|
|
Few would protest that Le Corbusier, Charles Edouard Jenneret, was most likely the most famous and certainly the most controversial architects of the 20th century. He created revolutionary designs and demonstrated a strong, if utopian, sense of purpose ¡ª to meet the needs of modern times dominated by the machine. Voiced his admiration for the beauty of the machine, a mathematically planned expression of truth and accuracy, Le Corbusier became the founder of ¡®machine aesthetic¡¯. He published his ideas in a book entitled ¡®Towards a New Architecture¡¯ in which he referred to the house as a ¡®machine for living in¡¯, an industrial product that should include functional furniture or ¡®equipment de l'habitation¡¯. In this spirit, Le Corbusier co-designed a system of tubular steel furniture ¡ª like the famous chaise and Grand Confort chair ¡ª projected a new rationalist aesthetic that came to epitomize the International Style. Living in the early 20th century, Le Corbusier realized the importance of industry. He proclaimed: ¡°¡in the last fifty years steel and concrete have brought new conquests, which are the index of a great capacity for construction, and of an architect in which the old codes have been overturned. ¡there has been a Revolution¡± (Corbusier, 1946:250). One of the revolutionary designs of Le Corbusier was the Unite d¡¯habitation in Marseilles, which conceived with what he called the ¡®engineer's aesthetic¡¯.
|
