1. Le Corbusier
And other thoughts

2. Things to Remember

3. What is perfection?

4. The Future?

5. Utopia
According to The American Heritage College Dictionary is defined as:
An ideally perfect place, esp. in its social, political and moral aspects
A work of fiction describing a Utopia (1516 by Sir Thomas Moore)
An impractical idealistic scheme for reform
Translated from the Greek words
“ou” - meaning not or no
“topos” – meaning place
“Utopia is either a good place, or no place.” - Carolyn Steel, Food Urbanist, from her TedTalk “How Food Shapes Our Cities”

6. Le Corbusier
In brief

7. The Man. The Architect.
Born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris Oct. 6, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
Died Aug. 27, 1965 in Cap Martin, France
Moved to Paris, France in 1917 and assumed the pseudonym Le Corbusier
Famous for his “Five Points of Architecture”
Intended to become a painter until 1907, when he built his first house at the age of 20
Founding Member of Congress International de Architecture Moderne (CIAM)
Works can be found around the world
Believed engineers were out designing architects at the time

8. The Five Points of Architecture
Pilotis – Instead of load bearing walls, structure would be supported a grid of columns.
Free Design of Ground Plan – With few walls needed for support floorplans could open up, allowing for one room to flow seamlessly into the next.
Free Design of Façade – Freeing the interior from the exterior allows the façade to adopt its own aesthetic.
Horizontal Windows – Allow in greater amounts of light and a more equal spread of natural lighting.
Roof Garden – Used for domestic purposes as well as providing a barrier from the elements.

9. Weissenhof Built in Stuttgart, Germany, 1926-1927
Designed with the help of Pierre Jeanneret
Early attempt to follow the 5 Points of Architecture
Duplex built as part of a exhibition put on by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe which also included Walter Gropius, Peter Behrens and others
Mainly concrete form
Lived up to the adored/critiqued idea of modern architecture
Questionable spaces for movement and maids
Valuable learning opportunity for Le Corbusier

10. Villa Savoye “The House is a Machine for the Living!”
Built in 1929 in Poissy, France, it has become an iconic precedent in architectural design
Followed the 5 Points of Architeture
Design encourages exploration through its interconnecting rooms and public/private spaces
Lack of unnecessary decoration, the simplistic forms were perceived to be of greater beauty and more easily understood

11. Quartiers Modernes Fruges
Built in , Pessec, Bordeaux, France
Worker housing in the Le Monteil district of Pessac for local sugar refinery
Poorly received from the start, only 50 of the units were built and sat vacant for 6 years with no running water
Le Corbusier wished for there to be no color, but the client demanded decoration
Poorer, working classes later lived in the houses, knocking down walls, nailing on shutters and placing planters in windows
“Life is always right, the architect is always wrong.”
Still inhabited today in new repaired, personalized states

12. - Le Corbusier, “Towards an Architecture”
“If we eliminate from our hearts and minds all dead concepts in regards to the house, and look at the question from a critical and objective point of view, we shall arrive at the ‘House-Machine,’ the mass-production house, healthy (and morally so too) and beautiful in the same way that the working tools and instruments which accompany our existence are beautiful.”
- Le Corbusier, “Towards an Architecture”

13. The Radiant City Never “officially” built
Took a step away from his “Contemporary City” which focused more on class and less work
Marked a move away from artistic and into totalitarian for Le Corbusier
Sought a balance of programmatic all- encompassing towers surrounded by green space
No cars
It is important to note that Le Corbusier saw this is a method that could work anywhere (e.g. London, NYC, Paris, Berlin, etc.). The perfection of urban planning. Utopia

14. Sound Familiar?

15. Where’s the Problem?

16. Remember Perfection?

17. The Precarious Problem’s of Howard Moskowitz
“There are those who like their pasta sauce plain. There are those who like it chunky. There are those who like it spicy.”
Howard Moskowitz is a food sales specialist who has solved problems for large food corporations:
Pepsi
Vlasic
Prego
Campbell
Revolutionized food industry
No such thing as perfect
People do not know what they want until they have it
Has hold in other industries (e.g. video games)

18. How does this apply?
What Le Corbusier sought with his Radiant City a perfect or utopian plan to fix the “chaos” of the modern city
However, cities are based on people and people vary
With varying people, you get varying ideas of needs and wants
Therefore, a one strategy fixes all is impossible
There is no perfect plan, maybe not even perfect plans, but there are strategies that can be employed to find what may or may not work (e.g. William Whyte, Social Life of Small Urban Spaces)

19. Remember the Future?

20. Louis Kahn: Conversations with Students
“What will architecture be like fifty years from now, and what can we anticipate?”
“You cannot anticipate”
These words began the story of Kahn’s trip to General Electric and their plans to design new space craft
Upon seeing drawings that showed space craft 50 years in the future, Kahn informed the scientists that they were wrong
“If you know what a thing will look like fifty years from now, you can do it now.”
Tomorrow will be built on circumstances and technologies you cannot imagine today

21. How does this apply?
Plans like the Radiant City and the Contemporary City were based around programmatic all- encompassing towers
However, this idea required an anticipation of the future that cannot be done
Monolithic structures such as these (including Pruitt-Igoe) would quickly become antiquated and incapable of adapting with the times
To a degree they may have even hindered progress and human lives

22. Differences of Opinion: Utopia
Chaos v “living City”
For all Mankind v misguided ideals

23. Less Arrogance + More Empathy
Le Corbusier’s utopia v the needs of the people

24. Architect – arrogance

25. Client - empathy

26. Less Arrogance

27. Less Arrogance

28. More Empathy

29. More Empathy

31. Not everything is architecture; architecture seeks to be the best it can be for all parties.  It meets the needs of the people it serves.  It is not a box.  It is not a container.  It is an active participant in the lives of the people who interact with it.  It meets the criteria of the architect's agenda, the constraints of the client and the needs of the users.  Architecture is a result of the labors of many people coming together to serve the needs of all.

32. Works Cited Carolyn Steel, “How Food Shapes Our Cities” :
Brief biography of Le Corbusier found at:
On Howard Mosowitz’s work in food:
Botton, Alain de. The Architecture of Happiness. Vintage Books, New York
Kahn, Louis. Conversations with Students Second Edition. Rice Publications. Texas
Le Corbusier. Towards an Architecture Web. Feb. 9, 2015
Wild, David. Fragments of Utopia: Collage Reflections of Heroic Modernism. Hyphen Press, London. 1998
Berube, Margery S. The American Heritage College Dictionary Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 2007
Le Corbusier. The City of To-Morrow and its Planning Web. Feb. 9, 2015.
Whyte, William. Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Web. Feb. 9, 2015.