortunate to have Curtis' considered critique to vouchsafe Corb's rightful place in the architectural pantheon." —RIAS Quarterly Read more About the Author William J. R. Curtis is an award‐winning historian, critic, curator, painter and photographer. Educated at the Courtald Institute of Art, London, and at Harvard University, he has taught the history of art, theories of design, and architecture at several universities worldwide: among others, Harvard; the Architectural Association, London; UNAM, Mexico City; ETSADB, Barcelona; Helsinki Institute of Technology; the Accadmeia, Mendrisio, Switzerland; and the University of Cambridge where he was Slade Professor of Fine Art from 2003–4. In addition to teaching history and theory, Curtis has been directly involved in architectural education in the studio and in juries. He has written historical, critical and theoretical texts on subjects as varied as modern objects, the process of design, historiography, visual education and criticism. His best known books include: the best‐selling Modern Architecture since 1900 (Phaidon 1982, second ed. 1987; fully revised third ed. 1996), and Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms (Phaidon, 1996). Read more
Reviews
Prof. Curtis's Revised LC's Ideas and Forms is truly a gem. For architects, LC is like Picasso to artists. Every architect thinks he knows LC in one form or another. Suspend that decision util you read this book by Prof. Curtis. The book is truly an in-depth story of the master. The book begins with La Chaux de Fonds years. Who would have guessed LC was an offspring of a religious sect and have read all the things about Albigensian Wars of the 12th century. His teacher, L’Eplattenier, taught naturalist aesthetics and also constantly asked LC to seek the causation beyond the phenomena of nature. His mother, a musician and a pianist, lived up to age of 100. His first commissions followedthe indigenous practice of Jura Mountains. The book also pays particular attention to LC's formative years. At age 20, Le Corbusier took his first trips through central Europe and the Mediterranean, including Italy, Vienna, Munich and Paris. He worked for Perret (Paris) Behrens (Berlin). Prof Curtis guides us through the stories, some of the emerging agendas of modern and the continuing constants of history. Perret's use of emerging concrete structure system in comparison with LC's Domino is well illustrated. Behrens' influence in industrialization and machination aesthetics is also well portrayed. Then the book introduces grand voyage to the Orient and the Mediterranean. LC's famous sketches of Istanbul, Bursa, Athens, Pompeii, and Rome are well edited by Prof. Curtis to prepare the readers for future assertions of the architect in early projects and late projects. In 1917, LC moves back to Paris. With the help of Amédée Ozenfant, LC now practices as a painter and a Purist. Together they publish the famous L’Esprit Nouveau (The New Spirit), an avant-garde journal. Prof. Curtis introduces to the reader that LC used this journal as a springboard of his career and also a sounding board of his new findings. LC's writings from the journal became the famous book, "Towards Architecture." A prospect reader could easily realize how much one misread LC's book. I think the contents of book and the goal of book is put into the personal history of LC and the public history of the era. Personally, I found Villa Savoye and Ronchamp Chapel and various urbanism strategies quite interesting. Sharp contrast of Villa Savoye's smooth concrete surface years and Ronchamp's Beton Brut years are given fresh interpretations. The rise, fall, and evolution of LC's urbanism is quite an interesting read. Prior to this book, it was hard to differentiate his Radiant City, Contemporary City, and Algiers. In this book, LC's personal state of mind and the client's request and the historical context are provided to really articulate similarities and differences of his early and later urban manifestos. The real strength of this book is that it's an exciting page after page. For example, texts about Ronchamp Chapel, Prof. Curtis writes,"Throughout the proession around the Chapel at Ronchamp, the curves demonstrate that they are no mere graphic trick, that they carry the architect's intentions into three dimnensions (in fact four) with tension and precision. They address the horizon, model light and shade, channel interior and exterior movement, and resolve the internal and external pressures of the building. In Le Corbusier's early works curves usually play agains a retangular gid; here they have a life of their own."Precise rational analysis (like Vlla Savoye) inscribed in intensely moving texts is the true force of the book. The book is a gem because it is new sayings of old sayings. By that I mean, the facts of LC's career and magnificent projects are same as usual, but the way Prof. Curtis delivers them is brand new. As architects, we remember the texts of "Modern Archictrure since 1900", here is another book that is equally memorable, and a book that really matches the works of the LC.
