LE CORBUSIER TALKS WITH STUDENTS

from the schools of architecture

translated from the french by Pierre Chase

NA
2>bO

,qq,
.t.", 12. 'I ? 13

fly!-

Princeton Architectural Press new york

 2

Published by Princeton Architectural Press

37 East 7th Street We must always say uiha: we see,
New York, NY 10003
but above all and more difficult, we must
(;l 1999 Princeton Architectural Preo" always see what we see.
Originally published in English by The Orion Press, New York, HIli!.
030201009954321

PROJt:CT EDITOR, Eugenia Ben

Prine<>tonArchitedural Press acknowledge" Ann Aller, Jan Cigliano, Jane Garvie,

Caroline Green, Beth Harrison, Clare Jacobson, Lesli~ Ann Kent, Mark Lamsle"
Anne Nitschke, Loltchen Shivers, Sara E. Stemen, and Jennifer Thompson of
Princeton Architectural Press -Kevin C, Lippert, publisher

Thanks to the Fondat!on I.e Corbusier

LIBRARY Of CONGIlES, C ...TALOGlNG-IN.PUBIC ...TION_UAT ....

I.e Corbusler; 1881-1965.
[Entretien, English]
Le Corbusier talks with students / with a new forward [i.e. foreword] by Deborah Gans,
p. em.

Originally published: New York, Orion Press, 19tH.

ISBN: 1568981961 (alk- paper)
I. Arehite.:ture. 1. Title
NA2560.L4129713 1999
120--<k21
99-36133
C,P

For a fr"" catalog of olher books published by Princeton Architectural Press

call 800-122_6651 or visit us On the web at WWW,papress.eom
 What is the state of architecture today? Never in the
DISORDER past has a society been as directionless as ours. We have
destroyed the relationship between material progress and
the natural elements of a spiritual life. Our means are
unrelated to our ends. We lack all sense of direction. In
building, this confusion is at its height. A Byzantine
mentality has deprived of worthy goals a civilization that
possesses the most unprecedented means of realizing them.
At the moment of his greatest material power, man is
without direction. France, beacon of Western civilization,
is at the center of this chaos. Here and abroad, the effort
demanded of our machine society is staggering. Though
we must reconstruct whole provinces ravaged by the war,
this is really but a fragment of the whole. After so many
stagnant years, surely a country must build and rebuild
and regenerate as cells in tissues and families in homes,
each new generation participating in the eternal game
of life.
Alas, we fell soundly asleep as dust settled over the
country. I realize that the dust was that of a supremely

13

t
.....

brilli
exce ant't P8S alit. lt
was. the history of a nation that had been with mechanized speeds, new information flooded the
pnon yall ve "alert en te rpnsing " courageous adven- country. Familiar relationships were disrupted and man,
turous, happy timi ti ..' ,
and SOn da'?P inus ic, nngmg with the sound of bugle denaturaIized in some way, as he stumbled off the tradi-
was a l;d I zzling all with an art that pervaded all. This tional patha, knew in his environment the horror of his
Yet this flat~n? respected as an empress among nations. ahandonment: his home, his street, his town, his suburb,
of a . funng halo of dust was no more than the glow his countryside. The new constructions, in all their foul,
roanng
buildin' e long . ext'mc.t w e were sleeping, instead of irresponsible ugliness, invaded and polluted landscapes,
g piece by piece this ivili towns and hearts. It was a total victory carried to the
first steam' new Cl zation, born with the
less, here p~~:~ over one hundred years ago. Neverthe- limits of abuse, a consummate catastrophe.
who recognized J:emo.:,e than eIse';here, there were many The men of those hundred frantic years, the noble and
the base, have strewn the earth with the refuse of their
early twentieth tu: . bIems. Dunng the nineteenth and
cen unes th action. Architecture dies and architecture is born. You
who thought dis ,ere Was no dearth of prophets,
, Covered and k . d must think clearly henceforth. Alone, the young, free
Was critic1SIll' dis spo e out ... Their rewar
makers th , grace '. ' rej ectiIon. Th ey were called trouble- enough and still unprejudiced, are capable of creating the
, OSe SCIentISts think . nucleus around which this new architecture can grow.
Abroad as well t h ' ers, soclOlogists and artists.
the technical reasvla ome, the ravages and conquests of Their elders are engrossed in the same old games in which
. ou ti on during th . they found their interests and formed their habits. For
It phiiosophicall' . OSecntical years made
. Y lIUperative that th . them the time and taste for adventure is over. The page
SClOusnessmust file revolution of con-
o ow. Val f turns; young people of this incomparable age, that turning
sands of years were q f ues 0 hundreds and of thou-
14 ues lOned and destroyed. Distributed page is for you, who will cover its blankness with the

15
 floweringof
Teaching k°,::atness and your feeling. the expression of two ways of life. The interest in the
devote yourselves tocountry has hardly inspired you to competition was enormous, the number of contestants
stant batt! ith the creative struggle or to the con- significant. The three hundred and seventy-seven pro-
you to mo~ew;, ~ourselves. It has never stopped asking jects submitted in Geneva, laid end to end, would have
they had wrun a~ wards. Look at the years before 1914: stretched more than eight miles. The Academy was sharp-
of the g e neck of the "modem style." Yet think ening her weapons, watching, pressuring, pouncing, biting,
many People who d . th . killing ... The decision which should have opened tbe way
had put their hearts . urmg e course of a generation
tunity, the reconstru ~to the struggle. At the next oppor- to a new age in the life of our society was a travesty of
war of 1914-1918 th c on olthe regions devastated by the justice. In a series of underhanded maneuvers, one of your
were all too ap' e consequences of our years of neglect teachers,' gifted in this way, made a cynical comedy of the
parent. Upon th ' competition. He escaped the justice of the penal courts,
greatest huildin e conclusIOn of one of the
g enterprises but not the verdict of time. His ploy was successful, and
Wecould write· th ever undertaken in France,
Th e only profitm e column f I the next day, the beneficiary of the ruse, that ambush,
result' 0 our edger, one large zero,
financial. The stifle ' mg from that great opportunity was declared, "... 1 am happy merely for the sake of art. When
to the limit under :.: of the academic spirit was carried the French team entered the lists, its goal was the
r destruction of barbarism. We call barbarism that certain
on ~e OCcasionof th: unusual .circumstances in 1927,
Nations in Geneva At competItIon for the Palace of architecture, or rather anti-architecture, which has been
making a lot of noise in the past few years in northern and
~~g of a ne';' a~take was nothing less than the
direction it Wouldtake Thteeture for our era, fixing the eastern Europe, a style no less horrible than the curlicues
16 . e Judges had a choice between of Art Nouveau, which we fortunately crushed some

17
twenty years I .
" ago. t denies all the beautiful periods of northern and eastern Europe only in the years after the
history; It ISan insult both
sense It i d to good taste and to common Great War. You can see that in such competition the
. IS estroyed All . problem of direction was implicit. With a sharp tum of
that entered the lis' .IS well ... " The French team
the Institute .ts consISted of M. Nenot, Member of the rudder, the premeditated return to the old formulas
heirner archi assoClated for the occasion with M. Flegen- was assured. But, fortunately, life is strong. The Palace of
this "";"gant ~:f Geneva, Switzerland. The author of Nations was built by the Academy, but in order to fulfil
s satisfactorily the physical requirements of the program,
and incidentall moot was the builder of the Sorbonne
, Yoneofth . the Academicians had to plagiarize and do violence to the
ment to Victor E~ .ose responsIble for the Monu-
01white marble dum ue! in Rome, that unspeakable pile solutions of their own opponents.' In consequence of
a painful, insuffe bl perl in the heart of the Eternal City, these scandalous proceedings, the C.I.A.M. (International
"anti.architeetur~' : off~nseto the eye of the visitor. The Congress of Modem Architecture) was born at a meeting
eastern Europe t all entioned above is not really from in June, 1928,' at La Sarraz. From all over the world,
product of the ~o ,but from France herself. It is the leading architects and town planners came in the spirit of
nineteenth and t gged research of the builders of the modem endeavor to establish on conunon foundations the
wentieth cent . . basic human considerations that govern both the art of
new materials steel . f unes into the calculus, the
the problem of an ,~m ?rced concrete and glass and into architecture and the art of town planning. With the excep-
gestation during thos ehc reflecting the great currents in tion of France, the member countries profited inunediately
de BaUdot, Tony o~ yc:us: Labrouste, Eiffel, Sejourne, from the work of the C.I.A.M. Some of them entrusted
lorceful architecture ~:;;; Auguste Perret. It was a their delegations with considerable responsibility: Holland,
18 ' I began to drive its way into Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Brazil, U.S.A., Switzer-

19
.....

land and many more. Repeatedly, particularly on ~e to harness your energies for the exquisite Itask of erecting
would like to
occasion of the 1937 Exposition, the C.I.A.M. group ~
dwellings worthy of your fe~07 7:~cerned urgently,
France vainly requested the oPportunity to participate.m
show you here that we are icti ac throughout France of
the development of their country. The group clarified Its
inunediately with the constru. IOn ks of his possessions,
position further with the publication of The Athens
dwellings worthy a f m~,. ofhiswor,Let us be done then WItith
Glumer. This was the town'planning charter of th~ of his institutions, of his Ideas.
C.I.A.M. prefaced by Jean Giraudoux. In Full Powers a disorder.
1939, this great French thinker and poet urged his count~
to aspire to high ideals: greatness of spirit and nobility a
imagination. For many years, France, that great labora-
tory of ideas, had chosen to ignore, discourage, reject
and crush her innovators. Recent events have made ~e
dangerous consequences of this neglect apparent. This
land of great builders, home of the great traditions .of
architecture, country of the great revolutionary discovenes
in the art of building; her energies today have slowed to
ultimate inaction. Land of the POinted arch, land of
steel and glass and reinforced concrete its destiny must
,
naturally be to unite its young people, to impel you 111
.
confidence and faith to adventure, to the taste for risk,
20
 The legitimate pursuit of any society aiming at perma-
THE CONSTRUCTION nence must primarily be the housing of man, sheltering
him from the elements and thieves, and above all main-
taining around him the peace of his home, sparing no
OF DWELLINGS effort, so that his existence may unfold in harmony
without dangerously transgressing nature's laws. This aim
bears no relationship to the housing tolerated today. It is
nothing but a crude compromise, brougbt about by the
powers unleashed by money: profit, rivalry, haste - all the
motives which have degraded man's dignity, crushed him
into submission and made him forget his fundamental
right to a decent way of life. Do you know that at the
Beaux-Arts, one of the largest architectural schools in the
world, the problem of the home has never been included
in the curriculum? No attention was ever given to the
environment in which a man lives: day-to-day existence,
those moments and those hours spent in the streets, the
squares, in his room, day after day, from infancy till death
- all those places potentially inspiring, constituting as
they do the context within which our consciousness

25
...

develops fro th
m e moment we open our eyes to life When and three periodicals,' I invariably made the dwelling the
We founded L' E ' '
'•• fun spnt Nouveau' in 1920 I gave to the home primary objective of architectural and town-planning
ita damental· ,
living" th b nnportance, I called it a "machine for concerns, This was a most revolutionary attitude. I was
answ~r to ere I y de~ding from it a complete, flawless overwhelmed with criticism from the right and from the
hurnam'st' a c early artICulated question, This profoundly left, as well as castigated by the Academy for my pains.
IC program to
pati f ' res res man to the central preoccu- In 1935 The Radiant City appeared. The word "radiant"
on 0 archlteetu I was not used fortuitously; it has a meaning that surpasses
expression neith ,re, ,was never forgiven for thst
USA wh' th er in Pans nor in the U.S,A. - in the a merely functional connotation. It has the attribute of
, " ere e machin' ,
that the word" e 18 king. The dictionary tells us consciousness, for in these perilous times, consciousness
machin ". d . itself is at stake, more important than economics or tech-
Greek meanin " . e" IS erived from the Latin and
constructed to g artifice or "device," "an instrument nology, In the final analysis (considering the tremendous
states the ProbPIroduce certain results." The word "device" events of our time) it is consciousness alone that is able
em well It i to ..' to determine the program of our work. And its claims are
Ousness of the sit tion 18 grasp the increasing peril-
ua lOnand t . valid. This theme served as preamble to the works of the
and adequate fram 0 create out of It a necessarY
of art, and with a ::rk .for life. Through the medium Fifth Congress of the C,I.A.M. in Paris, 1937: Housing
we then have the po catIon to the welfare of mankind, and Leisure. "We feel that it is imperative that in the work
. wertob'h of this Congress we give top priority to the dominant,
It. I persevered and llg ten that life by elevating
.
this VItal grasped e primary fact of our time: after a hundred years of con-
problem fo very opportunity to pursue
r quest, dispute and disorder, modern society has come to
drew plans, gave leet my Own and others' edification. I
26 ures, wrote books. In twenty books the conclusion that the construction of a new home for
27
:;r :f the
a
s: that definitively determines the char-
cunuzatum
the second h . By ere a tizng a new f orm of dwelling,
The Sleeping Beauty in her Slumbering Forest was
waking up. The Ecole des Beaux-Arts was abandoning its
ani al P ase ~f the Machine Age enters a period of Roman palaces (Roman? why Roman? a question that
vers construction TIris . . ... has yet to be answered) and directing its footsteps to the
endeavor that bea; ~ an.act,lve, OpbIDlStIC, human
tions of tech rs essential JOy. It transcends ques- home of man. Housing, or Domism places man on stage,
the pure ~Olo~ (rationalism and functionalism). It is an ordinary man, natural and reasonable, a being of today.
conscious~ess.;~ is ~nl fu~darne~tal expression of a new In the play, architecture will be his partner. Look at the
that we can h y in the light of a new consciousness stage, occupied by the protagonists. Marie Dormoy, in her
enceforth envi h book French Architecture has very charmingly, seemingly
Planning and arch'te nVlSllge t e problems of town
owo image th h 1 cture. Each new society creates in its without prejudice, set them up against each other. One
e orne whi h i h should oppose the "academic" to the ''modem'' (though
man and his shelt ic lS t e framework of its life:
.
ill factions each d
er, towns and th '
e country.?- France lives I use this last word conditionally), but it is regrettable
, eVoted to .ts that the modem spirit should have to be split into two
field of architectu . 1 selfish passions. So in the
.
mitted a great reo an enthus' las t'ic author recently sub- camps. One camp proclaims: "Build first." The other says:
unexpected dis "Architecture is the mosterly, correct and magnificent
~ year of disgrace, to a cov~ry, s~mming from 1942,
mformed as he him if. professional Journal as naively
play of forms in light." In the present machine revolution,
calculus and technology have been the forerunners, pre-
ousmg He d se . DOmT.8m ' th e arc hitectural sCience
of hens: .
. emonstrated th t ceding a conclusion which must one day be the instrument
oth er well, divided as w a we don't know each
for reorganizing this disjointed life of ours. This reorgan-
nourished and sustained e are by mistrust, by specters
ization can become reality only after a constructive
confusion. by those who benefit by our
revolution has already actually occurred and brought with
28 29
 ,

it its own liberatin

of events. It wouIl :ethods. This is a natural sequence kind of dwelling we have been discussing. Here we are
chronology a q I e most regrettable to make of this confronted by a series of new considerations, which con-
On the one han~e . By whom are these two camps led? cern town planning. This is at the root of our architectural
contractor, desce~le~r~xtraordinarilY talented architect- revolution. It is a topic which will allow inventive spirits
This determined ch m a line of entrepreneur-builders. to discuss aesthetics and practice simultaneously and
of !he century, to d:racter dedicated himself, at the turn without apprehension. Town planning is a new state of
Validly to archite t e Problem of concrete, introducing it mind and a singularly engrossing one. In fact, it is part of
hristling Professio~~re~l~r a life of struggle against a that "science of man" whose aid we will need during one
after a life of coura (his diplomaed colleagues), of the most momentous periods of change in history. Town
to the construct; ge and Professional integrity dedicated planning is profoundly traditional if we accept the truth
,,__,_, ve USeof ate·
ua.u:,snedby academic' rna rial rejected, shamed and that tradition is a continuous sequence of all innovations, 1
durmg his lifetime inlSIn he' succeeds. He triumphs. Even therefore the most reliable guide to the future. Tradition
comm~ ds the respect ' his
oldag h e IS . honored. His work is like an arrow pointing to the future, never to the past.
faIle,
w.ere directed, and to 0 . To this end all his efforts Transmission _ tradition's real meaning, its reality. Thus
lUzed 0ur h eroes: Au no other . By now you have reeog- town planning emerges once again from the depths of
Yours
I' TruIy guste Perret·,,e and th ath er man- time; its mission is to give our civilization a home of Its
n addition to its own.
buildin J man Never having wanted to oppose Auguste Pe":,,t, but,
. g requires that Yother demands the art of
mJatreated "b we pay , on the contrary, having benefited greatly from his work,
rother-man" tha more attention to our
30 ' t we prepare for his use the I have applied myself specifically to the problems: the
31
home - town planni I countryside. Not for a moment has he been free of archi-
gated the problem ng. nseparable concepts. I investi-
from the insid accordmg to rules learned in school: tecture: furniture, room, sunlight, artificial light, air,
e, work outwards Thi ul I think . temperature, the arrangement and function of his dwell-
equally a law of natur . . IS r e, , 15
trate: man (th t e and of architecture. Let me illus- ing, the building , the street , the urban environment, the
senses, his emo~io~~e~ture always ~eforeme, his size, his town, the throb of the town, the countryside with its
on the objects d seated at his table. His eyes rest paths, its bridges, its houses, plants and the sky, nature.
paintinga, photo~~U::S him: furniture, carpet, curtains, Architecture and town planning have affected his every
~ him. A lamp orPth and many other objects meaningful move. Architecture is implicit in every object: his table
gIves him light Th e. s~ conung through his window and chair, his walls and rooms, his staircase or his elevator,
trasting those e~tre::s 18 light and there is shadow, con- his street, his town. Delightful, commonplace or boring.
on our bodies and WhIChhave such a powerful effect Even disgust is possible. Beauty or ugliness. Happiness or
walls of the room :;:es: hthe light and the dark. The unhappiness. Town planning concerned him from the
man gets up, wanders p un and his belongings. Our moment our man rose from his chair: the location of his
somewhere else n around, leaves the room and goes house, of his neighborhood, the view from his window as
,Omatterwh H determined by the town councilors, the life of the street,
an dl eaves his home H' . ere. e opens his front door
I . el8still' the pattern of the town. You can clearly see now not for
e. evator ... Now he is in th m a house: corridor, stairs,
like? Does it repel or d e street. What is this outdoors a moment could vigilance or care have been abandoned.
dange~us? Our man is :;;,~t attract? Is it safe or is it You can see the need for this fraternal dedication of
after, in short succCSSio h . street of the town and then architecture and town planning in behalf of our "brother-
0, e IS outs'd man." Material needs and spiritual appetites can be
32 I e the town and in the
 satisfied by a concerned architecture and town planning.
You can see the unified purpose, the totality of the
responsibility and the grandeur of the mission of archi-
tecture and town planning. Many have yet to realize that
at stake here is brotherly concern for all. Architecture 1S
a mission demanding dedication of its servants, dedication
to the dWelling (for a dwelling shelters work, possessions,
institutions, and the thoughts of man, as well). Architec-
ture is an act of love, not a stage set.
At this time of transition, as one civilization dies and
another replaces it, devoting yourselves to architecture is
like entering a religious order. You must consecrate your-
selves, have faith and give. As a just reward, architecture
will bring a special happiness to those who have given her
their whole being. This happiness is a sort of trance that
comes with radiant birth after the agonies of labor. It is
the power of invention, of creation which allows man to
give the best that is in him to bring joy to others, the
everyday joy found only in the home.