Le Corbusier. Streets, Promenades, Scenes and Artefacts

Abstract

Abstract. The relationship of Le Corbusier with the street is complex and sometimes contradictory. Young Jeanneret seems to be persuaded by certain sites, which we may define as urban scenarios, during his visits to cities like Istanbul in his formative years. Unlike his hometown La Chaux-de-Fonds -identified by a regular set of streets -these places may have been a picturesque counterpoint activated by a significant topography. Streets meandering along a set of 'Dom-ino' houses in the Oeuvre complete, as the tracking rails of a long shot recording, offer a changing viewpoint that may be considered in relation with such casual arrangements. The claim to kill the 'rue corridor' made in Précisions, together with his later writings, deeply contrast with his own comments on an empty Paris in the summer of 1942 -as published in Les Trois Établissements Humains -praising the same streets he pretended to erase by means of operations like the 'Ilôt Insalubre No 6'. The objective of this paper is to highlight and discuss those contradictions, which can be illustrated by the technical machine-streets conceived for the Ville Contemporaine of 1922 versus the V4 streets formulated in 1947 to reconcile with traditional streets.

Attributes of Domestic Spaces for Contemporary Habitation — A Secondary Publication

“…Oppositely, Alemán deduces that "the topic of flexibility appears, amidst serious misunderstandings linked to the frivolous application of the term" and raises the "fictitious character of the flexibility/fragmentarity binomial" [6] . In this regard, Monteys and Fuertes relate flexibility to the notion of "Valid Ambiguity" and explain it as follows: "The greater the specialization of the pieces of the house has been and the more undefined pieces have disappeared, the greater has been the loss of flexibility" [7] .…”

“…Variability is defined as the capacity for dynamic adaptation, and versatility as the capacity for functional conciliation and transformation that makes viable practices and uses different from those assumed. In this direction, Monteys and Fuertes [7] address the idea of "subverting" as "critical action" and define it as "using a thing in another way than it was intended." Regarding adaptability, Gausa [9] differentiates the concept of adaptation, presenting adaptability as "...the capacity to resist the typical changes of an environment," and adaptation as "...synonymous with independence, and capacity to resist new changes"; and adds that while "...adaptation is related to certainty, adaptability to uncertainty."…”

Regenerative Streets: Pathways towards the Post-Automobile City

“…The proponents of Modernism set out to solve the dysfunctionalities of the industrial city (e.g., congestion, unhealthiness, lack of green space, decay of the old residential fabric, and so on), identifying its most representative spatial device, the 'rue corridor', as the critical element to be overcome-the 'rue corridor' being the street between built fronts inherited from pre-industrial models, so derogatorily defined by the movement's leading exponent Le Corbusier [62].…”

Pilon, Heep, Korngold e Palanti: edifícios de escritórios (1930-1960)

“…O Estado de São Paulo. A planta do Edifício de La Marine, em formato lenticular 18 , assim como a de 1933, do edifício de escritórios Rentenanstalt, de Zurique, parecem mais associadas formalmente ao caso do Edifício Itália. Do mesmo modo, a organização do espaço interno, com os pilares independentes, destacados da fachada.…”