Le Corbusier Towards a New Architecture Le

Le Corbusier

TOWARDS A NEW ARCHITECTURE

Le Corbusier is known as the father of New Architecture. His Magnus opus, Towards New Architecture, reveals the reasons why Le Corbusier was given this title. Being a well-known modernist architect, Le Corbusier was the one of the first few architects to popularize the change that modernism had brought along and suggested way in which it could be incorporated in architectural designs. His book. Towards the New Architecture ' was enthusiastically welcomed by the modernist circles, many of whom agreed with Corbusier's basic ideas for modernist living. Unlike some of his predecessors, Corbusier was of the view that the best and most important objective of architecture was to create designs that are functional in nature. While aesthetic appeal of designs was important, Le Corbusier believed it should take precedence over function, which helped in evolution of architecture. This was indeed a very interesting concept, which appeared in what is regarded as the greatest architectural manifesto of all times.

Towards a New Architecture deals with the problems of pre-modernist architectural designs and the how Le Corbusier thought those problems could be solved. In the introduction part of the book, Le Corbusier states his argument against old designs in these words: "Human warrens of sixty storeys, the concrete house hard and clean, fittings as coldly efficient as those of a ship's cabin or of a motorcar, and the standardized products of mass production throughout."

Le Corbusier maintained that houses should be built to serve an important function i.e. To provide most comfortable yet most practical style of living to a modernist population. It is important to understand that in modernist days, there had been a massive shift from rural to urban areas and this had led to an unprecedented rise in urban population. Space was suddenly a problem and for this reason, a new housing design was needed which could focus on the needs of the people instead of beauty or aesthetic appeal of architecture. This is the core argument of this book.

The author first defines the problem clearly and then goes on to suggest some solutions that made sense to modernist population. Like some of his colleagues, Le Corbusier in this book advocated the use of basic forms in development of architectural designs. He introduction functionalism in architecture and popularized the idea of a house machine: "House-Machine', the mass-production house, healthy (and morally so too) and beautiful in the same way that the working tools and instruments which accompany our existence are beautiful."

While the basic idea of a house machine appeared practical and was hugely embraced in modernist times, it sounds a rather cold and strange concept today. Why should a house serve a function alone, what happened to our longing for a place we could call 'home'? It was Le Corbusier's cold and unemotional suggestions for practical architectural design that invited criticism from various quarters over the years. He felt that a house design should be molded as often as we change the design of airplanes and other important objects. This means that since most objects are created to serve an important purpose and have a purely functional design, it was important to have our houses built in the same manner: "The lesson of the airplane lies in the logic which governed the statement of the problem and its realization. The problem of the house has not yet been stated."

Despite this criticism, Le Corbusier retains his right to be called the father of new architecture and a close analysis of this book reveals why. It is true that the ideas expressed in this book appear cold to a reader today, yet they do have great practical value. For one, Le Corbusier did architecture a great favor by freeing it of the chains of the past. On page 103, he argues that architects were mostly "enslaved to the past" and attacked "the narrowness of commonplace conceptions" in the field of architecture.

Such arguments against old design also gave way to concepts that separated beauty from new design and replaced it with function. On page 142, for example, he argues that,.".. A chair is in no way a work of art; a chair has no soul; it is a machine for sitting in." Le Corbusier's house designs are thus devoid of a real soul. His machines houses served cold practical purposes as they focused on his oft-repeated beliefs that: "We must create the mass production spirit." This concept was also highlighted again on page 274-275 when Le Corbusier highlighted it by citing the example of factory workers who worked according to the principles of mass production:

Industry has brought us to the mass-produced article; machinery is at work in close collaboration with man; the right man for the right job is coldly selected; laborers, workmen, foremen, engineers, managers, administrator -- each in his proper place.... Specialization ties man to his machine, an absolute precision is demanded of every worker, for the article passed on to the next man cannot be snatched back in order to be corrected and fitted; it must be exact in order... To fit automatically into the assembling of the whole;... A strange foreman directs severely and precisely the restrained and circumscribed tasks."

Le Corbusier maintained that the same precision of task could be achieved in the field of architecture and in fact was what architects needed to solve the problems of space etc. "All houses are constructed of standardized elements, forming a 'cell' type. The plots are equal, the arrangement regular. Architecture is very well able to express in a precise fashion." For some odd reason, Le Corbusier thought such houses could be beautiful too. We all know today that mass production is a dated concept, which led to the production of goods that no one appreciates anymore.