‘Towards a New Architecture’: Le Corbusier

With the era of enlightenment, post the French Revolution, in 1789, Mankind took a sudden plunge into exploration and reason- finding. Man was taken with the idea of exploring the relationship between Himself and Nature and began asking basic questions. This led to questioning canonical dogmas set in various fields including Art and Architecture. Debates were sparked about hierarchies; the individual and the collective; The Personal and the Public by theoreticians like Marx and Darwin. The Masses were affected with the idea of Modernity and its consequences explicated by Baudelaire in the collection of his poems wherein he talks about Hamlets transforming into Metropolitan Monsters.

According to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche Values are simmering in a sea of disharmony owing to Industrialization. Industrialization in a way made man a rational being. ‘God’ was somewhat out of the picture as practicality and rationale took over. And as such, Man became ‘Centre less’. He thus termed these products of Industrial revolution as ‘The Noble Savage’, the rational, passionate beings who were benefitted by industrialization and uncorrupted by civilization.

Nietzsche’s ideas were the core influencer of Le Corbusier.

‘Towards a New architecture’ written by Le Corbusier was brought out as a manifesto to a new architectural language for the evolved modern Man.  Through his book he makes explicit the fact that although classical buildings are a great source of inspiration, the inspiration must come from the principles and not from the literal form itself. These principles must then be used as a tool to shape a completely new language for new requirements that the modern era demands.

The tools that Corbusier uses to make his ideas clear are:

1. Juxtapositioning:

He juxtaposes the Engineer’s aesthetic derived from Efficiency, Practicality, Measurements and Functionality with the need for an Architect’s aesthetic that is imaginative, immeasurable and that creates beauty with a sense of spirit. He extensively praises the works of engineers like Gustav Eiffel and criticizes architects who use the classical historic styles as a crutch for designing.

1. The use of Metaphors

Le Corb uses metaphors of modernity like ‘The Automobile’, ‘Ocean Liners’ to depict the thrill and excitement of ‘The Modern’  as well as the idea of ‘Mass production’ and ‘standard setting’. He talks about futuristic ideas like ‘streets for cars’ and vertical cities. He says that Man has to adapt to the machines.

1. Simultaneity

He uses this technique to portray the importance and understand the scale of the machine age. He creates photomontages of buildings on the backdrop of an Ocean Liner to reinforce the fact.

1. Complex relationship with the Past

He talks about the Past being a huge repository of messages and techniques. He emphasizes that the emulation must be of principles rather than the literal form of these buildings. He goes on to explain the principles of design of some of the historic structures.

In this book he has brought out certain quotes that have influenced Modernists in a large way.

‘Plan as a generator’, ‘The Hose is a machine to live in’ and ‘Architecture or Revolution’, to name a few.

All these quotes point to the fact that he wanted buildings of the modern age to be devoid of all sloppy sentimentality and look towards a highly functional almost robotic approach. He also wanted to start a revolution of sorts to bring a change in the architectural language of that period with a futuristic outlook.