Le Corbusier. Architekt jutra

by Anthony Flint, Dominika Cieśla-Szymańska (Translator)

Papież modernizmu. Człowiek, który zmienił XX wiek. Wielkie wizje, wielkie kontrowersje.

Życie, inspiracje, kompleksy i kobiety papieża modernizmu. Anthony Fint unaocznia czytelnikowi rozwój myśli Corbusiera poprzez kolejne realizacje jego projektów: poczynając od pierwszego, wygrawerowanego w wieku 14 lat zegarka, poprzez pracę dla braci Perretów, kontrowersyjny, rewolucyjny projekt przebudowy centrum Paryża – Plan Voisin – aż po ucieleśnienie idei "maszyny do mieszkania" – L'Unite d'Habitation, Jednostkę Mieszkaniową w Marsylii. Autor nie ucieka przy tym od kontrowersji wokół osoby architekta, dotyczących zarówno koncepcji społecznych i architektonicznych, jak i ciągot do faszyzmu i pozycji w rządzie Vichy w czasie wojny. Tak powstał wnikliwy portret psychologiczny geniusza, który nie skończył żadnej szkoły architektonicznej, a mimo to odcisnął swoje piętno na całej architekturze i urbanistyce XX wieku.

Le Corbusier architekturą chciał zmieniać społeczeństwo i świat. Bez odniesienia do jego pięciu punktów nowoczesnej architektury w zasadzie nie istnieje żadna dyskusja o współczesnym budownictwie. Geniusz, wizjoner, bezwstydny oportunista. Biografia jednej z najbardziej niezwykłych postaci XX wieku.

Genres: Architecture, Biography, Nonfiction, History, Design, Urban Planning, Art

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 4, 2014

About the author

Anthony Flint is author of "Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City." A journalist for twenty years, primarily at The Boston Globe, he writes about architecture, urban planning and sustainability. He was a visiting scholar and Loeb fellow at the Harvard Design School, and also served in the Office for Commonwealth Development, the Massachusetts state agency coordinating growth policy. He is currently director of public affairs at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (www.lincolninst.edu), a think-tank in Cambridge, Mass. where he is also engaged in writing and research. He is the author of two blogs, At Lincoln House at www.lincolninst.edu and Developing Stories at www.anthonyflint.net. His first book was "This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America" (Johns Hopkins, 2006). "

Reviews

[Adrianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chciałabym, by ktoś mnie kiedyś tak bronił jak Anthony Flint broni Le Corbusiera. Każdy błąd i każda nikczemność znalazły tu słowa wyjaśnienia. Niestety w większości niezasłużenie. Opracowanie jest jednak rzetelne, nawet jeśli momentami nudnawe. Mimo zabiegów autora z łatwością można wyrobić sobie zdanie o "architekcie jutra".

[Biblio Files (takingadayoff) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was touch and go as to whether I was going to read past the first few pages of Modern Man: The Life of Le Corbusier, Architect of Tomorrow. We find Le Corbusier and Josephine Baker in a stateroom on a cruise ship returning to Europe from South America. The author tells us what Le Corbusier is thinking and how he is propping himself up on an elbow and how crisp the sheets are.

Since this is a biography of Le Corbusier, and not a novel about his life, I was surprised to find what appears to be speculation and outright imagination. It is certainly possible to write history that is both accurate and lively without resorting to making things up. I enjoy Candice Millard's and Matthew Algeo's histories for example. Lynne Olson and Dominic Sandbrook also come to mind as historians who can back up every statement and tell a great story at the same time.

But I'm glad I kept on with Modern Man, because the imagined thoughts were not frequent, and I really wanted to know a little about the first "starchitect." This was quite a good book for someone like me who has no background in architecture, but would like to learn a little, and is more interested in the man and the times.

Le Corbusier, who early on decided to go by the single name, a made up one at that, may well have been a brilliant architect, but that seems to be debatable. What is certain is that he was a master self-promoter and odd character. It's amazing what you can get away with if people think you are a genius. He joined the Vichy government as soon as it was in place and then when the Americans were on the way, he switched to their side without missing a beat. Everyone, including DeGaulle, knew Le Corbusier was lying when he claimed to have been in the Resistance, but they overlooked it.

A decent introduction to the man and the pioneer star architect.

[Nicholas Moryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm of two minds about this biography. I liked that it presented a multi-faceted view of Le Corbusier: it's critical of his egotism, his relationships with both his colleagues and his family, and his dabbles with Nazism. And at the same time it acknowledges the contributions he made towards architecture (and towards urban design--though those were more misguided). But it's also very much a survey of his life and lacks some of the details I was interested in: the context that shaped his work and the impact it had; its place in the modern architecture movement/culture at the time; how his style evolved and what his creative process was like. So, pros: it's not super worshipful of him. Con: it's not particularly deep.




As an aside, I'm not thrilled with the Goodreads rating system, because 2 stars is "it was okay" and 3 stars is "liked it" (4 is "really liked" and 5 is "amazing"). So, to me, 2 stars is not a rating of "it was a bad book", but really just "it was fine, but not something I'd go out of my way to recommend to anyone". There's a lot of granularity on the upside and little granularity on the downside, which I think makes sense, but I think I am a bit stricter about this interpretation than other people (seems like 3 is a neutral rating for many others here).

[Natalia Gaj · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ta książka zablokowała mi czytanie w tym miesiącu. Cieszę się, że to już koniec

[MJ Fic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Powiem tak… gdybym szukał książki skupiającej się na romansach i skandalach, to wybrałbym coś innego niż biografię Le Corbusiera.

- Ale on taki był - mogą powiedzieć niektórzy. Być może? Jednak po książce, która zdaniem wydawcy miała przedstawiać pełen sprzeczności portret psychologiczny architekta, w dodatku w przenikliwy sposób, spodziewałem się czegoś więcej.

Będę złośliwy, ale trywialna narracja, tracąca przy tym fikcją literacką, pasuje mi do amerykańskich odbiorców. To kolejny problem tej publikacji: momentami autor skupia się bardziej wpływie działalności architekta na rzeczywistość w USA, niż na jego osobie.

Nie jest to odpowiednia pozycja dla osób, które chcą rzetelnie prześledzić losy Le Corbusiera.

[Kasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

nie lubię go

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo dobrze i przystępnie napisana biografia z luźnymi podziałami na rozdziały. Czasem wydarzenia mogłyby być tylko trochę bardziej chronologicznie poukładane.

3.9/5

[Ellroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid sampling of information about the famed Swiss-French architect and urban planner. Not intended to be a comprehensive biography, it's a well-written overview of his life and work. Flint also makes a gentle argument against discounting or ridiculing Le Corbusier, whose ideas haven't always held up well in the Jane Jacobs epoch. Well worth a read.

[Winter Sophia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Master Or Monster?

[Jacqueline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I am glad I read this book because I did not know anything about Corbusier. I think he deserved a better treatment. It was pretty dull reading.

[Jeff Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

First and foremost, I’m a contractor and after reading his believe me, I would not have wanted to work on any of hist projects.
The saying that art is in the eye of the beholder definitely applies to Le Corbusier’s designs. His wife was right, they were bland and passionless. While he aspired to make living functional for the masses, he vision was clouded with his on narcissistic attitude. Any successful project requires a good working relationship between owner, contractor and A/E. In his case, that would have been an impossibility and then you have him ignored major construction issues with his projects: electrical, HVAC, roofing and plumbing. Throw in cost overruns and you wind-up with a disaster and yet he cared nothing of the problems. They weren’t his. If they weren’t his problems, then whose were they? And then there’s the man himself. His natural demeanor and egotistical approach to life is appalling. A known collaborator with the Vichy Government! For those who aren’t historically up-to-date, that makes him a supporter of the Nazi regime. That alone would be enough to not hire him.
Now, were some his designs ground-breaking? Yes and no. I depends how you define ground breaking. His quote masterpieces at Untied d Habitation and Chandigarh led to the greatest disaster to ever hit the US urban infrastructure-the projects. I wouldn’t want that on my resume.
Enough about the man, the review is to concentrate on the author’s work.
Anthony Flint does an excellent job in providing readers with a wonderful historical walk through Le Corbusier’s life and all the people he came in contact with that would accept his ideas and make him one of the most sought-after architects of his time.
Well done, Mr. Flint.

Five stars.

[Nikhil J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lucid and enjoyable overview of the life and career of one of the founding architects of the modernist tradition. While it’s easy to fault Corbusier’s urban vision for being overly deterministic in its prescriptions for how people in a city ought to live (as anyone partial to Jane Jacobs’s ideas is wont to), Flint makes a convincing case that the specifics of what Corbusier got wrong (overemphasis on cars/freeways, widely spaced blocks ill suited to pedestrians etc) are less important than the fact that he imagined quickly building whole new cities from scratch by innovatively using the latest building technologies to meet the stark challenges of urbanization post WW2. Lots of interesting detail about what went into some of his hugely influential solo commissions many of whose features we take for granted today such as the open plan living spaces, floor to ceiling windows, roof terraces and so on.

I especially enjoyed the chapter on Corbusier’s work in India designing the city of Chandigarh and was pleasantly surprised to note how purposeful Indians of that post-Independence generation were in not only recruiting the world’s most famous architect for the project but also completing the whole thing in less than a decade. Cannot fathom anything remotely comparable in ambition or execution today.

A quibble: Flint describes Nehru as being formerly of the (British?) Indian armed forces before his embarked on his political career. This is untrue (he was a lawyer) and, given his status as one of the most widely written about political figures from this period of world history, a very rudimentary research error in an otherwise fine book.

[Blake Olmstead · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book is a great cursory overview of the life on Le Corbusier, it isn't all that different from at least two other biographical books I found on the architect. As a positive, it is certainly among the newest of the biographies and written in a less academic voice.

Perhaps because the book aimed to nearly sort periods of his life into discrete sections, my sense of chronology is completely thrown off. How badly I wanted a clear timeline that could put these projects into perspective. Between each section of the book, covering a significant project in the architects life, there is tremendous overlap but it's difficult to put together the context of what else was happening in his life in those moments.

The book succeeds in it's ability to introduce Le Corbusier to and scratch the surface of his life, sometimes to great effect, but for deeper reading and a better understanding of how the pieces of his life for together in the broader cultural context, look elsewhere.

[JKC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was surprised to be enjoying this for a bit. It's pretty hard to write about an architect, to write any nonfiction, and make it story-like and interesting. This is. The author does a good job. And I learned a lot in a short space. I'm a fan of the man's buildings. Like many great architects, his vision was utopian and did not always allow for real life. Which is fine - it's the vision that matters. Too bad his utopian ideals, like FL Wright's, were not more incorporated into society. I did not know he worked for the Vichy government. There was a time that wouldn't have deterred me from finishing but now it did. It seemed out of keeping with his desire for something new and modern - to align himself with the old war hawks. Just to get a job. So very superficial. I lost interest after that. DNF.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

V poradí už tretia publikácia o Le Corbusierovi, ktorú som mal možnosť prečítať, mi výrazne doplnila poznatky o jeho živote a formovaní jeho architektonického myslenia. Autorovi sa podarilo spracovať túto komplexnú tému spôsobom, ktorý je nielen informačne hodnotný, ale zároveň prístupný aj čitateľom mimo úzko špecializovaného prostredia.

Kniha vyniká najmä tým, že sa vyhýba častému úskaliu biografií – nadmernému zahlteniu vedľajšími postavami, ktoré neprinášajú podstatný prínos k celkovému obrazu hlavnej osobnosti. Namiesto toho ponúka sústredený pohľad na život a tvorbu Le Corbusiera bez potreby „kartotékového systému“, ktorý by si vyžadoval sledovanie množstva epizódnych postáv. Text tak nezavádza čitateľa do slepých uličiek, ale cielene buduje súvislosti medzi životnými udalosťami, myšlienkovým vývojom a architektonickým odkazom tejto výnimočnej osobnosti 20. storočia.

[Zac Stojcevski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man I knew nothing about in a topic - architecture - that I can say I know next to nothing about, are both adequately introduced and explored. The man, according to the author: genius, single minded, philanderer, egotistical, precocious, collaborator, god complex and as per her nom de plume - all seeing. This was perpetuated in his works where he opportunistically envisioned not only buildings, but whole cities and lifestyles that had obvious pushback. Barnum believed that the customer doesn’t know what they want, however living somewhere is less ephemeral. Nerd enhancer for me was modular man and explanation of fractals with respect to his designs. Would it have been too nerdy for that to be the title?

[Magdalena Wajda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly written, not only for architecture students/fans, but for the general public too. After all, a lot of us live in buildings born out, or inspired by, his concepts. He was not an easy man to work with, to live with. Perhaps a genius. Definitely a man ahead of his time.
Mr. Flint did an excellent job with this biography, and when I read about his travels and research associated with this book, I envied him.

[Skyeofskynet]

Dwa lata męczyłam się z tą chujowo wydaną po polsku książką (jeśli chodzi o skład, jestem konserwatystką), ale moje główne przemyślenia są o jej bohaterze. ojciec modernizmu, architekt jutra, twórca, budowniczy, człowiek, którego żaden budynek nie nadawał się do życia. Człowiek, którego pomysły na architekturę były świetne, ale nieżyciowe, ponieważ sprowadzał wszystkich do tego, jak wyobrażał sobie życie. Mógł stworzyć niesamowite rzeczy, gdyby pozwalał korygować swoje pomysły.

[Sabean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book in itself is rather alright. At times amusing and quite informative, at times absolutely boring. I found myself skipping whole paragraphs and ended up in the same place anyways. It would be more digestible if there were more pictures of the actual buildings the author is talking about, otherwise it is difficult to imagine the greatness of said buildings, or even to compare them.

[Juliusz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ciekawie napisana historia, chociaż momentami mocno chaotyczna i zbyt jednostronna. Corbusier był na pewno wyjątkowym architektem i innowatorem, ale książka pokazuje też te mroczne strony jego biografii.

[CoolGab · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tej książki nie da się czytać.
Gdyby autor zamaist opisywać projekty to dodał ich zdjęcia, byłaby mniej nudna i bardziej zrozumiała.
Oraz bronienie architekta bo tworzy ładne, ale nie praktyczne budynki trochę mija się z celem.

[Dan Seitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, but too worshipful of its subject while admitting his flaws, leaving the impression of an apologia.

[Joachim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant biography of a legendary architect and a misguided urbanist.

[Owen Zinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because Kanye claimed one this designer’s lamps has inspired whole songs possible even whole albums

[Hamad AlMannai]

Much ado about The Crow.
The most polarising figure in the architectural world. And someone who stirs up a lot of conflict in me personally.
All my friends know that I’m a very vocal anti-Corbusian.
I reckon he’s single modern artist with the worst legacy and the most harm caused to the world.
This was why I picked his biography. I believe, like he did, that how we design the spaces we inhabit, truly and demonstrably shapes how we use it and thus how we live our lives -Le Corbusier unfortunately being the best example of this-, and I reckon if one architect has shaped our world this much for the worse, then hopefully it is possible for someone shape it this much in a good way.
At the end of the day, it’s going to be architects not politicians who will save the world.

I admire how Le Corbusier turned his vision into a reality as much as I detest his vision itself. I have no qualms about his home designs, his urban planning on the other hand was catastrophic in retrospect. As I read this biography I learned that he was also a dickhead on personal level. He had a Steve Jobs syndrome avant la lettre.
The book was ok.

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flint's lively biography of Le Corbusier should appeal to an audience of general readers interested in architecture, 20th century history, or 20th century biography. Without sacrificing accessibility, it also appears designed to benefit deeper readers who are interested in planning and urban studies, but have next to no background knowledge about Le Corbusier as an architect or city planner.

As Flint suggests of himself in an afterword, I had always read references to Le Corbusier in the context of modern urban theory - Jane Jacobs, New Urbanism, or anti-sprawl surveys of post-WWII American land use patterns. Most of these cast Le Corbusier as a sort of cold and brutal utopian, with an authoritarian approach to planning. This sensitive biography places him in a historical context and makes a great deal more sense of his work and life - his great achievements, as well as his moral failures, such as trying to collaborate (mostly unsuccessfully) with the Vichy regime. One thing the book does particularly well is capture the beauty and creativity of several of Le Corbusier's finest individual buildings. (I read the book with a smartphone in hand, looking at pictures and floor plans as I read Flint's text, and would recommend that - this is a book that repays a multimedia approach). Ultimately, Le Corbusier comes across as an artist ruled by his muse - not so much authoritarian as unable to compromise with the world as it is, and badly imitated by later architects who missed distinctly human qualities in his designs.

Some reviews have criticized this book, on the one hand for providing too speculative detail; or, on the other, not providing enough insight into Le Corbusier's emotional life. Both of those criticisms seem to me misplaced. As the author notes, some points one might think would be inaccessible to a historian (for example, Le Corbusier's thoughts while watching Josephine Baker asleep in his bed, which opens the book) were drawn from Le Corbusier's uncomfortably detailed letters to his mother. As for Le Corbusier's internal or emotional life: this is a man who comes across as deeply analytical, creative, and lustful - but not reflective. Plus, he was constantly selling an image of himself. Delving much deeper into his psyche than this book does would likely yield a roiling mess that would defeat the pleasure of reading. Modern Man is not the definitive academic biography of Le Corbusier; but for anyone who cares about current urban planning, it is a fast and thoughtful introduction to an influential figure.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

The name, Le Corbusier, rang a bell. I knew he was a twentieth-century architect. French, probably (Swiss, actually). Big concrete buildings came to mind. But that’s about all I knew off the top of my head. I had no idea that he was responsible for modular architecture, or that he was among the first to try to address overpopulation through dense urban planning. And I was certainly unaware that Le Corbusier was tackling all of this as early as the 1920s. Thus, Anthony Flint’s biography, Modern Man, is a worthy venture, shedding light on this thinker and provocateur who, outside of architecture and design circles, has undeservedly fallen out of recognition.

Of course, as with most visionaries, Le Corbusier had his share of missteps, often due to a megalomania and opportunism that wouldn’t keep him from working with anyone when it suited him, even the Nazi-connected Vichy Regime in WWII France. And, while he basically gave us IKEA and some initial ideas and blueprints to build smarter, he also championed the type of urban design that gave us crime-ridden housing projects and car-centric sprawl in America. He’s definitely a polarizing figure, but Flint reminds us not to throw the baby “out with the modernist bathwater.” (p. 213) Or, more poignantly:

“For the twenty-first-century, however, among the greatest lessons to be learned from Le Corbusier are his design innovations in housing, and his recognition of the grand scale necessary to accommodate millions of people moving into cities each year. The reasons those contributions are important is because the urban century has arrived, in dramatic fashion.” (p. 213)

Flint’s writing is clear and engaging, making for a fairly quick read. He structures each chapter around a major project of Le Corbusier's, so those looking for a strictly chronological biography may grow a bit frustrated, as the narrative does bounce around quite a bit (an aspect I mostly found intriguing, though, at the start of a few chapters, I did find myself a bit confused as to which decade we had landed in). Regardless, those interested in architecture, built environments, urban planning, or even just design, will be hard pressed not to gain some insight from this text.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This immensely readable and accessible biography of one of the twentieth century’s greatest and most influential architects is well researched and narrated in a lively and engaging way. It moves about in time, and personally I prefer a more strictly chronological approach, but on the whole that doesn’t detract from the reader’s enjoyment. What does detract is the lack of illustrations, and I can’t understand why this wasn’t considered important. A general reader without much architectural knowledge can’t be expected to know the buildings the author mentions, and as this seems a book very much aimed at the general reader – so why not add illustrations? However, overall this is a welcome addition to the study of Le Corbusier and his work, and I very much enjoyed it.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

In architecture, "If Frank Lloyd Wright was Bill Gates, Le Corbusier was Steve Jobs." should be on the back cover. He is not nearly as well known in the States as in Europe but his buildings are mimicked everywhere. I loved how his critics were not silenced in this book, but also that he was pardoned, not the pure culprit of the failures of urban renewal. The author noted that his works were not urban failures; those who mimicked his projects and diluted his ideas were often the failures. I was inspired to read this following Jane Jacobs and scoffing, often mistakenly at the role he played in sprawl and anti-urbanism. Very interesting for those who enjoy (or hate) modernism. This is a must read for 21st century architects, if you have the time.

[Judy Masters]

As if Frank Lloyd Wright were European. Interesting read of an architect that stayed relevant through the greatest war and continued to be a strong contributor to modern architecture beyond his death.