Universe Architecture Series: Le Corbusier by Jean Alazard

This is just going to be a short little post, because this is a short little book.

I purchased this from Seekers Books on Bloor St West in December because it’s a beautiful little object, and with everything that’s going on in the world this week, it’s the kinda thing I need to be looking at…

The other reason why this is a good read for me rn is because I finally found a baby-friendly screening of The Brutalist this coming weekend, so I thought I’d try to get some architecture on the brain… tho then I found out that the film uses lots of AI and my enthusiasm for it waned, but as I’d already bought tickets (and they were cheap – you pay less to be allowed to take a baby) I will still be going.

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This short, small yellow book was published in the 1960s and features a short essay by Jean Alazard, which introduces the basic ideas of Le Corbusier’s thinking, thought and practice, which will probably be reasonably well known to anyone already purchasing such a book…

It’s a nice introduction though, and a refresher, but then the thing that makes this a really pleasant object to possess is that the introduction is followed by 96 illustrations (some of which are in “full” colour), comprising photographs of completed buildings, plans of proposed buildings, models of buildings, images of Le Corbusier’s painting and sculptural non-architectural works, and also lots of small diagrams and notes illustrating his ideas visually…

What comes across throughout all of this is a clarification that Le Corbusier viewed architecture as part of a unifying creative process. There were reasons for all of the decisions that he made, and lots of them were ultimately centred in trying to make housing and city designs laid out to improve quality of life for all residents and users of the space.

Key things he believed were important included lots of greenery, trees and parks close to living and working districts… Key too was the separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and making sure that amenities were accessible to all….

He advocated for using different levels and planes of construction (i.e. not just boxes as building blocks), and attempting to keep the ground floor of all buildings mostly structural, e.g. just piles or columns, so that air and people could flow beneath them without having to go inside or around…

As we’re all aware, his ideas were rooted in an optimistic and a future-centred approach. He had positive thoughts and intentions for the the future of humanity, and though many of his buildings and buildings influenced by his ideas (see BS Johnson’s documentary, The Smithsons On Housing) still exist, many of them have also been destroyed, particularly here in London.

It’s a sad, dark future that we’re living in, with hope and opportunity evaporating or being smelted where possible.

This book and Le Corbusier’s architecture speaks to the evidence of the optimism of the interwar and post-war years, an optimism which – in some ways – seemed justified with the social programs and civil rights developments that characterise the legacy of ’60s and ’70s, but the neoliberalism of the ’80s and onwards represents a significant – and unfortunately successful – assault on all of those previous causes for celebration…

This is a beautiful little book, but it does nothing to assuage my consciousness of the collapse that we are living through…

Here are some images from the text,