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The father of modern architecture Le Corbusier and the most influential architects of the 20th century Louis Kahn will not find place in the latest heritage conservation list of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
Ahmedabad happens to be the only place in the world where Le Corbusier had designed four different buildings. Louis Kahn's IIM-A building too does not figure in the list of heritage buildings.
— Times of India
"The list, which consists of 2,247 buildings and havelis in the walled city and 382 buildings outside the walled city area, will be notified in a day or two. Inclusion in the list will mean that the new conservation building bye laws would now be applicable." View full entry
This modernist villa on the Côte d’Azur, designed by Irish architect Eileen Gray, has witnessed wartime shootings, murder and vandalism by Le Corbusier. Now, at last, it has been brought back to life [...]
Le Corbusier visited and, apparently outraged that a woman could have made such a significant work in a style he considered his own, assaulted it with a series of garish and ugly wall paintings, which he chose to execute completely naked.
— theguardian.com
The Pompidou Centre in Paris has hit back at critics who say its Le Corbusier exhibition, which opened to the public yesterday, 29 April, glosses over recent accusations that the Swiss-born French architect was a militant fascist with links to the Vichy regime.
A spokeswoman for the Pompidou says the exhibition does not refer to Le Corbusier’s fascist past because “it’s about the proportions of the human body, which are present in his architecture and painting. [...]”
— The Art Newspaper
Previously: Le Corbusier "militant fascist" claims overshadow 50th death anniversary View full entry
France's best-known 20th century architect, Le Corbusier, was a "militant fascist" who was far more anti-Semitic and a fan of Hitler than previously thought, two new books reveal.
[...] the latest, far more damning, revelations have shocked admirers and threaten to cast a shadow over commemorations of the 50th anniversary of his death. [...]
"Hitler can crown his life with a great work: the planned layout of Europe."
— telegraph.co.uk
From Esther McCoy's 1981 memorial to Konrad Wachsmann:"Finally all internees who wanted to, were permitted to join the French army. Konrad did. They heard then about the Dunkirk disaster. When Konrad’s regiment crossed the Loire River, the Germans were already in Marseilles. They had destroyed... View full entry
Discover the Villa Savoye as you've never seen it before, through the discipline of Parkour and the movements of traceurs !
Le Corbusier, the real grandfather of hip-hop, could also be the inspiration behind the parkour? View full entry
"In the late 1920s, Le Corbusier created a plan for Paris," Ford says. "Its most celebrated portion was called 'Towers in the Park.' [...]
Think unremarkable, high-rise apartment buildings. Think low-income housing projects. [...]
"Many of hip-hop's most prominent artists were born, raised, and perfected their crafts in those very same housing projects. Hip-hop was a result of the economical, political, and sociological deprivations instituted by the housing projects across America."
— metrotimes.com
As we were getting off the plane he asked me what I was doing that evening: “Catching a train, I am afraid,” I said. “ Pity. You are fat and I like my women fat. We could have spent a pleasant night together.” He said this quite casually. [...] So gigantic was Corb’s egotism that he probably considered it enough of an honour for a humble mortal to provide a genius like him with a night’s relaxation. — theguardian.com
Outside a few rare examples such as Ronchamp, I sense that Modernism has failed to deliver an architecture that connects with most Catholics and other traditional Christians. Much of this has to do with fact that Modernism as a cultural movement is inherently atheistic as it is based on a secular materialist philosophy. — newgeography.com
I am young man of 71 years old. I am a visual man. A man working working with eyes and hands.
[...] architectural historian William J R Curtis has set off the alarm bells by warning about the looming threat of destruction on Chandigarh's architectural heritage, terming the damage to buildings as "vulgarization" and "massacre."
According to Curtis, there is a clear and present danger to the legacy of city creator Le Corbusier and that the restoration measures are needed to be taken now.
— timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Curtis believes that astronomical rise in land prices has posed the greatest threat to heritage in an increasingly materialistic society where there is a "price for everything and value of nothing." View full entry
Freud, Dickens, Tchaikovsky, Darwin, and John Milton took daily walks, while Le Corbusier did morning calisthenics and Victor Hugo did “long strenuous exercises on the beach.” — hyperallergic.com
Vandals have smashed an ‘irreplaceable’ stained-glass window after breaking into Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp Chapel in eastern France.
The hand-painted, coloured glass window designed by the Swiss architect in the early 1950s was destroyed, it is understood, as the intruders forced entry into the famous Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut.
Once inside the vandals lifted a concrete collection box and threw it outside.
— Architect's Journal
A turn of events took place for Cité Radieuse in 2010, when the building’s rooftop gym and solarium went up for sale. Designer Ito Morabito, who goes by Ora-Ito, purchased it as a collector might. “Like you buy a piece of art, but architecture,” he noted. After the acquisition, it became Ora-Ito’s self-appointed mission to honor the iconic structure.
Ora-Ito transformed the rooftop of Cité Radieuse into MAMO, a contemporary art center dedicated to exhibitions and creative ateliers.
— knstrct.com
"These products suggest the terrific span of Le Corbusier’s career in time, space, and scale, attacking the problems of how we should build and how we should live at home and abroad . . . If current architects take anything from the exhibition—a must-see, despite some critical flaws—it should be the power of those big, gestural drawings, where visual and verbal argument vividly come together." — The New Yorker
This criticism of MoMA's exhibition of Le Corbusier's work seems to be disappointed in the light-handed intervention of the curator. However, considering the amount and variety of architecture produced by Corbusier, it's unlikely anyone has clear idea of how best to display his work. Still, the... View full entry