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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
French designer Ora-Ïto is converting the famous Marseille roof terrace into a haven for contemporary art — guardian.co.uk
Le Corbusier, Herzog & De Meuron, Mario Botta and Peter Zumthor - to mention only the most prominent names - have put Swiss architecture on the world map. The younger generation has not yet achieved the same celebrity, but it is striking out in new directions of its own.
For the 125th anniversary of the birth of Le Corbusier, swissinfo.ch talked to art historian Lorette Coen about current trends in Swiss architecture.
— swissinfo.ch
Toward the end of 1953, Willy Rizzo took a series of portraits of the architect Le Corbusier, three of which were published in the magazine Paris Match. Much of Rizzo’s work was done in medium-format color. These photographs have not been published since. — LJP
We are most familiar with iconic b&w photographs of Le Corbusier. Le Journal de la Photographie re-publishes beautiful color photographs by the artist Willy Rizzo shot in 1953 and three of which were published in the magazine Paris Match at the time. These photographs shed... View full entry
In 1948 Le Corbusier was retained by the municipality of Izmir (my home town) to develop a visionary master plan for the city. He disregarded the historic core of Izmir which is laced with artifacts and buildings as old as 3500 years old and eventually was forced to resign from the job and most... View full entry
Designed by the famed architect Le Corbusier, built under Saddam Hussein then forgotten: such was the fate of a gym in Baghdad that Iraq now wants, with the help of France, to restore to its former stature.
Located in the east of the capital, the massive concrete structure has surprisingly withstood the decades of war, internecine fighting and sanctions that have hit the country.
— news.yahoo.com
