And now, let us pause and look at the life and career of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret AKA Le Corbusier; the man who did to Western culture what Attila the Hun tried and failed to do.I must ask him how he's enjoying the ninth level of Hell.
Update: Not an isolated case.
4 comments:
One of my most prized architecture books is my copy of the 1962 U.S. edition of "The Radiant City" (La Ville Radieuse' in the original French, circa 1934 IIRC).
One seldom finds such a vast collection of utter nonsense in one place. I used to be amused by his ideas on "communal living" (see; Cabrini Green), or that his high-rises would somehow be less vulnerable to aerial bombing than more "bourgeois" structures (like, say, the London Underground).
After 9/11 I no longer find such idiocies amusing. In fact, I think they're damned dangerous, and totally fail to see why we still build Bauhaus-style glass boxes in a world with entirely too many people itching to knock them down.
For reasons having nothing to do with architectural good taste.
(I must confess to not being up on my Dante'. the ninth circle is the innermost one, isn't it? I'd hate to think that he wasn't getting absolutely everything he deserves.)
cheers (sort of)
eon
Your Future Past entry on Corbu has one glaring error: that nobody would ever build such a monstrosity. Sadly, American public housing projects for 20 years were shoddily-built Radiant City outtakes, and most of them were eventually demolished to the delight of residents and neighbors alike.
Mmm... ninth level of Hell. That there's some mighty fine ice-skating. Should be good for ice-boating as well, if you can sail around the bits sticking up through the ice.
Ever been to Lasnamäe, Tallin, Estonia?
That is a radiant city in reality.
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