Le Corbusier's Modern Landscapes

Le Corbusier’s Modern Landscapes: Reconciling Site Specific and Universal Trends in Plans For Buenos Aires and Algiers (1929 – 1942) Amy Robles Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Growth and Structure of Cities Department Bryn Mawr College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts Haverford College December 2013 Robles 2 This project would not have been possible without the efforts and support of many people. I would like to thank all my professors at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, especially my thesis advisors: Jeff Cohen, Carola Hein, and Gary McDonogh for their recommendations and guidance throughout this process. I would also like to acknowledge those who have helped me throughout my college career: deans, fellow cities majors, and friends at Haverford and beyond. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family, whose constant love and encouragement has provided invaluable support. 3 Le Corbusier’s Modern Landscapes Abstract This thesis explores the structures of thinking within Le Corbusier’s works for Buenos Aires and Algiers as indicators of misconceptions within the standard narrative history of the modern movement of urbanism during the first half of the 20th century. By focusing on the visual and literary rhetoric regarding the role of natural surroundings, differing societal structures and grand-scheme orientation in these Corbusier projects, this paper deconstructs the contradictions posed by site specific, individualistic elements within the idea of a modern city, with its basis on universal truths and inherent uniformity. Through the lens of Le Corbusier’s interpretation of different natural and urban landscapes, this analysis aims to point out the deeper influences within the plans for these cities, revealing a complicated mode of expressing the process of modernity. Robles 4 Table of Contents Illustrations…………………………………………………………………………………………..5 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….6 Chapter 1: Le Corbusier: Foundations of a Modern Philosophy……….…………….13 Chapter 2: Buenos Aires (1929 — 1940): The Rio & Pampas…….……………………23 Chapter 3: Algiers (1932 — 1942): The Hills & Casbah…………………………………. 40 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………………… 59 Epilogue: Return to Istanbul…………………………………………………………………..63 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………..65 5 Le Corbusier’s Modern Landscapes List of Illustrations: Figure 1 Le Corbusier, 1911. Silhouettes of Istanbul. Paris: Fondation Le Corbusier, 1938.....................................................................................................................14 Figure 2 Comisión de Estética Edilicia, 1925. Plan for Buenos Aires, signaling the built realities of the city Le Corbusier encountered in 1929. La Red Austral, 2008. p. 43. (Oriented with North at bottom, to correspond with later images 4 and 5).......... 25 Figure 3 Le Corbusier, 1930. Precisions cover. View of a modern Buenos Aires at night. ........................................................................................................................... 29 Figure 4 Le Corbusier, 1930. Précisions, p. 206. Preliminary sketch of the plan for Buenos Aires. (North at bottom edge; Rio de Plata at left, labeled “le Rio.”).........32 Figure 5 Le Corbusier, Hardoy, and Kurchan, 1940. Plan Director, p. 29. Uniting the north and south sections of Buenos Aires. North at bottom edge; Rio de Plata at left. ......................................................................................................................35 Figure 6 Le Corbusier, 1930. Precisions, p. 203. Buenos Aires: New York of South America. ..............................................................................................................37 Figure 7 Le Corbusier, 1950. Cover of Poésie sur Alger................................................. 42 Figure 8 Le Corbusier, 1950. Poésie sur Alger, p. 10. Sketch of Plan Directeur. ............. 45 Figure 9 John McKenna, 1997. Map of Algiers from 1900. Printed in Celik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations. p. 66. ......................................................................47 Figure 10 Le Corbusier, 1932. Plan Obus A, photograph of original model. FLC. ..........51 Figure 11 Le Corbusier, 1932. Plan Obus, A. View from level of motorway. Atlas of Modern Landscapes. p 305.................................................................................. 54 Figure 12 Le Corbusier, 1950. Poésie sur Alger, p. 13. Sketch of axial orientation of Algiers within French empire............................................................................... 56 Robles 6 Introduction The plane, flying over forest, rivers, mountains and seas reveals some fundamental laws, simple principles which prevail in nature, and as a result we may hope that dignity, strength and a proper sense of values will become apparent in the aspect of our new cities. -Le Corbusier, 1941. 1 During the first half of the 20th century, new technologies brought about a shift in man’s understanding of his place in the world and his capability to manipulate landscapes. Through wars and destruction developed the ability to see the earth from above and, from this broader viewpoint rose a new internationally conscious citizenry. Informed by these emerging literal and figurative perspectives, the applications of the field of urban planning escalated into a medium that was expected to help bring about the new modern world. At the height of this newfound approach to designing cities of the future, the pursuit of an urban form that would promote a perfect and peaceful society pervaded many urbanists’ works. Differences in ideology led to differences in aesthetics and form from planner to planner, but the objective was the same: a more modern city for a more modern society. Throughout this era of new beginnings for cities (starting in the 1920s and continuing throughout the early 1950s), Le Corbusier, possibly the most highly studied and controversial modern urban planner of this time, worked to establish his own utopian plans for cities.2 Through his work, from painting and lecturing to designing buildings and whole cities, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) became a world-renowned 1 Le Corbusier. “Sur les 4 routes.” Paris: Gallimard, 1941. p. 110. (Translated by Dorothy Todd. London: Dennis Dobston, 1947) 2 Mumford, Eric. The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. p. 3. 7 Le Corbusier’s Modern Landscapes urbanist, seeking a platform to build a truly modern metropolis that would accommodate and shape an equally modern and progressive society. This study will focus on the type of modernity expressed through Le Corbusier’s works to determine fundamental principles of his conception of modern cities, as presented in his plans for Buenos Aires and Algiers. Analysis focuses on the contradictions of Le Corbusier’s promotion of these plans as templates for a universal modernity, while revealing his own subjective interpretation of these landscapes within a deeply rooted historical and social consciousness specific to these cities.3 A comparison of these two plans, embodying very different representations of modernity, demonstrates the pervasiveness and adaptability of Le Corbusier’s understanding of universality in creating modern forms that were presumed to be uniformly effective in any city of the world. It should be noted that the term “modern” as used here relates specifically to the first half of the 20th century and the changing perception of the future of humankind as a result of the rise of technology and the breadth of destruction throughout the World Wars. The idea of a new start for the human race provided the foundation for new forms of expressions in art, which exhibit the distinctive often idealistic and visionary culture of the time. Inherent in these expressions is the tendency to think across national boarders and connect with fundamental laws and principles associated with the nature of all humankind. In the case of Le Corbusier in 3 Throughout this paper the term “landscape” will be used as presented in Jean-Louis Cohen’s exhibition book Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2013. Robles 8 particular, the conceptual structure surrounding his expressions of modernity revolves around an inherent, universal, and (as Le Corbusier would argue) lost connection between man and natural landscape, to be recovered only through the utilization of new technologies and rational urban forms. In this way, Le Corbusier’s conception of nature is complicated and problematic in compiling cities into natural landscapes, equating built forms and the physical world with the purpose of connecting daily life in cities to the surrounding environment all in the name of universality. How the plans for Buenos Aires and Algiers could be so divergent aesthetically and structurally yet derive from the same conception of modernity is the central question to be explored through this paper. By focusing on the role of natural surroundings, differing societal structures and grand-scheme orientation in this selection of Corbusier’s projects, this paper deconstructs the contradictions posed by site-specific, individualistic elements within the idea of a modern city, with its basis on universal truths and inherent uniformity. These case studies together reveal the extent of Le Corbusier’s modern mentality, in its ability to change forms and in some respects, contradict itself. Therefore, this individual’s conception and expression

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