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Imprima já o seu!

With its new Trollsta and Hemnes ranges, Ikea welcomes pre-Modernist decoration back to its furniture.

A report from our Berlin correspondent on design and society.

Marching aggressively toward global pre-eminence in the home furnishings market since the 1990s, Ikea has made a public stand against clutter, chintz and pointless decoration. Ikea commercials mercilessly pilloried people with a taste for mock-Edwardian reproduction furniture as life-hating snobs and neurotics, telling them to "stop being so English" and "chuck out the chintz."

Imagine my surprise, then, to discover, on a recent trip to the local Ikea, a rather interesting series of new designs featuring the kind of scrolled legs and cornice pediments you'd normally expect to see at Pottery Barn. A bold yellow sideboard designed by Hanna Brogård — the Trollsta — was the first thing to catch my eye. Instead of the customary plain rectangles, a metallic valance in curvy leafage finial hung from the dresser's navel and traveled down its legs, which, if they weren't exactly fluted in 3-D, were certainly throwing the shapes.

Other items making similarly taboo decorative gestures were Ola Wihlborg's side table, a bedside table by Helene Tiedemann and Carina Bengs's dressing table with mirror, which looks like an adult version of department-store Disney Baroque.

Carina Bengs's dressing table and its possible inspiration, spotted in a department store: a pink baroque cosmetics table fit for a Disney princess.

Ikea's struggle against chintz and clutter — its desire to present ornamentation as some kind of crime or neurosis — goes back to the dawn of Modernism. In 1908, the Viennese architecture theorist Adolf Loos published an essay called "Ornament and Crime," which presented decoration as immoral and criminal: like the tattooings of "degenerate races," decoration was an unnecessary waste of skill, a hostage to fickle fashion. The forms of buildings, said Loos (the Bauhaus, Mies and Le Corbusier were listening), should express their structure, materials and function, nothing more.

In the early 1980s, decorative gestures began to creep back into a design world bored by minimalism. By 2008, the news had reached Ikea.

By 1984 this Modernist idea had worn thin, replaced by the postmodern view that "less is a bore." That year, Ettore Sottsass unveiled Memphis Milano's Ivory Side Table, and Philip Johnson topped his AT&T building with a blasphemous cornice.

A quarter century later, that revolution seems to have reached IKEA. Can we now expect TV commercials telling us that it's actually Modernist design that is neurotic? Was Pottery Barn avant-garde all along? And where do we nostalgic Modernists go for our no-frills fix of stark, post-protestant thrift and utility? Well, I guess there's always Muji.

Read previous columns of The Post-Materialist by Nick Currie.

Reet good. Via RIBA

A origem deriva de cinco pontos,
todos eles
nascidos das liberdades
                                              [sensoriais].

A fusão com a paisagem é
o sentido da obra, a razão de fazer
existência.

Solo. Ser. Homem. Estrutura. Arquitectura.
Tudo é conjugável.
Tudo é [meio]
                          - ambiente.

Só os cinco são a autenticidade.

in Odes & Homenagens

LE CORBUSIER - Firminy (Loire), originally uploaded by gilfirm.

C'est l'oeuvre de Herzog et De Meuron, un duo d'architectes suisses qui ont conçu et réalisé des bâtiments spectaculaires dans le monde entier ces dernières années.

Vu l' excellent film "Le Nid d'Oiseau. Herzog et de Meuron en Chine" de C: Schaub et M. Schindhelm sur ce travail, dont voici le lancement :

On y voit notamment comment les architectes ont pris en compte la culture chinoise et ses nombreux symboles avec l'aide d'Ai Weiwei, démarche que d'autres concurrents internationaux ont eu le tort d'ignorer...

Petite séquence "y'en a point comme nous" à l'intention des chers voisins qui réduisent volontiers la Suisse à banques+montres+chocolat : on a aussi des architectes célèbres.

Comme Mario Botta, qui parsème l'europe de cylindres découpés de diverses manières comme la cathédrale d'Evry :

Et aussi comme "Le Corbusier". Si si, c'est un suisse qui conçut entre autres de nombreuses "cités radieuses" construites après guerre en France, voire une ville entière en Inde, Chandigarh.

Je n'apprécie pas énormément le côté parallélépipédique de beaucoup des oeuvres de le Corbusier, mais mon archisoeur m'a indiqué dans un commentaire la "Villa Turque" à La Chaux de Fond, toute en rondeurs, et en brique. Ca mérite en effet une mise à jour de l'article et une photo :

]]> http://arqar.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/ga-le-corbusier/ Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:55:11 +0000 daniek http://arqar.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/ga-le-corbusier/ Charles Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, llamado Le Corbusier (6 de octubre de 1887 - 27 de agosto de 1965) fue un arquitecto, urbanista, teórico de la arquitectura, diseñador y pintor suizo, nacionalizado francés. Es considerado uno de los padres de la arquitectura moderna (junto con Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius y Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), y uno de los arquitectos que mayor influencia han tenido en el siglo XX y en general, en toda la historia de la arquitectura. 

Vida y Obra

Nació en La Chaux-de-Fonds, en la Suiza francófona con el nombre de Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris. A los 29 años se trasladó a París donde adoptó el seudónimo "Le Corbusier", el apellido de su abuelo materno. Su padre se dedicaba a lacar cajas de relojes para la industria relojera de su ciudad natal, y su madre fue pianista y profesora de música.
En 1900 Le Corbusier comenzó su aprendizaje como grabador y cincelador en la escuela de arte de La Chaux-de-Fonds, en Suiza. Uno de sus profesores, Charles L'Eplattenier, le orientó hacia la pintura y después hacia la arquitectura. En 1905 diseñó su primer edificio, una casa unifamiliar para un miembro de la Escuela de Arte, la Villa Vallet. En los próximos diez años hizo numerosos edificios, que no obstante todavía no llevan su sello característico posterior, y que él mismo no incluyó en el registro de sus obras.
Ya en París, trabajó durante 15 meses en el estudio de Auguste Perret, arquitecto pionero en la técnica de construcción en hormigón armado. A continuación viajó a Alemania para estudiar las tendencias arquitectónicas de ese país. Allí trabajó en la oficina de Peter Behrens, donde se estima que puede haber coincidido con Ludwig Mies van der Rohe y Walter Gropius, quienes también trabajaron ahí. Visitó también Estados Unidos, donde se familiarizó con la obra de Frank Lloyd Wright, que por aquel entonces comenzaba a ser apreciada en Europa. El año 1911 lo dedicó por completo a viajar. Desde Viena fue a Rumanía, Turquía, Grecia e Italia y a su regreso fue profesor durante dos años en el departamento de arquitectura y decoración de la Escuela de Arte de París.
En 1922 Le Corbusier abrió un despacho de arquitectura con su primo Pierre Jeanneret, con el cual mantuvo su asociación hasta 1940. Inicialmente los dos diseñaron casi exclusivamente edificios residenciales. Uno de sus grandes proyectos de estos años, en este caso como urbanista, es su diseño conceptual de una ciudad de tres millones de habitantes, la Ville Contemporaine.[1]
En octubre de 1929 Le Corbusier dictó en Buenos Aires un ciclo de diez conferencias, invitado por la Asociación Amigos del Arte. En este viaje también visitó Río de Janeiro, Asunción y Montevideo.
Le Corbusier fue un trabajador incansable. Realizó innumerables proyectos, muchos de los cuales nunca llegaron a realizarse, pero que marcaron a generaciones posteriores de arquitectos.
Difundió también sus ideas urbanas a través del CIAM (Congreso Internacional de Arquitectura Moderna) cuyo documento resultante es La Carta de Atenas. Sin embargo, fue únicamente en Chandigarh, India, donde pudo hacerlas realidad.
El 27 de Agosto de 1965, desobedeciendo las indicaciones de su médico, Le Corbusier fue a nadar a Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, en el Mediterráneo francés. Fue encontrado muerto por unos pescadores, presumiblemente de un ataque al corazón.

Contribuciones teóricas a la arquitectura

Le Corbusier fue, además de un gran arquitecto y pintor, un eminente teórico de la Arquitectura. Escribió varios libros, en los que ejemplificaba sus ideas mediante proyectos propios (a la manera clásica como lo hizo en su momento, por ejemplo, Palladio en “I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura”). Tuvo muy claro que, aparte de saber crear buenos edificios era necesario saber explicarlos y transmitirlos al resto de los profesionales y a los estudiantes, y ejerció con gran maestría la tarea de publicitar su propia obra. Como visionario, Le Corbusier veía la posibilidad de cambiar el mundo a través de la arquitectura. Era socialista, y como tal, veía todo proceso de diseño con fines utópicos. Lo que le permitió contribuir grandemente al significado de la arquitectura en general.

La machine à habiter

Le Corbusier es conocido por su definición de la vivienda como la máquina para vivir. Con ello, Le Corbusier ponía en énfasis no sólo la componente funcional de la vivienda, sino que esta funcionalidad debe estar destinada al vivir, comprendiéndose esto último desde un punto de vista metafísico. Le Corbusier creía que el objetivo de la Arquitectura es generar belleza (muy conocida también es su frase: la Arquitectura es el juego sabio, correcto y magnífico de los volúmenes bajo la luz), y que ésta debía repercutir en la forma de vida de los ocupantes de los propios edificios.

L´Esprit Nouveau

A fin de divulgar sus ideas sobre la arquitectura y la pintura, Le Corbusier fundó en 1920, junto con Paul Dermée, una revista de divulgación artística que obtuvo gran resonancia internacional.

Cinco puntos de una nueva arquitectura

En 1926 Le Corbusier presenta un documento donde expone en forma sistemática sus ideas arquitectónicas: los llamados «cinco puntos de una nueva arquitectura» representan una importante innovación conceptual para la época, aprovechando las nuevas tecnologías constructivas, derivadas especialmente del uso del hormigón armado:

1. Los «pilotes»: para que la vivienda no se hunda en el suelo, y —por el contrario— quede suspendida sobre él, de forma tal que el jardín «pase» por debajo.

2. La terraza-jardín: que permite mantener condiciones de aislación térmica sobre las nuevas losas de hormigón, y convierten el espacio sobre la vivienda en un ámbito aprovechable para el esparcimiento.

3. La planta libre: aprovechando las virtudes del hormigón, que hacen innecesarios los muros portantes. De esta forma, se mejora el aprovechamiento funcional y de superficies útiles, liberando a la planta de condicionantes estructurales.

4. La ventana longitudinal: por el mismo motivo del punto anterior, también los muros exteriores se liberan, y las ventanas pueden abarcar todo el ancho de la construcción, mejorando la relación con el exterior.

5. La fachada libre: complementario del punto interior, los pilares se retrasan respecto de la fachada, liberando a ésta de su función estructural.

El Modulor

Ideó el Modulor, sistema de medidas en que cada magnitud se relaciona con la anterior por el Número Áureo, para que sirviese de medida de las partes de arquitectura. De esta forma retomaba el ideal antiguo de establecer una relación directa entre las proporciones de los edificios y las del hombre. Tomó como escala el francés medio de 1,75 m de estatura; y más adelante añadió el policía británico de 6 pies (1,8288 m), lo que dio el Modulor II. Los resultados de estas investigaciones fueron publicados en un libro con el mismo nombre del Modulor.

Le Corbusier fue uno de los miembros fundadores del Congreso Internacional de Arquitectura Moderna. En 1930 adoptó la nacionalidad francesa. Unos años después realizó su primer viaje a los Estados Unidos.

Le Corbusier se hizo famoso por el llamado estilo internacional, que aplicó junto con Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius y Theo van Doesburg. Fue un arquitecto muy admirado en su época e influyó a varias generaciones de jóvenes arquitectos.

Sin embargo, su afán creador queda expresado en Le Poème de l'Angle Droit (El Poema del Ángulo Derecho —Ángulo recto— ); especialmente en Fusión:

Asentado en demasiadas causas mediatas
asentado junto a nuestras vidas
y los otros están allí
y por todas partes están los: "¡No!"

Y siempre más contra
que por
No condenar pues a aquél
que quiere asumir su parte en los
riesgos de la vida. Dejad
que se fusionen los metales
tolerad las alquimias que
por lo demás os dejan libres
de castigo
Es por la puerta de las
pupilas abiertas por donde las miradas
cruzadas han podido conducir al
acto fulminante de comunión:
"El ensanchamiento de los grandes
silencios"...
La mar vuelve a descender
a lo más bajo de la marea para
poder subir de nuevo a tiempo.
Un tiempo nuevo se ha abierto
una etapa un plazo un relevo
Así no nos quedaremos
sentados junto a nuestras vidas.

Influencia en la arquitectura

Hoy en día la obra y el pensamiento de Le Corbusier siguen vigentes, tanto en la práctica como en la enseñanza y en la teoría de la arquitectura. Como una de las figuras clave de la arquitectura moderna, la continuación del movimiento tiene en él y en sus obras un referente directo. Como uno de los precursores del brutalismo, sus trabajos posteriores han servido de base a corrientes arquitectónicas apoyadas en la tectónica (expresión de los materiales y sistemas constructivos) y en diferentes enfoques regionalistas.

Si bien para muchas figuras del pensamiento arquitectónico contemporáneo, la modernidad es un movimiento obsoleto, y por lo tanto las obras y premisas de su arquitectura no deben continuarse, hay un grupo importante de arquitectos (llamados neomodernos o simplemente modernos) que continúan haciendo arquitectura en el espíritu de Le Corbusier.

Introdujo la proporción áurea en muchas de sus obras, por ejemplo se puede apreciar en el módulo de la Capilla de Notre Dame du Haut.

Críticas

Si bien las intenciones de Le Corbusier siempre fueron la mejora de la calidad de vida para la humanidad sus planteos han sido muchas veces distorsionados: el modelo de desarrollo urbano de Le Corbusier suele implicar una excesiva dependencia del automóvil para la realización de las actividades cotidianas en gran medida por una excesiva dispersión de las ciudades (el mismo problema se encuentra en muchos otros planteos de urbanistas coetáneos a Le Corbusier) y así el consumo de tierras agrícolas; igualmente la sencillez implícita en los edificios de la arquitectura internacional ha solido y suele ser explotada para crear edificios de apartamentos que son meras acumulaciones de cubículos, baratas de construir pero favorecedoras de anomias y carentes de elementos distintivos (es decir: una masificación). En el último de los casos es patente que en nombre de Le Corbusier se falsea la esencia del pensamiento lecorbusierano.

Obras representativas

• Villa Fallet 1905 ( La Chaux de Fonds, Suiza)
• Villa Jeanneret-Perret (Maison blanche), 1912, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suiza
• Villas La Roche-Jeanneret (París)
• Barrio Modernes Frugès (Bordeaux)
• Edificio Armée du Salut, Palais du Peuple (París)
• Villa Cook (Boulogne, Francia)
• Villa Savoye (Poissy, Francia)
• Casa Guiette (Amberes, Bélgica)
• Pabellón de Nestlé, Feria de París 1927
• Edificio Chemin de Villiers (Poissy, Francia)
• Edificio Armée du Salut, Asile Flottant (París)
• Apartamentos de Beistégui (París)
• Pabellón de Suiza. Ciudad Universitaria (París)
• Edificio Clarté (Ginebra)
• Edificio Nungesser et Coli (París)
• Ministerio de Educación Nacional (Río de Janeiro) (con Oscar Niemeyer y Lucio Costa)
• Fábrica de Duval (Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, Francia)
• Unidad de Habitación (Marsella)
• Capilla de Nuestra Señora del Alto (Ronchamp, Francia)
• Palacio de los Filatélicos (Ahmedabad, India)
• Villa Sarabhai (Ahmedabad, India)
• Museo de Ahmedabad (India)
• Edificio de la Alta Corte Judicial (Chandigarh, India)
• Museo y Galería de Arte (Chandigarh, India)
• Convento Sainte Marie de la Tourette (Lyon)
• Casa del Brasil, Ciudad Universitaria (París)
• Estadio (Bagdad, Iraq)
• Firminy-Vert (Firminy, Francia)
  • Casa de la Cultura de Firminy-Vert
  • Unidad de Habitación de Firminy-Vert
  • Estadio de Firminy-Vert
  • Iglesia Saint-Pierre Firminy-Vert
  • Piscina de Firminy-Vert
• Viviendas Heilsbergen Dreieck (Berlín)
• Museo de Arte Occidental (Tokio)
• Centro de Artes Visuales Carpenter, Universidad de Harvard (Boston)
• Centro Le Corbusier (Zúrich)
• Casa Curuchet (La Plata, Argentina)

Influencia en la Arquitectura

Hoy en día la obra y el pensamiento de Le Corbusier siguen vigentes, tanto en la práctica como en la enseñanza y en la teoría de la arquitectura. Como una de las figuras clave de la modernidad, la continuación del movimiento tiene en él y en sus obras un referente directo. Como uno de los precursores del brutalismo, sus trabajos posteriores han servido de base a corrientes arquitectónicas apoyadas en la tectónica (expresión de los materiales y sistemas constructivos) y en diferentes enfoques regionalistas.

Si bien para muchas figuras del pensamiento arquitectónico contemporáneo, la modernidad es un movimiento obsoleto, y por lo tanto las obras y premisas de su arquitectura no deben continuarse, hay un grupo importante de arquitectos (llamados neomodernos o simplemente modernos) que continúan haciendo arquitectura en el espíritu de Le Corbusier.

Introdujo la proporción áurea en muchas de sus obras, por ejemplo se puede apreciar en el módulo de la Capilla de Notre Dame du Haut.

Publicaciones

Con el nombre de Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris

• 1912 - Étude sur le mouvement d'art décoratif en Allemagne, La Chaux-de-Fonds
• 1925 - La peinture moderne', con Amédée Ozenfant, París

Con el nombre de Le Corbusier

• 1918 - Après le cubisme, con Amédée Ozenfant, París
• 1923 - Vers une architecture, París
• 1924 - Urbanisme, París
• 1925 - L'art décoratif aujourd'hui, París
• 1925 - Almanach d'architecture moderne, París
• 1926 - Architecture d'époque machiniste, París
• 1928 - Requête adressée à la Société des Nations, con Pierre Jeanneret, París
• 1928 - Une maison, un palais, París
• 1930 - Précisions sur un état présent de l'architecture et de l'urbanisme, París
• 1931 - Clavier de couleur Salubra, Bâle
• 1931 - Requête à Monsieur le président du Conseil de la Société des Nations, con Pierre Jeanneret, París
• 1933 - Croisade ou le crépuscule des académies, París
• 1935 - La ville radieuse, Boulogne
• 1935 - Aircraft, Londres - New York
• 1937 - Quand les cathédrales étaient blanches, París
• 1937 - Les tendances de l'architecture rationaliste en rapport avec la peinture et la sculpture, Roma
• 1938 - Îlot insalubre n° 6, con Pierre Jeanneret, París
• 1938 - Des canons, des munitions? Merci, des logis SVP, Boulogne
• 1941 - Destin de París, París - Clermont-Ferrand
• 1941 - Sur les quatre routes, París
• 1942 - La maison des hommes, con François de Pierrefeu, París
• 1942 - Les constructions murondins, París - Clermont-Ferrand
• 1943 - La Charte d'Athènes, París (adaptación para su publicación).
• 1945 - Les trois établissements humains, París
• 1946 - Propos d'urbanisme, París
• 1946 - Manière de penser l'urbanisme, Boulogne,
• 1947 - U.N. headquarters, New York
• 1948 - New world Of space, New York,
• 1948 - Grille C.I.A.M. d'urbanisme: mise en application de la Charte d'Athènes, Boulogne
• 1950 - Le modulor, Boulogne
• 1950 - Les problèmes de la normalisation: rapport présenté au Conseil économique, in La charte de l'habitat, vol.1, París
• 1950 - L'unité d'habitation de Marseille, Souillac - Mulhouse
• 1950 - Poésie sur Alger, París
• 1954 - Une petite maison, Zurich
• 1955 - Le Modulor II (La parole est aux usagers), Boulogne
• 1955 - Architecture du bonheur, l'urbanisme est une clef, París
• 1955 - Le Poème de l'angle droit, París .
• 1956 - Les plans de París: 1956-1922, París
• 1957 - Von der Poesie des Bauens, Zurich
• 1958 - Entretien avec les étudiants des écoles d'architecture, París
• 1959 - Second clavier des couleurs, Bâle
• 1960 - L'atelier de la recherche patiente, París
• 1961 - Orsay París 1961, París
• 1966 - Le voyage d'Orient, París
• 1966 - Mises au point, París
• 1968 - Les maternelles vous parlent, París
• 2006 - Conférences de Rio (1936). Introduccion, selección de textos y notas de Yannis Tsiomis. París, Flammarion
  

Algunas fotos de sus obras

Algunos vídeos interesantes de Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier, A Purist In Pariese

Casa Curutchet (Perdón por la música)

Maison La Roche

Villa Savoye

La Tourette

Un Viaje Con Le Corbusier

Patrimoine Le Corbusier à Firminy

Fuente:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier

A substantial exhibition, Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture, is running in Paris. And this month an enormous new book, Le Corbusier Le Grand, is published, which collects together his diverse achievements for the first time. You couldn't make a book like this about just any architect. It's astounding to see just how much Le Corbusier accomplished.

Vila Stein (1926-27)

photo by Zephyr on Wired New York Forum

Ele fez mais de 300 projetos em várias escalas, de pequenas cabanas a cidades inteiras (somente 78 desses projetos foram construídos). Ele também escreveu 34 livros, fez incontáveis pronunciamentos, conferências e entrevistas, desenhou, pintou e esculpiu, projetou mobiliário, dirigiu vários negócios, viajou pelo mundo, teve casos de amor, co-editou uma revista, inventou seu próprio sistema de medidas e escreveu cartas para sua mãe pelo menos uma vez por semana. Você deve estar se perguntando onde ele arranjou tempo para tudo isso.

A Assembléia Legislativa de Chandigard, Punjab, India (1953-63)/ The Chandigard Legislative Assembly, Punjab, India (1953-63)

photo by John MacDougall/AFP

He executed more than 300 designs on every scale, from small huts to entire cities (though only 78 of those designs were ultimately built). He also wrote 34 books, gave countless speeches, lectures and interviews, drew, painted and sculpted, designed furniture, ran businesses, travelled the world, had love affairs, co-edited a magazine, invented his own system of proportions and wrote to his mother at least once a week. Where on earth, you wonder, did he find the time?

Notre-Dame du Haut , Ronchamp, França (1955)

photo on cellule 75 blog

Além da arquitetura, Le Corbusier Le Grand revela muito sobre o homem Le Corbusier, Existem alguns surpreendentes esboços pornográficos. Existem amplas provas de seu entusiasmo pela modernidade: há uma foto posando dentro de um falso bi-aeroplano feita em 1920 num estúdio, há uma lembrança de seu vôo transatlântico para o Rio de Janeiro a bordo do Zeppelin, e um cartão postal do avião Lockheed Constellation, no qual ele desenhou a si mesmo sentado numa das asas. Também há fotos deles com os "grande e bons", de Albert Einstein a Josephine Baker (com quem, ao contrário dos rumores, não teve um caso). E há delicados desenhos de seu pai, mãe e esposa em seus leitos de morte. É uma grande coletânea de uma vida vivida intensamente.

Unidade de Habitação, Marselha, França - Unité d'Habitation, Marseille, France

Photo Fundacion Le Corbusier

Beyond the architecture, Le Corbusier Le Grand reveals a great deal about the man himself. There are some surprisingly pornographic sketches. There is ample proof of his enthusiasm for modernity: there he is posing inside a mocked-up biplane in a 1920s photographer's studio; here's a souvenir from his transatlantic flight to Rio de Janeiro aboard the Graf Zeppelin, and a postcard of a Lockheed Constellation on which he has doodled himself sitting on the wing. There are also snaps of him with the great and good, from Albert Einstein to Josephine Baker (contrary to rumours, it's unlikely they had an affair). And there are tender sketches of his father, mother and wife on their deathbeds. It all points to a life lived enviably fully.

Veja a seguir algumas fotos do livro. Todas as fotos pertencem à Fundação Le Corbusier / See below some pictures of the book.  All the pictures are owened by Fundation Le Corbusier.

Le Corbusier sobre o pedestal, com seu irmão Albert, sua mãe Charlotte e seu pai Georges-Edouard

Le Corbusier (on pedestal) with his brother, Albert, his mother, Charlotte and his father Georges-Edouard

auto retrato - 1917/ self-portrait - 1917

pavimento térreo do hall de entrada da Villa Stein / the ground floor hallway of Villa Stein

esboços da cadeira "Grand Confort" - Le Corbusier e Charlotte Perriand - 1927/29

sketches of the "Grand Confort" chair - Le Corbusier e Charlotte Perriand - 1927/29

Le Corbusier com os painéis vitrificados da porta de Notre-Dame du Haut em Ronchamp

Le Corbusier with enamelled door panels for Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp

sala de estar e de jantar da "Casa A" de Le Corbusier em Neully-sur-Seine, França - 1955

living and dining areas of Le Corbusier's "Maison A" in Neully-sur-Seine, France - 1955

Le Corbusier e o Modulor/ Le Corbusier and the Modulor

]]> http://eepdesign.wordpress.com/?p=317 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:01:02 +0000 eepdesign http://eepdesign.wordpress.com/?p=317

As advertised, Le Corbusier Le Grand weighs in at a whopping 20 plus pounds and measures 19.6 by 14.3 by 3.9 inches with over 600 pages. It stands (or lays) as a comprehensive archive of the work of Le Corbusier, arguably one of the most important modernist architects of the twentieth century, the scale of the book more than reflects the enormity of Le Corbusier's ambitions and output.

Punctuated into ten chapters arranged thematically and chronologically, the reader is given a lengthy introduction, followed by a one page essay at the start of each chapter. While the essays are enlightening, the pictures and the letters are the real focus. Literal boxes of text accompany each spread and provide notable details. A real treasure is the book accompanying this book, a 625 page, far slimmer and apparently dull companion which contains translations of all of the French letters and documents in the larger work. For the real enthusiast these writings provide far more emotional and private insights into the life of Le Corbusier than candid pictures ever could.

Le Grande is not a biography of Le Corbusier, nor does it intend to be. Instead, it serves as a pictographic and textual accompaniment of his life. It's easy to forget just how radical his work was, but just a few photographs make it clear. The early chapters of the book stand out because of their apparent anachronism, but the sparse and clear line drawings of Le Corbusier's early projects thrill by their own merit. The details of his product work are included as well. One can see quite clearly, for example, the involvement of Charlotte Perriand in the design of Le Corbusier's iconic LC2 armchair and accompanying LC4 chaise lounge. Even though her role has been relegated to a historical footnote, the documents and schematics betray just how involved she may have been, alongside rather comprehensive process work and drawings.

Brimming with photographs of projects and crisp pictures of tattered notebook pages, Le Grande seems to compile every document from Le Corbusier 's life, leaving the reader with the impression that they've uncovered some lost shoebox of memories, and maybe a level of detail that they don't quite deserve to visit. Tiny details humanized an imposing historical figure. While many books have revealed the ideological themes of his manifestos or his constant ongoing struggle with politics and the press, the comprehensive scale of this tome illuminates the sorts of dark corners of life where the stark realities of human existence, foibles and all, tend to hide. Le Corbusier Le Grand works as a giant book full of little revelations.

by Robert Blinn

If we think, like Jane Jacobs, that human nature is good, social interaction can only bring good things, thus shall be incouraged. A "good human nature city" will have roads full of people, windows on the streets, improvised parties, bars and cafés, flash mobs, free hugs, bicycle races...

(source: urban reinventors)

Secondo i miei calcoli (derivati da questo articolo di repubblica) il governo Italiano ha in programma di costruire 70,000 nuovi appartamenti da destinare ai poveri.

E’ strano che in un paese come l’Italia in forte calo demografico ci sia bisogno di cosi’ tante case popolari.

Piuttosto sembra che in Italia, mentre diminuiscono gli abitanti, c'e' un aumentando i poveri e ci sono forti migrazioni interne al Paese. I poveri stanno spopolando il Sud e si stanno trasferendo al Centro-Nord come nel dopoguerra. Quindi molte case verranno abbandonate al Sud e molte nuove case dovranno essere costruite al Centro-Nord la’ dove c’e’ piu’ lavoro e dove ci sara' maggiore urbanizzazione.

Sarebbe interessante se il governo provvedesse anche a dare indicuazioni su quali modelli abitativi intende costruire per i nostri poveri nelle aree metropolitane del Centro-Nord.

I modelli urbanistici piu’ consolidati sono ispirati a due pensatori:

1) Le Corbusier

2) Jane Jacobs

Le Corbusier ha teorizzato un’architettura standardizzata e sintetica priva di estetica, di decorazione e di bellezza. Le Corbusier sta all’architettura come Ford sta all’industria. Tutte le case devono essere uguali come il lavoro nelle catene di montaggio. Gli edifici devono raccogliere quante piu’ persone possibili per lasciare spazio alle strade dove far circolare automobili e costruire parcheggi. Le Corbusier ha ispirato la costruzione delle periferie delle citta’ Italiane a partire dagli anni ’50 fino ad oggi.

Jane Jacobs e’ stata la piu’ grande antagonista del modello urbanistico di Le Corbusier ritenendo che i suoi edifici non fossero a misura d’uomo. Secondo Jane Jacobs troppi spazi aperti nelle citta' inibiscono l’abilita’ della societa’ di governarsi da sola perche’ diminuiscono il numero degli occhi sulla strada. Inoltre le grandi strade urbane stravolgono la societa' creando ghetti cittadini. Oggi la maggior parte dei quartieri ifici costruiti su modello di Le Corbusier sono zone di poverta', emarginazione, violenza e criminalita’, mentre i quartieri tradizionali sono generalmente quelli con il prezzo degli immobili piu' alto.

Che fine faranno i nostri nuovi poveri? Che fine faranno le nostre povere citta’?

"Poème électronique" (Electronic Poem) was composed in 1958 by Edgard Varèse, the father of electronic music, and Iannis Xénakis, one of the most important modernist composers of the 20th century, under the direction of Le Corbusier, one of the most important architects of the 20th century.

This recording is only an approximation of the true nature of the event from 1958, as it has none of the integral spatial effects that were created for the Philips Pavilion structure.

There is much information to understand the complexity of this giant project which was the first electronic-spatial environment to combine architecture, film, light and music to a total experience made to functions in time and space. I recomand to read the entire post.

Edgard Varèse (1883 – 1965) was a French-born composer, who moved to the United States in 1915. His use of new instruments and electronic resources led to his being known as the “Father of Electronic Music” while Henry Miller described him as “The stratospheric Colossus of Sound.”

Iannis Xénakis (1922 - 2001) was a composer of Greek parentage and Romanian birth. In 1947 he arrived in Paris, where he became a member of Le Corbusier’s architectural team. He is one of the most important modernist composers of the 20th century.

Le Corbusier (1887 – 1965), was a Swiss-born architect, designer, urbanist, writer and also painter, who is famous for his contributions to what now is called Modern architecture. In his 30s he became a French citizen.

The story begin in 1956, when preparations had begun for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. It was to be the first World's Fair held since the end of World War II, and the idea was to celebrate the rejuvenation of civilization from the destruction of the war.

The Philips electronics company had been forced to relocate from the Netherlands during the war. Having returned to their corporate headquarters, they had focused on developing new products in lighting, stereophonic audio, telephones, and other products. As the preparations for the fair approached, Philips grew concerned that they would be outshone by American booths that were planning to display the new color televisions. So they came up with the concept of not displaying commercial goods at all, but rather of putting together an international team consisting of an architect, an artist and a composer to create a pavilion displaying electronic technology in as many forms as possible, serving arts, culture, and the overall betterment of humankind.

Philips approached Le Corbusier was enthusiastic about the idea, replying:
"I will not make a pavilion for you but an Electronic Poem and a vessel containing the poem; light, color image, rhythm and sound joined together in an organic synthesis."

He was not concerned with the exterior design of the pavilion, and stipulated that he would be entirely responsible for the interior and therefore no other artist would be necessary.

As for the composer, Philips had in mind a number of headliners who could compose the music. Benjamin Britten or Aaron Copland seemed to have international reputations at the same level as Le Corbusier. But Le Corbusier, a dominating and powerful personality, insisted that Edgard Varèse was the only qualified composer for the project. When Philips expressed uncertainty with the idea, Le Corbusier made his own participation contingent upon Varèse acting as composer, and insisted that Varèse be given carte blanche to create whatever he saw fit. Despite Philips' desire to have a mainstream composer, Le Corbusier's presence was the overriding concern, as the company believed that his name was necessary to garner international attention.

At initial meetings, Le Corbusier gave a rough outline of the look and function of the event.
- The interior was to be shaped in a manner similar to the stomach of a cow, with the concept that audience members would enter in groups of 500 at ten-minute intervals.
- For two minutes, as the audience filed in through a curved passageway, they would hear a short transition piece. Then the room would go into darkness, and spectators, who remained standing, would then be subject to the interior music and lights for eight minutes.
- Colored lights, images, and film would be shown all around them. Music (organized sound) would be played over a huge array of speakers, surrounding and traversing the audience. At the close of the eight-minute piece, the spectators would exit, "digested," through another exit while the next group filed in.
- In this way, 20,000 visitors a day would be able to visit the pavilion over the five months of the fair. The project was to be managed by Le Corbusier's protege designer Iannis Xénakis, who would also create the transition music.
- Le Corbusier would provide the images to be projected during a 480 second multi-media event.
- No attempt would be made to synchronize the visuals with the music. Any correspondences that did occur would happy accidents, except for a specified moment of silence six minutes into the work.

Beyond this, Le Corbusier offered little in terms of specifics. As it turned out, the project did not go according to Philips' expectations on a number of areas. At the time, Le Corbusier was principally occupied with a mammoth project, building an entire city in Chandigargh, India. His participation was largely in absentia, with his ideas being broad and general. Specifics were few, and they typically came weeks or months behind schedule. The nuts and bolts were left to others, most particularly Xenakis, who was to design the exterior. Le Corbusier spoke in general of having a shape that was designed according to a mathematical function, but the actual design was left to Xenakis.

As for Varèse, this was the project he had been waiting for all his life. He was taken to a state of the art sound studio constructed by Philips for the project labs in Eindhoven, and given two technicians to do his bidding.

Xenakis wound up being the principal coordinator of the project over the two years of its realization, creating the exterior design, going over details with engineers, and coordinating the artistic team. His exterior design was that of a three-pronged tent, constructed with hyperbolic paraboloid shapes like those he used in his composition Metastaseis, and an idea that was in vogue with a number of designers and visual artists at the time. It would be constructed with a series of cables, over which a skin of concrete panels would be laid.

The interior display consisted of five different lighting effects:
- Colored lights projected onto the walls that accentuated the shape of the interior;
- Two figures suspended in space - a female figure and an abstract sculpture made of metal tubes - that would shine red and greenish blue when irradiated with ultraviolet light;
- Two large screens, into which images and film were projected;
- Highlighted areas around the projection screens where colored beams of light or black and white figures were projected
- Images of the sun, moon, and stars on the ceiling

The audio component was to be a demonstration of the effects of stereophony, reverberation, and echo. Sounds were meant to appear to move in space around the audience. Varèse was finally able to realize the movement of sounds through space from different directions. The audio tape consisted of three tracks, to give the illusion of three simultaneous sound sources that could be moving around the space. There were 350 speakers in 20 amplifier combinations (six amplifiers assigned to track one, eight assigned to track two, and six assigned to track three). A fifteen track control tape sent signals to the projectors and amplifiers. A series of "sound routes" were conceived so that the sounds could appear to move through the space from different directions. These were realized by designing an amplifier that would "span" a group of speakers, iterating through them five speakers at a time. For example, a sound path might move through the space of speakers 121 to 145. The sound would come first from speakers 121-125, then 122-126, then 123-127, and so on. This was one of the most elaborate site-specific projects ever created. The sound was written for the space and vice versa. The quick crescendoes and abrupt silences were calculated to exploit the reverberation of the space.

The ground breaking on the project was in May of 1957. The images to be projected inside were still not assembled, while Le Corbusier made excuses about a constant preoccupation with the project and needing adequate time for his ideas to gestate and be realized. Le Corbusier arrived in Paris to sign off on the design, then went to Eindhoven where he played it up to the press, posing for photos and pointing out his unique design elements at work. Xenakis was disgruntled, feeling neglected, unacknowledged, and upstaged. This kind of treatment is the norm, particularly in design firms. The head of the firm comes up with the broad strokes, dividing time between PR work and asking designers to adjust their work, then signs off on the plans and takes the credit. Xenakis, however, was not prepared for this reality. He immediately wrote to the Philips Corporation, claiming the design as his own, and requesting due credit in future. Such a move was unprecedented. Le Corbusier had never shared credit with anyone, and an employee with such audacity would normally be summarily dismissed. Xenakis, however, was too important to the firm, and Le Corbusier was forced, however reluctantly, to acknowledge, if not accept, Xenakis' design contributions. Le Corbusier wrote to Philips, defending his work methods, claiming that none of his 250 architects had ever received any credit for any of the firm's work.

It is somewhat ironic that Le Corbusier himself had felt the victim of plagiarization a few years earlier. He had submitted plans for the United Nations building and been turned down. When the final designs were in place, Le Corbusier claimed that his ideas had been taken, and called a press conference to make his dissatisfaction public. He was simply not used to being subservient to anyone. In his mind, he had given Xenakis a plumb project to coordinate, design, and compose for. In Xenakis' mind, Le Corbusier had become largely a figurehead, seldom showing up at the office, and doing little other than taking credit for others' work. Ultimately, Le Corbusier agreed to allow Xenakis credit as co-designer, but the hard feelings never dissipated.

Varèse supported Xenakis in the dispute, as Xenakis supported Varèse through the difficulties he was finding in Eindhoven. Philips had never been fully behind the selection of Varèse as composer, and, like Le Corbusier, Varèse was chronically late in producing material or even in giving evidence that he had anything in mind at all. But Le Corbusier, through correspondence, and Xenakis, in person, remained steadfast in their support of him.

While for years Varèse had called for the creation of new sound-making machinery, now that it was at his disposal he had little idea of how to work with it, and took a good deal of time learning how to work the various machinery. He also appeared to have no fixed concept of the piece when he arrived. When he did get started, he worked in piecemeal fashion, making it difficult to answer questions from Philips such as "How much of the piece is complete?" Further complicating matters was the absence of a vocabulary to refer to the types of effects that Varèse wanted. Descriptions such as "more nasal," "less biting", "more rasping," tended simply to confuse the technicians who tried to translate these descriptive terms into setting for oscillators, filters, and mixer configurations. One anecdote recalled by a technician described spending several hours trying to create a particular sound, to no avail. At one point, someone entered the studio, and, on hearing the squeaking hinges of the door, Varèse exclaimed, "That's it! That the sound we must have!" The technician at that point simply collapsed in laughter. Then they made a recording of the door opening.

When Philips did get to hear fragments, they were dismayed at the collection of gongs, sirens, human cries, explosions, and an apparent motif of an electronic sound ascending through three semitones. The company went as far as to commission a score from another composer after the first playing of the initial section, just in case the final product was deemed unacceptable. The fact that there was not yet any of the film or imagery available, and that these things were to have nothing to do with the music anyway, did nothing to dispel their confusion. But Le Corbusier repeated his threat to withdraw from the project if Varèse were dismissed, so Philips begrudgingly resigned themselves to Varèse's participation.

Xenakis' morale did not improve when he and Le Corbusier disagreed about the nature of the transition music. Le Corbusier wanted something akin to popular songs. Xenakis would have nothing of it, telling Le Corbusier at a meeting with Philips that he should simply hire a balladeer if that was the sort of music he wanted. Philips was astonished at his gall. But Xenakis was determined to create a piece based on noise and rhythm, to match the main music Varèse was creating. He hoped to prepare his work at the sound studio in Eindhoven, but Le Corbusier refused him leave as Xenakis was needed in Paris for design work. This left Xenakis having to work in the significantly scaled down studio facility that Philips had in Paris.

Xenakis was to create a musique concrète piece based on the sound of burning charcoal. Its title was taken from the genre and the hyperbolic paraboloid (paraboloid hyperbolique) design, Concrète P.H.

The audience heard this piece as they entered, then heard Varèse's main piece. This accompanied a visual presentation which consisted of seven sections:

- Genesis - images of colored light, a bull, a matador, the head of a Greek statue, a film of a woman smiling, then recoiling in terror, a skull.
- Matter and Spirit - rapid-fire image projections of sea shells, scientists, the skull, an African woman, colored lights, a dinosaur skeleton, a film of a monkey apparently in thought.
- From Darkness to Dawn - eyes and heads of various animals and people. An owl's head, a turkey head, a woman's face, tribal sculptures of heads, open trench graves from concentration camps, toy soldiers, tanks, cowboys and Indians, guns, medieval sculptures of religions imagery, a Buddha.
- Manmade Gods - a variety of colored lights, stone head from Easter Island, geometric figures, the Sphinx.
- How Time Molds Civilization - industry and power - an atomic plant, crowds, a telescope operator, a surgeon, miner, cement workers, a farm horse, Charlie Chaplin, a bomber plane, a rocket, a radar antenna, clouds, mushroom clouds, children staring at the camera.
- Harmony - the Eiffel Tower, early photographs of people and animals, machine parts, Chaplin again, Laurel and Hardy, abstract shapes, astronomical images, two lovers in an embrace, babies.
- To All Mankind - skyscrapers, architectural plans, city models, the Modulor, a baby's hand, children, an old woman, people at a dinner table, a man sleeping in the street, a dirt road, a baby again.

This rapid fire delivery is something modern audiences are used to through media such as MTV, but in 1958 no one had ever seen anything like this.

The pavilion was inaugurated in April of 1958, and immediately closed for two weeks to make improvements to the sound system. It finally opened again in May, where it remained until October. According to the liner notes for a commercial recording of Varèse's music, the pavilion "evinced reactions almost as kaleidoscopic as the sounds and images they encountered - terror, anger, stunned awe, amusement, wild enthusiasm."

While there were some attempts to preserve the building after the closing of the World's Fair, it had never been constructed as a permanent structure. There was not sufficient insulation, and the wiring was not robust enough to last indefinitely. The building ultimately came down, leaving only the recording of the music to posterity. The recording, however, is only an approximation of the true nature of the event, as it has none of the integral spatial effects that were created for the Pavilion structure.

Xenakis' piece, Concrète P.H., and Varèse's Poème Électronique are considered landmarks in electronic music, even though they do not represent either composer's finest work. But as a complete multi-media experience, there have been few events that compare to the Philips Pavilion.

After the pavilion, Xenakis left Le Corbusier's firm to concentrate entirely on music. Pierre Schaeffer had returned from North Africa to Paris, and re-outfitting the Radiodiffusion Francaise studio as an acoustic research facility called Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). Pierre Henry, wanting to focus more on compostion and production, left to form his own studio. Xenakis became a full-time member of the new GRM facility, exploring tape manipulation techniques to realize his stochastic music theories.

Varèse's status as a celebrity was solidified. He spent his remaining years as a composer of distinction, teaching, giving lectures, and starting one more piece that he did not complete before his death in 1965.

Watch this documentary about a virtual reality project that reconstructs the Pavilion:

Links:
- Varèse on: Official page, MySpace, LastFM, Wikipedia,
- Xénakis on: Official page, MySpace, LastFM, Wikipedia,
- Le Corbusier on: Official page, MySpace, Wikipedia.
- Poème électronique on: Inart 55, Pastiche, LastFM, Wikipedia.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6777596291381372477&hl=en]

According to Stephen, when the sky turns green like this (about half way up on the right) in Michigan, it's time to head for the basement.

“The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams in the sky like a reversed arch. It is blessed. It is the only seat of grace in the disordered city. It is painted an aluminum color and, between water and sky, you see nothing but the bent cord supported by two steel towers. When your car moves up the ramp the two towers rise so high that it brings you happiness; their structure is so pure, so resolute, so regular that here, finally, steel architecture seems to laugh. The car reaches an unexpectedly wide apron; the second tower is very far away; innumerable vertical cables, gleaming against the sky, are suspended from the magisterial curve which swings down and then up. The rose-colored towers of New York appear, a vision whose harshness is mitigated by distance.”

– Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White, 1947.

Currently at London's Hayward Gallery, "Village," 2006-2008, by Rachel Whiteread from the "Psycho Buildings" exhibition. (Peppe Avallone)

Architecture plays a role, whether starring or secondary, in three must-see exhibitions currently running in London. “Vilhelm Hammershøi: The Poetry of Silence,” at the Royal Academy of Arts until Sept. 7, features more than 70 paintings by the introspective Danish artist (1864-1916), whose influences included Whistler and Vermeer. Among Hammershøi’s favorite subjects were the interiors of his own Copenhagen apartment — spare, monochromatic rooms that his subtle light renders frozen in time and bursting with meaning.

On view at London's Architecture
Foundation's Closet Gallery, "At Home
With Mme. Le Corbusier." (The Architecture
Foundation)

A more conceptual, exuberant look at space and structure is found in “Psycho Buildings: Artists Take on Architecture,” at the Hayward Gallery, through Aug. 25. Installations by 10 contemporary artists include Rachel Whiteread’s haunting arrangement of more than 200 dollhouses; the Havana collective Los Carpinteros’s stunning depiction of an exploding room; and Do Ho Suh’s 1:5 scale model of his traditional Korean childhood home crashing like a meteor into the New England apartment building that contained his student digs.

Finally, a tiny, text-heavy exhibition at the Architecture Foundation’s aptly named Closet Gallery (a tiny temporary space conceived by the artist Simon Fujiwara for the London Festival of Architecture) looks at the woman behind a great man of design. "At Home With Mme. Le Corbusier," which closes Aug. 2, offers a glimpse of the architect’s devoted, long-suffering wife, Yvonne. An intermittently faithful husband, Le Corbusier relied on Yvonne for a sense of security, and she provided all the comforts of home, even when that home was not to her liking. She famously covered the bidet that her husband insisted in putting in the middle of their bedroom with a cloth, and said of the newfangled apartment that he designed for them, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, “All this light is killing me.”

Vilhelm Hammershøi's 1908 painting "Interior, Strandgade 30" is featured in a retrospective at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Read previous columns by Pilar Viladas.

How does the way we build arrive at complex solutions to complex problems without driving the builders to madness? How can we solve problems which exist at every scale in space, but also exist at every scale in time? Let's take a look at St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London.

Let us focus on two different parts of it, the dome and the belltower. At first sight, there is nothing that a dome and belltower have in common. They are two different forms that solve two very different scales of problems. And if they had been built very far apart in two different neighborhoods of the city, one would never even associate them together. Yet in this case they are not only "dome" and "bell tower", but they are also part of a greater form we call "St. Paul's Cathedral". That is to say, their form not only solves the problem of providing a dome and a bell tower, but it also contributes to solving the problem of providing a cathedral. Several scales of solutions are juxtaposed in the same space in order to form a complex solution. How was this result achieved?

Perhaps the architect Sir Robert Wren was a genius, but intuitively we doubt that, since the geometry in St. Paul's cathedral is very similar to the baroque geometry employed throughout Europe at the time. And when we think back to how the Gothic cathedrals were built, very slowly, sometimes over more than a century, they were necessarily built by more than one architect. If they were all geniuses, then they must have been lucky to find so many geniuses idling about in medieval Europe. That sounds impossible given that medieval cathedrals appear to be even more complex than St. Paul's cathedral, even though more people worked on their construction over a greater timespan. The sublime Antwerp cathedral, for example, was built from 1351 to 1521, and never completely finished.

There has to be a key to this riddle. How did we lose the skill to make this kind of complexity?

Since Leone Battista Alberti heralded modernity (not to be confused with modernism) in architecture, and until the mid-20th century, architects spent their first days in training learning to draw the classical orders. These classical orders supposedly held the finest refinement of western civilization's building culture, having been in use since Greek antiquity and maybe earlier. It was an architect's duty to reproduce this culture by learning the orders. Any deviation would certainly cause the doom of civilization. What the orders actually consisted of were fractal nesting rules, settled on more or less accidentally through the ages. Since the abstract concept of fractal nesting would not be discovered until Benoit Mandelbrot's work in the 1970's, the orders were simply understood to be unquestionable tradition. Since they were very simple local-form rules, any architect could use them to make his building, and they could be taught to any laborer working on any specific sub-section of a building without his having to know his role in the form of the whole. They could even be used to make simulations of the building, drawings and scale models that would later be used to convince patrons to fund construction. The rules were always the same. Only the problems to be solved changed.

Let's take a look back at Wren's cathedral. What does the dome consist of? Nested structures, including columns. What does the bell tower consist of? Nested structures, including the same kind of columns. The two different problems to be solved, dome and bell tower, also happen to share the same nested problems, and when they share a solution to this problem, they become connected into a whole.

Once we are aware of this rule we no longer need a necromancer to reanimate Wren in order to build an addition to the cathedral. We can simply decompile the geometric rules and apply them to solve the new problems we face. Whatever we produce that way will belong to the cathedral as much as the original parts. But we can also extend this to the scale of an entire city. If we apply these geometric rules to build a house or an office tower, it will appear to belong as much to St. Paul's as the bell tower and the dome do. This enables us to achieve the complexity limit of urbanism. And when we look at all the great cities of the past, Paris, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Mediterranean hill towns, what we find is that they look whole because the builders who made them were all using the same rules in order to solve their individual problems. They didn't realize they were doing it, they were just doing it because that's how things were done.

If the classical orders were so great, why are they no longer being taught? Up to the 19th century, building technology changed very little, and so simply repeating the tradition was enough to create complexity. When metals and glass became massively affordable in the industrial revolution, architects faced a puzzle. Although the traditions succeeded at creating complex solutions, they were no longer solutions to problems that were relevant to anyone. Some architects experimented with new rules for nested structures using the new materials, more or less compatible with the old rules, and that gave us Art Nouveau and the Eiffel tower, for example. And some more radical architects, such as Louis Sullivan, said that modernity required the invention of a whole new architecture, and this became known as modernism. The modernists were right to declare the classical orders irrelevant, but in their rejection of the very foundations of architecture, the application of simple nesting rules, they also made it impossible for themselves to create complex buildings, and the result is the architectural wreck that unfolded starting in the 1930's. The worse culprits, no doubt, were those modernists like Le Corbusier and even Albert Speer (bet you wouldn't think he was a modernist) who favored abstraction and repetition in architecture. Abstraction is only the denial of complexity, the physical nature of our universe. It is the architectural equivalent of playing ostrich.

Post-modernism tried to bring back traditional forms without really giving up modernism, and that was a disaster perhaps worse than modernism was. Since post-modernists did not create nesting rules for their architecture, and on top of that were bringing up forms that were solutions even less relevant now than when they were abandoned, the result was a worldwide goofy architecture that everyone mocks as pastiche.

Some architects have been stumbling upon the right path these last few decades. The most remarkable effort has been the remodeling of the Reichstag in Berlin by Norman Foster.

The old building represented the federalist traditions of Germany, but also had to be adapted to the new philosophy of popular democracy. Foster built a glass dome from which the people can look at their politicians at work while enjoying a wonderful panoramic view of Berlin. Foster nested a new solution to a new a problem within the traditional geometry of the Reichstag, and thus created complexity that is relevant to the problems of today.

Architecture is, ultimately, just the repetitive computation of simple geometric rules to solve complex problems. Necessarily that creates complex solutions, and truly fractal buildings. With the right ruleset, anyone can do architecture, and by extension, great cities. The rules guide your hand.

The Le Corbusier End Table LC10 is the perfect companion piece to your Le Corbusier sofa set. Le Corbusier is without doubt the most influential, most admired, and most inspired architect of the twentieth century. Through his writing and his buildings, he is the main player in the Modernist story, his visions of homes and cities as innovative as they are influential.

This high quality imported piece is perfect for home, office, or studio use. It is a classic icon of design greatness that has stood the test of time

* Frame: Chrome legs. Black steel side frame.

* Glass: 5/8" Tempered glass.

* Size: 27.5" x 27.5" x 13"

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, widely known as Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 - August 27, 1965), was a French Swiss born architect, famous for his contributions to what is now called modernism, or the International Style, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and Theo van Doesburg.. He was a pioneer in theoretical studies of modern design and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities.

Le Corbusier began experimenting with furniture design in 1928 after inviting the architect Charlotte Perriand to join his studio. His cousin Pierre Jeanneret also collaborated on many of the designs. Before the arrival of Perriand, Le Corbusier relied on ready-made furniture to furnish his projects, such as the simple pieces manufactured by Thonet.

Gibraltar is based in Beverly Hills California and can be found on the web at www.gibraltarfurniture.com. This firm has been in operation for five decades, and is an insider secret weapon for blue chip merchandise at warehouse prices. Yahoo reports that Gibraltar Furniture has “The best prices, models, and service of any site on the internet. This store is nirvana for people who want Bauhaus, art deco, modern, mid century, or designer furniture at wholesale prices.”

This contemporary masterpiece is perfect for both residential and office use. We ship factory direct so that you don’t have to pay a middle man for a mark up. This means you get the wholesale price and a great product at unbeatable prices. A Google™ search indicates that one of the foremost sites for high end furniture at wholesale prices is Gibraltar. “This West coast internet pioneer features retro, modern, and post-modern furnishings at rock bottom prices. Gibraltar offers an exceptional array of wholesale, architectural, modern, high quality items at factory direct discount prices. Gibraltar Furniture is one of the leaders in the world of Internet modern architectural products. Gibraltar sells furniture manufactured in Italy, Asia, and the USA and all sales are tax free outside of California.”

Ya sabíamos de la existencia de Case Study Houses, un homenaje al diseño innovador de las casas creadas en los EEUU tras la I Guerra Mundial, cuya premisa era la utilización de materiales baratos y con el fin de resultar lo mas eficientes posible a la hora de acoger a los soldados en su retorno al pais.

Pues a partir de esta idea, Pierre André Senizegues y Gil Le Bon de Lapointe han creado skate study houses, un giro de tuerca en el diseño de mediados de siglo, del cual parecen estar enormemente influenciados, utilizando, en este caso, materiales existente en un elemento básico como es un skate.

Para muestra un botón, que te parece esta versión del lounge chair + ottoman de 1956 los EAMES?

O esta otra, STAX, un guiño a la LCW (lounge chair wood) de 1945 de los EAMES?

Y esta acaso, JETSET no quiere ser la tumbona modelo nºB306 de Le Corbusier?

Mas información en skate study house

Imagenes skate sutdy house

Check out Lotja's blog for more information, and read the invite for the next presentation below:

http://lotja-loon.blogspot.com/

From Lotja Loon:

INVITATION
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Thursday, 07-10-2008, 22.00 h GMZ, Campus Seccondlearning, Indire
http://slurl.com/secondlife/INDIRE/94/114/23

Frank Lloyd - What on earth is “organic architecture"?
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 - 1959), American architect, worked with the aim of creating a high degree of integration of its buildings in the countryside. His ideas of housing and environment will be presented.

A presentation by Lotja Loon, RL-Social Scientist and Historian, for more information about her, see her blog: http://lotja-loon.blogspot.com/

The presentation is the 3rd of a series of 5 lectures and will be followed by
---> Antoni Gaudí - There are no straight lines in nature
---> Friedensreich Hundertwasser - "Of shit make gold" (O-tone Hundertwasser)

The lectures are in english and italian (simultaneous, chat), will last app. 1 hour and will offer possibilities for questions at the end.
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Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.
Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead. She's gone where the goblins go,
Below - below - below. Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
Let them know
The Wicked Witch is dead!

“The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams in the sky like a reversed arch. It is blessed. It is the only seat of grace in the disordered city. It is painted an aluminum color and, between water and sky, you see nothing but the bent cord supported by two steel towers. When your car moves up the ramp the two towers rise so high that it brings you happiness; their structure is so pure, so resolute, so regular that here, finally, steel architecture seems to laugh. The car reaches an unexpectedly wide apron; the second tower is very far away; innumerable vertical cables, gleaming against the sky, are suspended from the magisterial curve which swings down and then up. The rose-colored towers of New York appear, a vision whose harshness is mitigated by distance.”

– Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White, 1947.

da SINISTRA.

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris - Le Corbusier
Philip Cortelyou Johnson
Ieoh Ming Pei

Alugamos um carro, um Chrysler 300, um GPS e pegamos a estrada em direção a Boston. Bom, na verdade não foi bem assim...o carro era automático e eu nunca tinha dirigido um desses, fazer o que? O KA é 1998, nem existia isso naquele tempo. Mas me acostumei rápido e depois que descobri que em um carro automático a perna esquerda não faz nada, foi moleza. A estrada é uma free way de velocidade moderada, 55 milhas por hora (cerca de 90 km/h) e para um carro que atinge 260, foi moleza. O GPS nos salvou e concluímos que é impossível viajar de carro nos Estados Unidos sem ter um.

Chrysler 300 -Praça de I.M.Pei em frente à Christian Science Church

Porta de Entrada de Harvard - Fenway Park, a casa do Boston Red Sox
Chegamos por um subúrbio e nos impressionamos com a quantidade de casas com a bandeira norte-americana hasteada, significando que ali tem alguém servindo nas forças armadas, e pela primeira vez nos demos conta de que o país em que estamos vivendo estes meses está em guerra. New York nem percebe, mas os subúrbios e as cidades pequenas sabem bem.

No sábado à noite na loja do hotel (Sheraton) ficamos vadiando na internet e resolvemos pesquisar para ver que obras famosas estavam lá além de uma praça belíssima do I.M.Pei, do dormitório Baker House do Alvar Aalto além do anexo da biblioteca pública do Philip Johnson. A biblioteca pública de Boston é a segunda no mundo que abriu para o público e está na tese do meu doutorado. Surprise! Le Corbusier, Saarinen e Gropius! Marcamos um super roteiro no GPS (!) e acordamos bem cedo domingo depois de jantar numa taverna chamada Whiskey´s e de fazer umas fotos pela noite.

Prédio comercial e Anexo da Biblioteca Pública - Philip Johnson
Os prédios do Saarinen, uma capela e um centro de eventos no MIT são bem interessantes. O Baker House do Aalto fica prejudicado nesta época porque as árvores estão com folhas, mas fizemos fotos inusitadas da parte dos fundos, da casa do gerente do dormitório e das visuais que nunca vimos em livros para mostrar para nossos alunos. O espaço de convivência é extraordinário e quase nunca explorado na literatura. Visitamos o MIT Architecture, um prédio eclético, com um grande átrio, e não resistimos a caminhar pelas salas de aula. Fomos invadidos de uma imensa melancolia das oportunidades perdidas nas más administrações das escolas por onde passamos.

O prédio é perfeito. Está encaixado no entorno, tem escala e todos os pontos cruciais do que ele pensava...terraço jardim, pilotis, brises, e o passeio arquitetural...ah...o passeio arquitetural. desculpe se você não é arquiteto, mas temos que falar disso. O Corbu (como aquele "mala" da Ulbra chama ele...) fez um percurso perfeito. Passando de uma rua para outra pelo meio do prédio através de uma rampa é possível perceber os melhores ângulos, as decisões mais trabalhadas, as convicções mais expressas. Cada passo é uma surpresa, cada surpresa uma nova história, bem como o Bregatto costuma dizer na aula 03 de PA-1. O Carpenter Center (isso mesmo, um centro de carpintaria de Harvard feito pelo arquiteto mais famoso do mundo) é uma aula de arquitetura, um acerto concreto. Não resistimos à foto de Modulor com a câmera equilibrada em cima de um muro.

Boston foi genial, uma lição de arquitetura em diversas visões: I.M. Pei e um espaço público lúdico; Saarinen e suas coberturas curvas; Aalto e os materiais telúricos; Philip Johnson e a releitura do passado; Gropius e seus planos que criam espaços, e Le Corbusier, que nos deu de presente o passeio arquitetural pelo Carpenter Center para arrematar um final de semana memorável. Boston é aqui!