Re: Corbusier's residential projects

Mair Hughes wrote:

My own view of Corb's utopian (or otherwise) visions for social
housing has been greatly influenced by a point made by a lecturer
in my second year of architecture school. We had been studying
housing in the context of the political and social conditions of the
time. Corb's ideas were a million miles away from the slums of the
industrial cities of europe. Fine. But a perspective of the interior
living space of an apartment (Unite I think) showed a grand piano.
Not so much pie in the sky dreaming of a better life, but more a
demonstration of Corb's inability to grasp the everyday living conditions
of the working classes!

Mair


I might add, that while the latter of your arguement might be true, photo's
like the one you describe also show the "acceptance" Corbu's architecture
allowed; flexibility of containment; manipulations of use, form, etc. I
recall a story about LaTourette where contractors misplaced a window
opening and it was OK'd because the architecture could absorb change.

Wayde