Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier is probably the most famous and certainly the most controversial architect of the twentieth century. His impact on the urban fabric around us and on the way we live has been gigantic because of the richness and variety of his work and his passionately expressed philosophy of architecture. Weaving through his long and prolific life are certain recurrent themes—his perennial drive toward new types of dwelling, from the early white villas to the Unité d'Habitation at Marseille; his evolving concepts of urban form, including the Plan Voisin of 1925 with its cruciform towers imposed on the city of Paris and his work at Chandigarh in India; and his belief in a new technocratic order. The distinguished critic and historian Kenneth Frampton reexamines all these facets of his artistic and philosophical worldview in the light of recent discoveries, and presents us with a Le Corbusier for the twenty-first century. 200 b/w illustrations.