Le Corbusier, Orientalism, Colonialism Author(s): Zeynep Çelik Source: Assemblage, No. 17 (Apr., 1992), pp. 58-77 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3171225 . Accessed: 12/09/2014 12:01

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 12:01:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Zeynep (elik , Orientalism, Colonialism

Zeynepgelik is AssociateProfessor of Le Corbusier'sfascination with Islamicarchitecture and ur- Architectureat the NewJersey Institute banism formsa continuing threadthroughout his lengthy of Technology.She is the authorof The career.The first, powerfulmanifestation of this lifelong in- Remakingof lstanbul(University of terest is recordedin his 1911 travelnotes and sketchesfrom Press, and Washington 1986) Displaying the "Orient"- an ambiguousplace, loosely alludingin theOrient: Architecture of Islamat nineteenth- and earlytwentieth-century discourse to the Nineteenth-CenturyWorld's Fairs lands of Islam in the Middle East and North Africa,and in (Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1992). Corbu'scase, solely to Istanbuland westernAsia Minor.' The formativerole of this voyaged'Orient for Le Corbusieris evident in his theoreticalwork and practicethereafter.2 Refer- ences to Islamicarchitecture and urbanforms appear in his writingsas earlyas 1915 and span his numerouspublications, among them L'Artdicoratifd'aujourd'hui (1925), La (1933), Quand les cathedralesetaient blanches (1937), and Le (1949).3 A number of his earlyvillas, such as the Villa Jeanneret-Perret(1912), Villa Favre-Jacot (1912), and (1916), are inspiredby the Otto- man houses in terms of their interiororganization around a centralhall, their simple spaces,massing, and blank street fagades.The Mediterraneanvernacular with an Islamictouch surfacessporadically in his built work- for example, in the Weekend House (1935), the Roq and Rob project (1949), and the Maison Jaoul (1956) - recordingits most memo- rablemoment with the Notre Dame de Ronchamp (1950- 55), inspiredby the sculpturalmass of the Sidi Ibrahim near El Ateuf in the Algeriancountryside. In one episode of Le Corbusier'scareer, however, Islam no 1. Le Corbusier,Fathma, 1939 longer only servesas a source of inspirationand reference,but

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becomes a living challenge:his projectsfor ,developed between 1931 and 1942, attempt to establishan ambitious dialogue with Islamicculture, albeit within a confrontational colonial framework.The most lyricalof Le Corbusier'surban design schemes, these projectshave been discussedat length by architecturalhistorians of modernism.Yet, aside from brief references,their colonial context and ideological implicationsfor French policies in Algeriahave remained uninvestigated- a surprisingoversight given their raison d'etre:the decision to renovatethe city in celebrationof the centennial of Frenchoccupation and in preparationfor its becoming the capitalof FrenchAfrica.4 They have been ex- plained as a parableof Europeanmodernism, as a poetic responseto the machine age, to syndicalism,and so forth, and thus abstractedfrom the "politicalgeography" of colonial .5Neither have the Algiersprojects been analyzedas part of Le Corbusier'sinfatuation with Islamicculture, on one side, shapedby the legacyof nineteenth-centuryFrench discourseon the "Orient,"and on another,informed by the Parisianavant-garde's preoccupation with the non-Western 2. CharlesBrouty, sketch of the Other in the 1920s and 1930s.6 To fill this lacuna in the casbah, Algiers extensive literatureon Le Corbusier,I will attempt to read the workof perhapsthe most controversialfigure of modernismfrom a shifted perspectiveinformed by recent postcolonialdiscourse. Not surprisingly,architecture and urbanforms constituted the overridingtheme in Le Corbusier'sobservations of other cultures.Nevertheless, they were accompaniedby an inquiry into the social norms, in particular,religious and sexual ones - two of the three realmshistorian Norman Daniel defines as havingcharacterized Islam for centuriesin Europeandis- course.7It is my hope that an interconnectedanalysis of Le Corbusier'sideas on these issues will providea compre- hensive understandingof the architect'svision of Islamas the Other and reveala new level of ideologicalcomplexity within the Algiersprojects. Le Corbusierundoubtedly first encounteredthe "Orient" throughliterature, travel accounts, and paintings.Certain popularauthors, among them Th ophile Gautierand Pierre Loti, appeartime and again in his writings.Furthermore, the 3. Postcardview of Algiers and illustrationsin travelbooks must have shaped Le Corbusier's its terraces expectations.His fascinationwith travelliterature and its

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4. Le Corbusier,sketch of Istanbulviewed from the sea

visual media is reflected in his own work,for example,by his that connected the shoresof the city, thus finding something use of CharlesBrouty's drawings of the Algeriancasbah in of the mental image he had constructedback in Europe.In- addition to postcardsin La Ville radieuse.8As will be dis- deed, Corbu surpassedthe formulasof Orientalistdescrip- cussed later, the impact of the Orientalistschool of painting tions by readingthe urbanform analytically:he studied the becomes apparentin relationto Le Corbusier'sstudies of carefulplacement of monuments in respect to topography Eugene Delacroix'sLes Femmesd'Alger in the 1930s, but it that resultedin "summitsformed by reallyenormous is manifested earlierin Istanbulin his speculationsabout "as well as their relationshipto each other in the Islamicwomen and the privatelife of the Muslim family. calculatedcomposition of the skyline." In a rerunof innumerabletravel accounts, Le Corbusierfirst Like Istanbul,Algiers makes a powerfulimpression from the viewed Istanbulfrom a boat in May 1911. "Thuswe did ap- sea - one that has also been recordedunfailingly in travel proachby sea,"he wrote, "likein old times, to watch all these literature.Theophile Gautierdescribed the approach: things unfold."9This was a strategycarefully planned by A whitishblur, cut into a trapezium,and dotted with silver sparkles Corbu, in orderto be welcomed an formed by image already - eachone of thema countryhouse - beganto be drawnagainst in his mind he had read. by everything Nineteenth-century thedark hills: this is Algiers,Al-Djezair, as theArabs call it. We travelbooks on the Ottoman followeda set capital pattern, approach;around the trapezium, two ocra-coloredravines define the opening pages describingthe strikingimpressions of the thelower edges of the slopes,and shimmer with such a livelylight city from the sea, divided into three settlements by water, thatthey seem as thoughthey are beds to two suntorrents: these with Istanbulon one side of the Golden Horn, Galataon the arethe trenches. The walls, strangely crenellated, ascend the height other, and Uskiidaryet fartheraway on the Asian banksof of theslope. ... Twopalm trees and four windmills stand out in the Bosphorus;they talkedat length about the harmonyof contrast:the palm tree, symbol of thedesert and the patriarchal of andcivilization. colors, the skylinedefined by domes and ,and the life; thewindmill, symbol Europe reflectionsof the built and naturalforms on the water.To Le Algiersis builtas an amphitheateron a steepslope, such that its Corbusier,then, this was a familiarmoment, much rehearsed housesseem to havetheir feet on theheads of others.Nothing is in his imagination.'0He knew what he wanted to see: strangerfor the French eye thanthis superposition of terracesin the colorof chalk.... Whenthe distance gets smaller,we perceive I wantStamboul to sit herGolden Horn all white,as rawas upon amidstthe general glare the of a mosque,the dome of a sufi chalk,and I want to screechon the surfacesof domeswhich light convent,the mass of a greatedifice, the .14 swell the heap of milky cubes, and minaretsshould thrustupward, and the sky must be blue. ... Under the brightlight, I want a city all Le Corbusier'sdrawings and descriptionsof Algierssimilarly the must be there to it. All the white, but green cypresses punctuate move from distant views to inner city (echoing again the blue of the sea shall reflect the blue of the sky." travelliterature). The architect'smain focus, however,was to On that particular day, however, it rained, the sea turned show how his projectwould complement and enhance the of whose "realface" would be a de mer gray, the Golden Horn looked muddy, mosques dirty, and beauty Algiers, front houses flimsy. When he landed on the shore, Corbu was in his proposalsas throughoutthe city's history."His essay disappointedeven furtherby the cosmopolitanatmosphere Poe'siesur Alger thus begins with an argumentabout reincor- of the streets,"swarming with a crowdof Greeks,Germans, poratingpoetry into urbanism,but followsimmediately with and French,all that suspect blend of the Leventine."Yet the a descriptionof the city from the sea: burden of Orientalisttradition him to in compelled partake We arein Africa.This sun, this space created by azureand water, the collective other before passion expressedby Europeans thisfoliage have formed the set forthe actions of Salambo,Scipion him: "I had to workat it," he admitted, "andmost of all I andAnnibal, together with those of Kheir-ed-dinnthe Barbaresque. wanted to love this place.""2As witnessed by his numerous The sea,the chain of theAtlas Mountains, the slopesof Kabyleun- sketches,Le Corbusieroften relivedthe experienceof fold theirblue displays. The earth is red.The vegetation consists of viewing Istanbulfrom acrossthe sea on the commuter ferries palmtrees, eucalyptus trees, gum trees, cork oaks, olive treesand

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fig trees;the perfumes, jasmine and mimosa. From the first plan to theconfines of thehorizons, the symphony is imminent.... Build- ing theirCasbah, the Turks [sic] havecreated a masterpieceof architectureand urbanism.'6

Elsewhere,Le Corbusierdescribed the casbah as having madethe site: "The casbahof Algiers... has given the name Algiers-the-Whiteto this glitteringapparition that welcomes at dawn the boats arrivingto the port. Inscribedin the site, it is irrefutable.It is in consonancewith nature.""

The aesthetic appealin the image of these two cities, created by the powerfuldialogue between geographyand archi- tecturalform, turned them into unique poems. In Istanbul the poetryresided in the "unforgettablespectacle" of the urbanform, with the light coming from behind and giving 5. Le Corbusier,sketch of the city a monolithic appearance."In Algiersthe qualityof Suleymaniye,Istanbul light reflectingon the buildingsand the landscapegave the city its poetry,and complementingthe geography,the vegeta- tion, and the perfumeof the air,created a "symphony."'9 Even in the earlystages of his career,for Le Corbusiergood urbanismmeant formalunity. In Istanbulthis unity was achievedby the modulardesign system that, followingan "elementarygeometry," underlay the composition of the great mosque complexes;cubic masses coveredby domes acted as modules, being "centered,measured, and propor- tioned in relationto the sanctuarythey belong to."20The in- tegrityof the urbanform depended, therefore,on the cubic elements, makingIstanbul a masterpieceof urbanism,be- cause, Le Corbusierstated, "greatarchitecture is cubic."2' Two decades later, Le Corbusierobserved a similarunity in Algeria,again based on a module, the square-shapedcell. He commented on the cellular of 6. Le Corbusier,sketch of organization Ben-Isghem, Ben-lsghem a town in Mzab, "What an order,what a decision, what a sensible tool to the serviceof mankind."And he provided an architecturalformula for happiness:22 thekey = thecell = men = happiness Displayingthe historicfascination of Europewith Islam, Le Corbusierattempted to explain architecturaland urban forms in terms of religiousbeliefs. Unversedin Muslim philosophy,he recycledthe cliche that the Muslim religion

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7. Postcardof the Kaaba iiiiii~i~iii'iiiiiii~iBii~:,:...... ::... i:.ill~iiii_-:::M-1:'li-iii~;~ijii-ii-iiii-iii iijj:~j::~ji _::i:::2:_:-::_:__::t:::::-:::: ;::::: :::1: held an answerto all socioculturalquestions and in one short _i-~?ii~-ii,,;,iai--:-~~-.---.:. .i~iijj~_:_iis~ii-i1~ . sentence arguedthat the unity of concept was due to the ~::::::::-::::s(::--::-_::-:Wj,.::_-:::-::- unity of religion.He consideredthis a most reasonableexpla- nation because "Asia[was] foreverreligious" - an ahistorical if widespreadreading that fixed the entire continent in some ambiguousplace in the past. Then, repeatinganother cliche, he suggestedthat the module was derivedfrom the nomadic tent and "religionelevate[d] it to the infinite."23 Le Corbusier'ssole insightfulobservation on the relationship between Muslim religionand built form might be found in his global diagramfor the worldof Islam,that is, in his discussionof the unity of religionas expressedin the physical and symbolic"pull" of Mecca: "the orientationof the axis of everymosque on Moslem soil towardthe black stone of Kaabais an awe-inspiringsymbol of the unity of faith."24The mihrabof everymosque was indeed "a door to the Kaaba."25 Undoubtedly,Le Corbusier'sobsession with the Kaabaalso derivedfrom its simple, cubic form, which he illustratedin La Ville radieusewith a postcard,but which he had studied ear- lier while a tile in the Valide in Istanbul. sketching Mosque 8. Le Corbusier,sketch of a tile in the Valide Istanbul Le Corbusier'ssporadic notes on Islam,otherwise, cannot Mosque, be consideredas productsof deep thinking and analytical observation,but they revealthe young architect'sclaim to a disposition of superioritytoward other cultures. His choice of wordsin these brief statements tells more perhapsthan their subject. He thus referredin Istanbulto the Muslims' "poignantmysticism before Allah,"their "loudlaments ... in the ritualrhythms of worship,""their supplication to the Un- known, the mournfulcredo of their beautiful prayers,"and "the swooningof their souls and those undulatingrecitals of

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all the muezzinson their minaretswhen they chant and call fabrics,his deliberatedetermination in Algeriato turn away the devoted to prayer."26His referenceto a performanceof from monumental architecturealtogether should be under- whirlingdervishes - a ritualtransformed dramatically in the stood in referenceto this discourse. nineteenth centuryfor touristicconsumption and one often In IstanbulLe Corbusier'seye and pen had wanderedfrom drawnand painted by Europeanartists - evokesscenes that the monuments to the side streetsdefined by blankgarden extend the imagination:"We have attended a fieryreligious walls, to the konaks,large mansions that he consideredarchi- serviceby whirlingDervishes, of which I will say nothing just tecturalmasterpieces, to the simple houses. He rediscovered now because otherwiseI would never finish.""27 the solitude of the residentialstreets of Istanbulin Algeria, Comparedto his curiosityin all aspects of life in the where, again, the houses - althoughmuch differentin their Ottoman capital,Le Corbusiermaintained a markeddis- architecturalcharacter - were divorcedfrom the street. tance from the local culture in Algiers.In part stemming "The [Algerian]street is an anonymouscorridor," he de- from his mission to redesignthe city, his analyticalobserva- clared;life and poetryflourished inside the house.32The nar- tions were keyed to vernacularurban and architectural row streets of the casbah,effectively sheltered from the sun forms. He did not, as in Istanbul,indulge in speculations by the projectionsof the buildings that lined them, were only about society or religion,neither did he recordeyewitness public passagesand places to shop. Yet a "miracle"occurred accounts of religiousrituals, although a populist versionof when the door of an Arabhouse opened onto a lovely court- Orientalistvocabulary surfaced every now and then in his yard,one or two storieshigh, surroundedby sculpted arches. writings.28Le Corbusier'sreferences to the religiousmonu- Here silence reigned."The street [was] abolished.""33By ignor- ments (the "high"art) of Algierswere brief and within the ing the street, that "violentpassage," the Arabhouse afforded context of his own proposals.For example,he envisioned a life in coolness (fralcheur)and tranquility.Furthermore, clearingthe areaaround the two mosques on the Place du Arabshad "conqueredthe view of the sea for everyhouse" Gouvernementand returningthem to their originalcondi- by means of roof terracesthat "createda roof over the city." tion, sitting on a rockbase. The Marinequarter would harbor The casbah thus became an "immensestairway, a tribune in- "indigenousinstitutions" in a "vastensemble of new [and] vaded at night by millions of adorersof nature."Comparing grandMuslim architecture,as monumental as it would be the Arabcity to the European,the "adorablecourtyard" of picturesque.'"29 the Arabhouse to the "sinistercourtyard" of the European apartmentbuildings, the protected passagewaysto the This detachment from monumental architecturein Algiers "jumbledstreets," Le Corbusierconcluded that "the 'civi- was connected to currentdebates among the Parisianintelli- lized' live like rats in holes,"whereas "the 'barbarians'live in gentsia, especiallyaround the dialoguebetween ethnography solitude, in well-being."Juxtaposing his own proposalfor the and surrealismin the 1920s. Questioning "reality"and d redentshousing in Algierswith the patternsoffered by the for alternativesto local (European)customs and searching casbah,he summarizedthe lessons he had learned:"terraces, truths, surrealistethnographers had turned to the non- suspendedgardens, grand bays open to a landscapeof dreams Western, abandoning,in the process,the distinctionbetween conqueredby height."34 "high"and "low"culture.3o Influential and rigorous,the de- bate generateda new emphasison ethnography,as witnessed Westernizingtransformations in Istanbul'sarchitecture and by the extensiveliterature from the 1920s and 1930s.Not urbanforms, a processthat had begun in the mid-nineteenth surprisingly,the majorityof the fieldworkwas carriedout in century,created mixed reactionsin the young Le Corbu- the colonies, among them Algeria.31Indigenous house forms sier.3The hybridand modernlook of Pera,a formerGenoese and settlement patternsconstituted majortopics of interest settlement to the north of the Golden Horn, inhabited to ethnographers;their publicationswere richlyillustrated mostly by Europeansand non-MuslimOttoman minorities with examples from vernaculararchitecture, analyzed in in the nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries,intrigued terms of dailylife and rituals.Although Le Corbusierhad him as "a compressedcity with the allureof New York" alwaysdisplayed a criticalsensitivity to vernacularforms and whose buildings "thrustupward like dominoes,.., nothing

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Westernization. "The catastrophethat will inevitablyruin Istanbul [is] the advent of modern times," he wrote. "Stam- boul will die. The reason is that she is alwaysburning and being rebuilt,"he continued, diagnosingcorrectly a main factor behind the fast pace of Istanbul'stransformation. He attributedthe poor quality of the new architecturein the neighborhoodscleared by fires to the inabilityof European companies (especiallythe German ones) commissioned to do the work."Another loss was the "majesticcoat of white- wash"in mosque interiorsto the "ignominyof repugnant 9. Le Corbusier,sketch and revoltingpainted ornamentation"- the signatureof the comparing the European Young Turks, accordingto Le Corbusier."3While the connec- city with the Arab city tion between political reformagendas and painted decoration is far-fetched,Corbu's critique was broader;he aimed at the turn-of-the-centuryOttoman adoption of Europeanfashions soften [ing] the severityof [their] height."Pera was "beautiful that, in order to replacethe purity (the modernity) of local and imposing."36Other Europeanshad, of course,lamented historicalforms, disguised these truly "modern"forms behind the Westernized appearanceof Galataas not fitting into an masks of decoration.In 1925, back in Paris,Le Corbusier Orientalimagery. Gautier, for example, had noted these condemned the modernizationprograms of the new Turkish apartmentbuildings as negative developments: republicthat had succeeded the Ottoman Empireby refer- to whitewash:"And we have Ankara, Some houses,of six andseven stories, line theroad on one ring again alreadytoday ugly and the monument to Events move fast. side,and rejoice a superbview, of whichthey are quite unworthy. Mustapha-Kemal! The die is cast: one more centuries-oldcivilization to It is truethat these houses pass for the bestin Constantinopleand goes in for a time to thatPera is proudof them- judgingthem (rightly) as fit to figure ruin. No more whitewash Turkey long honorablyat Marseillesor Barcelona,or even Paris;for theyare, come!"0 in fact,of anugliness the most civilized and modem.37 Le Corbusierexpressed similar sentiments about the destruc- Elsewhere,Le Corbusierechoed those Europeanswho de- tion of Algiers,for which he blamed the French interventions. plored the destruction of the old city by modernizationand "The last fifty yearsof Europeancolonization," he argued

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in 1942, "abolishedwithout any regretsthe naturalrichness prominentengineer working for the city of Algiers,argued in and petrifiedthe new city into a desert with its crowded 1933 that the city must be renovatedby means of a "sanear- houses leaning onto noisy streets."4'Like the cities of Europe chitecture, followingAryan traditions," because of "itsposi- and America,Algiers had sickened,for it had been torn of tion on the axis of France."46Furthermore, Le Corbusier's its poetryby the engineers.42Nonetheless, Le Corbusierre- sketches depict the idea of la grandeFrance, which stemmed spected the originalachievements of the Frenchcolonial from an "imperial"French doctrineand a colonial conscious- oeuvre and creditedthe first six decades of French rule with ness developed in 1930, and which culminated in the Co- good urbanism.He had alreadyclarified his standpointin La lonial Expositionof 1931.47As Paul Reynaud,Minister of Ville radieuse,where, including a plan that indicatedthe first Colonies, expressedat the time, "the essentialaim of the Ex- interventions(the Place d'Armesand the main east-westar- position is to give the French people consciousnessof their tery), he expressedhis admirationof the earlycolonial urban- Empire.... Everyoneamong us must feel he is a citizen of ism: "The militaryrulers of the conquest knew how to make the greatestFrance [la plus grandeFrance] that expandsto beautiful city plans.They knew how to urbanize."43While Le five partsof the world."48 Corbusier'sscheme to obtain the commissionby associating Given Le Corbusier'sloyalty to the idea of la grandeFrance the currentadministration with the glorifiedconquerors is and to French rule in Algeria,it makessense to analyzehis quite transparentin this statement made on the centennial projectswithin the frameworkof colonial planningtraditions of the occupation,his repetitionof the same theme in vari- in the earlierpart of the century.In the historyof French ous contexts reflectshis firm supportof French colonial poli- colonial urbanism,the name of Hubert Lyautey,governor- cies. Celebratingthe missioncivilisatrice in Morocco,he generalof Morocco from 1912 to 1925, stands out. Under the praisedthe instruction,loyalty, and justice broughtby the rule of MarshalLyautey and the supervisionof the architect French, as well as the networkof roadsand the cities they Henri Prost,France had undertakenextensive experimentsin had built - all "signsof civilization."These achievements, urbanplanning that expanded Rabat,Fez, and Casablanca he argued,had createdan atmosphereof admiration,enthu- accordingto a well-developedsocial strategy.Certain ideas siasm, and respectamong the Arabs: and passionsconnected Lyauteyand Prostto Le Corbusier. TheArab discovered his educator,his instructor.He didnot bat an Like Corbu, Prosthad visited Istanbulas a young man while eyelidof doubt.With two hands outstretched, leaving all his hope- studyingat the academyin Rome, which he had convinced to less deceitbehind, he loved,admired, understood the new times and finance a study of HagiaSophia - not as a monument in iso- respectedFrance with all his conviction.Architecture and urbanism lation, but in its urbancontext. The historicaland cultural canbe thegreat educator.44 richnessof the Ottoman capitalas well as its formalstructure had indeed to Prostand underlinedhis for In accordancewith the colonial mission, Le Corbusier's appealed proposal a restitutionproject for the neighborhoodaround Hagia Algiers- the "Frenchcapital of Africa,"the "headof French Sophia.49 Africa,"and the "phoenixof France ... rebornout of the ashes of the mother country"- would reinforceFrench rule Lyauteyand Le Corbusiershared an admirationfor the ver- not only in Algeria,but throughoutthe entire continent.45 naculararchitecture of the IslamicMediterranean, which The architectexpressed this view passionatelyin his writings, reflectedon their implementationsand proposalsin the but also in severaldrawings where an axis originatingin the historic fabricsof the Arabcities they were involvedin, as north continues into Africa,connecting France,from Le well as on their preferencefor modernistaesthetics. Lyautey Havrevia Paristo Marseillesand acrossthe Mediterranean,to confirmedthe latter point clearly:"Islam gave me," he de- Algiersand to Gao. Sketchesof skyscrapersindicate the cities claredin 1931, "a taste for greatwhite wallsand I could along the axis, proposingthe unificationof greaterFrance almost claim to be one of the forerunnersof Le Corbusier."50 throughthe new architectureand urbanism.The notion of a Furthermore,Lyautey and Le Corbusierboth believed in geographicalaxis between Franceand Algierswas not unprec- the centralrole urbanismplayed in changingpeople's lives. edented in colonial discourse;for example, Cotereau,a Lyautey'surbanism aimed to accommodatehis new colonial

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12, 13. Le Corbusier, diagrammaticmaps showing geographical axis between Franceand Algiers

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order,based on diversity,where people of differentsocial and This majordifference between the two culturesrequired the culturalcircumstances would coexist. His widely quoted separationof the indigenousfrom the Europeanpopulations statement "Aconstruction site is worth a battalion"meant in the city: that would the older colonial city planning replace policies Largecities, boulevards, tall fagades for stores and homes, installa- The social based on militaryforce."1 strong engineering tionof waterand electricity are necessary, [all of] whichupset the agenda in Le Corbusier'surbanism, especially in reference indigenouscity completely,making the customary way of life im- to the new man of the machine age, is well known.Yet his possible.You know how jealous the Muslim is of theintegrity of understandingof diversity,which also seems to imply region- his privatelife; you arefamiliar with the narrow streets, the fagades alism and enables us to understandthe Algiersprojects bet- withoutopening behind which hides the whole of life, theterraces ter, has remainedmore obscure.On the title page of La Ville uponwhich the life of thefamily spreads out and which must there- fromindiscreet looks.56 radieuse,Le Corbusierdefined urbanplans as "the rational foreremain sheltered and monuments set in the midst of poetic up contingencies": Consequently,Lyautey made the conservationof the Moroc- climates... to "places,peoples, cultures,topographies, only can medinas one of his prioritiesin urbanplanning. He an- be as relateto the - 'man."'The judged they entity specific- nounced proudly,"Yes, in Morocco,and it is to our honor, of some of these in - the the ity contingencies Algiers place, we conserve.I would go a step further,we rescue.We wish the climate - surfacesin the topography, unprecedented to conservein Morocco Beauty- and it is not a negligible of Le Corbusier's The other contin- lyricism Algiersprojects. thing."57Behind these compassionatewords, nevertheless, lay - different and cultures- to gencies peoples help explain an economic goal:the medinas were essential for the develop- the between Le Corbusier'sand urbanism parallels Lyautey's ment of tourism,especially for the romantictravelers and in the colonies. artistswho would be eternallythankful to Lyautey.58 in the The two principlesthat Lyauteyhad outlined for Prostat the The InternationalCongress on Urbanism Colonies, outset of the latter'sarrival in Morocco in 1913 were, accord- held duringthe 1931 Colonial Expositionin Paris,recorded ideas and on the ing to legend, to preservethe medinas in respectto the local the powerfulinfluence of Lyautey's practice culture and aesthetics and to build new, modern cities for the new rulesof planningin the Frenchcolonies. Among the were "tourismand Europeanpopulations.52 Both of these principlesunderlie the goals of the congress,as listed by Prost, structureof Le Corbusier'splans for Algiers,leading to the conservationof old cities"and "protectionof landscapesand of the in- separationof the French from the indigenouspeople, a phe- historicmonuments"; the "wishlist" participants of vari- nomenon JanetAbu-Lughod has labeled "urbanapartheid" cluded a respect for the beliefs, habits, and traditions in referenceto Moroccancities.53 ous racesand the creationof separatesettlements.59 By then, the implementationof such principleshad alreadyexpanded For Lyautey,the preservationof the Arabtown held several to other colonial cities. In Algiers,for example, the casbah meanings, some emotional, some practical.Above all, he sa- was placed under a specialregime destined to conserveits voredthe aesthetic qualitiesof the Arabtown, its "charmand picturesquecharacter to promote tourism.60 which he attributedto the sophisticationof the cul- poetry," Like Lyautey'sMoroccan medinas, Le Corbusier'sAlgerian ture.54To understandthe differencebetween this cultureand casbahwas "beautiful,""charming," and "adorable"and it the one was essential to building a colonial policy European "never,no, never must be destroyed."61Its historic signi- that would endure: ficance as the "placeof Europeanand Muslim life during of was held to be of in- Thesecret ... is theextended hand, and not the condescending centuries picturesquestruggles" great its historicaland aes- hand,but the loyal handshake between man and man - in orderto terest for the entire world.62Therefore, understandeach other.... This[Arab] race is notinferior, it is dif- thetic values,the vestiges of Araburbanism and architec- ferent.Let us learnhow to understandtheir difference just like they ture, should be protectedto enhance the "gigantic"touristic will understandthem from their own side.55 potential of Algiersfor westernand centralEurope.63 The

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problem of the casbahwas, however,an admittedlydifficult horizontalityof the formerinto a verticalelement. Repeating one. This was mainly due to overpopulationcaused by the the concept in his later plans, Corbu himself emphasizedthe influx of peasantsescaping the miserableconditions in the essential separationof the two settlements:"This artery will countryside;the casbah shelteredfour to six times more be separatedentirely from the indigenoustown, by means of residentsthan it could contain, sometimes twenty persons a level difference."70 in a single room, accordingto Le Corbusier'sfigures.64 If Le Corbusier'sdramatic of the casbahhas been Algierswas to become the capital of FrenchAfrica, the misery segregation architecturalhistorians as a of its Muslim populationhad to be addressed,the casbah commonly interpretedby sym- bolic Tafuri sees in Corbu'streatment of the casbah "purified"and reorganized,its populationreduced.6 gesture. a "timelessmodel ... the metaphorof an ancient time," Le Corbusierthus proposedto preservethe uppercasbah in which is "foreignto time, foreignto the modern, indifferent its integrity,while restrictingthe densities and interveningin to its destinies."71These wordsfrom one of the most per- the patternsof use, followingthe planningdecisions made ceptive historiansof our day belong, paradoxically,to the before him.66A number of buildingswere to continue to Orientalisttradition that attributestimelessness and a function as residences,but others were to be convertedinto prehistoricalexistence to the Islamiccity, denying it change centers of arts and craftsin orderto initiate an indigenous and processand accentuatingthe differencebetween the dy- "renaissance."Indeed, an impressivenumber of new schools namism of the Europeanmodern and the stasis of the an- and workshopswere establishedby the colonial authoritiesin cient Muslim. No doubt, Le Corbusier'snew Algierswould the 1920s and 1930s to develop local crafts- embroidery, have stood in sharpcontrast to the Muslim town, but his leatherwork,metalwork, copperwork, woodwork, carpentry, readingof the casbahwas farmore complex than Tafurisug- pottery,masonry, and decorativearts - with the goal of gests. Emphasizingits cosmopolitannature and its fascinat- increasingtheir commercialvalue.67 The lowercasbah, on ing processof change, Le Corbusierpraised the casbah for its the other hand, would be expurgatedof its slums;only the houses that recordedthe "progressof styles,of periods,of his- mansions would be preserved,converted into specialized tory.'"72Nevertheless, the implicationsof the projectcarry the museums for the indigenousarts. Parksand gardenswould colonial premisesmuch fartherthan does Lyautey'swork: Le replacethe areascleared from the slums, but the existing Corbusier'splan establishesconstant visualsupervision over street networkwould be maintainedto link the high casbah the local populationand clearlymarks the hierarchicalsocial to the Marinequarter and to the harbor.68Following the orderonto the urbanimage, with the dominatingabove and Moroccanprecedent, the Muslim residentsof Algierswould the dominated below.73 be strictlyseparated from the Europeans. The colonial plannersenvisioned the greenbelts as places The policy of establishingseparate cities was carriedthrough where "contactand collaboration"between raceswould not to such an extent that written into the wish list of the partici- be prohibited:they were the potential sites for interaction.74 pants in the 1931 urbanismcongress was the creationof a Le Corbusierassigned this function to the startingpoint of "greenbelt," sometimes referredto as cordonsanitaire (a his airbelt, the Marinequarter, between the casbahand the term that recallsthe practiceof evacuatingEuropeans from streets of BabAzoun and its easternextension, Bab el Oued. epidemic-riddentowns in the Algeriancountryside and Clearedand rebuiltwith larged redentsblocks over parksand enforcingquarantine on local people).69 Le Corbusier gardens,harboring the "businesscenter" and "civiccenter," reinterpretedthe idea of the green belt while wholeheartedly the quarterwould providethe link between the European acknowledgingits necessity. In his Obus plan of 1932, for and the Arabcities. CertainArab institutions, such as offices, example, a giant linear structurethat connects the hillside shops, and meeting halls, would also be placed here.75The residencesfor Europeansto the cite d'affairesin the Marine location was most convenient for overlappingfunctions, quarterforms a bridgeover the casbah,transforming the because of its proximityto the port, its centralityin terms sanitarygreen belt into an air band and reversingthe of future growth,and its significanceas a historicalaxis for

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14-16. Le Corbusier,three views of the Obus plans

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Arabs.76At the time of Le Corbusier'sinvolvement in Algiers, this crowdedquarter, occupied by residentsof diversenation- alities, was the most problematicarea for the city admini- strationdue to a lack of "materialand moralhygiene."77 Provisionshad alreadybeen made for its "destructionand complete reconstruction.""Le Corbusier'scleansing would be urbanand social, at once providingfor controlledactivities for Arabsand racialcontact in an orderedenvironment.

Le Corbusier'sprojects would thus endow the colonial ad- ministrationin Algierswith a new apparatusfor enhancing its political powerby means of an urbanorder that facilitatedsu- pervision.In addition, a militaristicsignal lies in the curving forms of the building complexes, emphasizedby the architect himself in calling the plan "Obus"in referenceto the trajec- tory of an exploding shell. This is not a simple, light-hearted metaphorand should not be dissociatedfrom its political context, from the violent confrontationsbetween the French army and the local resistanceforces duringthe one hundred yearsof occupation. Curiouslyenough, the curvilinearforms of Le Corbusier'sproject relate to another majoraspect of French colonialismin Algeria:its obsession with Algerian women. Under colonial rule, the Europeanfascination with Muslim women had led to controversialpolicies, among them penetratingthe privacyof Muslim familylife by "liber- POES IE ating"the women. Women were, for example, strongly encouraged(and at times forced) to discardtheir veils - perhapsthe most loaded symbol of Islam.The rationalewas that if women were conquered,the core structureof this unyieldingsociety would be destroyed,leading to its total surrender.79 Le Corbusierhimself the associationbetween his provoked 17. Le Corbusier,sketch for the and women at his en- projects Algerian by describing length cover of Podsiesur Alger chantment with the women of the casbahand by likening the city of Algiersto a female body: "Algiersdrops out of sight," he noted, viewingthe city from a boat leaving for France in 1934, "likea magnificentbody, supple-hippedand full- breasted.... A body which could be revealedin all its mag- nificence, throughthe judiciousinfluence of form and the bold use of mathematicsto harmonizenatural topography and human geometry."8sThe cover sketch for Poe'siesur Alger depicts a unicorn-headed(?), winged female body - supple- hipped and full-breasted- (the city/poem?)caressed gently

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18. Le Corbusier,sketch of Turkishwomen, Istanbul

by a hand (the architect'shand?) against the skylineof new treasuresin burgundy,ebony silk . .. just as exquisite as Per- Algiers.This type of analogy,which claims masteryover the sian cats,""charming in their mysteriousblack veils, their dis- feminized body of the colonized territory(in this case, quieting anonymityof identical silks,their hidden treasures claiming that its beauty can be reincarnatedthrough the all alike.""4 architect'sintervention), is not unprecedentedin the French The Muslim women of Algiersrekindled Corbu's memories discourseon One author, at the turn of the Algeria. writing of his with all the associations.He now used the veil called wise and but youth, century, Algeria"a dangerousmistress," as a shorthandto denote the local culture. He included veiled one who "exudesa climate of caressesand torpor,"suggesting women in his sketchesto the poetryand the duality that control over her mind and was highlight body essential.81Although of the But more, he also the the feminizationof the "Orient"is a common theme in Eu- city. consistentlyrepresented casbahas a veil in his diagrams,thus visuallyfeminizing the and of Islam,the blatant ropeandescriptions representations colonized Muslim He was, of course,neither the first use of the word is to the colonies. society. maftresse specific nor the last to do so; in 1933 Lucienne Favre,a French Le Corbusierwas immersedin the discoursethat attributed woman writer,had, for example, describedthe casbahas a lascivioussexuality to Islamicculture. This was one of the "the vamp of North Africa,"bearing a "capriciousfeminine attractionsthat had drawnhim to Istanbulin his youth. Re- charm"and a great "sexappeal."81 enacting the scenes he had readof in books and had seen in Le Corbusier'sexperience with the women of the casbah con- paintingsand repeatinganother favoriteassociation between trastedwith the impenetrabledistance he had encountered and he fantasizedabout the life in the prison palace, seraglio, in Istanbul.Now as an older and more self-confidentman, which would be filled with "divine, ... thrillingodalisques and one the of Frenchin a aroundtheir naked anklesand arms ... solid bearing psychology being colony, [wearing] gold he visited the brothels,sketched women in the nude, and ... like serpents.Loaded with gold and their nails rings claimed to have discoveredhere "the nobility of the nude painted in vermilion,they suffocatedfrom waiting so long in thanksto the plastic structureof certain females of the their magnificentcages.""82 The houses on the quiet streetsof casbah under the intense but nuanced light of Algiers."86 Istanbulwere "perhaps... prisonsof odalisques,"evoking in Jeande Maisonseul,who laterbecame the curatorof the young Corbu feelings of "alightly painful,melancholic, be- Museum of ModernArt in Algiersand who had accompa- neficent poem.'83 nied Le Corbusieron his sight-seeingtrips, witnessed to his The women of Istanbul,inaccessible to Le Corbusier,in- astonishmentthe architect'spurchase of popularpostcards, triguedhis sense of mysteryfurther with their veils. He could "horrible... in rawcolors, pinks and greens,representing barelymake out their eyes throughthe pieces of cloth that indigenesnues in an orientaldecor."87 Such postcards,depict- enhanced their beauty:"innocent eyes of gazelles,"he ex- ing women in the public realm,in prisonsettings that were claimed, "delicious."He was more ambivalentabout the long homes, involvedin "typical"rituals and poses - all loaded robes.At times he describedthe women in chadorsas "im- with sexual innuendos- have been studied by postcolonial pressivebats, with the folds of their capes framingtheir heads critic MalekAlloula as expressionsof the Frenchman'sfanta- and then fading awayfrom their hips,"reminiscent of "those sies about the Algerianwoman."8 In light of the previousdis- fiends at the towersof Notre Dame";at others, as "hidden cussion, Le Corbusier'sappropriation of these public images

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~I

19. Le Corbusier,sketch of the 20. Le Corbusier,sketch of the waterfront, Algiers casbah, Algiers

21, 22. Le Corbusier,sketches of Algerian women

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bears some connection to his privatelife; nevertheless,he Notes 4. William Curtis, for example, also reliedon them for models, in addition to his own in I am gratefulto the directorand the mentions the "blatantcolonialism" of the but does not ar- situ sketches,in severalpaintings. One such paintingfrom staff of Fondation Le Corbusierfor project, ticulate it. See William Curtis, 1939, Fathma, two dominant themes of colonial their assistanceand to the National displays Endowment for the Humanities ModernArchitecture since 1900 of women in and art. Here, representations popular "high" for a travelgrant to Paris.Earlier ver- (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Prentice the Fathma, genericAlgerian woman, sits on a roof terrace sions of this paperwere presentedat Hall, 1990), 209. MaryMcLeod pro- among a clutter of objects with an Islamicallure, revealing the Fine Arts Department, Harvard vides a backgroundto the "assimila- tion" debate without Le her double image:the veiled (the hidden, the mysterious) University(March 1989), Society of situating ArchitecturalHistorians Annual Corbusier'sprojects within the and the nude (the prostitute,the conquered). Meeting in Montreal (April1989), context of colonial urbanism. See and the School of Architecture, MaryMcLeod, "Le Corbusierand Another paintingby Le Corbusier,Femmes d'Alger, is the Cornell University(April 1990). I Algiers,"Oppositions 16-17 (1980): product of a similarprocess.89 The storyof Femmesd'Alger, would like to thank HowardBurns, 55-85. It is particularlystriking that which took its final form in 1938, has been told before, al- Oleg Grabar,Michael Hays,Alicia neo-Marxisthistorian Manfredo Tafuri does not once refer to little has been made of its colonialist It Kennedy,Neil Levine, MaryMcLeod, though implications. and colonialism in his analysisof the is thus GiilruNecipoglu-Kafadar, Perry worthwhileto note again the close relationshipof this Winston for their comments and projects,which he calls "still un- work from the of to the architect'sAlgiers projects and the appropriation suggestionsat variousstages. The surpassed point view of of the Muslim woman as a metaphor.With Femmesd'Alger, idea for the topic originatedduring both ideology and form."See Le Corbusierreturns to the centennial celebrationsof the a conversationwith the late Spiro ManfredoTafuri, Architecture and and French one more time: he refers to Kostof. I rememberhim with deep Utopia: Design Capitalist Devel- occupation directly and affection. opment, trans. BarbaraLuigia La Delacroix'sFemmes of gratitude d'Alger 1833, a paintingthat had Penta (Cambridge,Mass.: MIT come to be regardedas a symbolof the conquest of Algeria. 1. See Le Corbusier, Journeyto Press, 1976), 125-36. the East, trans. Ivan Zakni6 with this I have tried to show here that Le Corbusier's Nicole Pertuiset (Cambridge,Mass.: 5. I owe interpretationto Said's Algiersprojects MIT Press, 1987). For an annotated critique of Albert Camus's critics. were expressionsof the French "colonialconsensus," which edition in Italian, see Giuliano See EdwardSaid, "Narrative,Geog- developed from the common French experiencebased on a Gresleri,Le Corbusier:Viaggio in raphy,and Interpretation,"New Left sharedperception of France'srole in contemporaryhistory, Oriente (Venice: Marsilio;Paris: Review 180 (1990): 88. , 1984). and which protectedthe French "economic,moral, and stra- 6. Giuliano Gresleriand Sibel The originalnotebooks have been tegic" interestsin Algeria.90As such, they must be situated have written about Le printed in facsimile as Le Bozdogan in a broadtime frame. do not to the Voyage Corbusier's with the East. They belong solely d'Orient (Paris:Fondation Le dialogue Greslerifocuses on the of 1930s and to modernism'sresponse to colonialism;they also Corbusier, 1988). impact the idiom of other - Corbu's journeyon his professional "speak" periods nineteenth-century See Giuliano Orientalismas well as the colonial discourseof the first de- 2. For a discussion of the impact of growth. Gresleri, the Turkishhouse on Le Corbusier's "Home-Ties- Adrift Abroad:The cades of the twentieth century.Furthermore, these projects work, see PierrePinon, "LaMaison Oriental Journeyof CH. Jeanneret," 15 epitomize a culminationof the long historyof French inter- turque,"in Le Corbusier:Le Passe Daidalos (March 1986): 102-11, ventions "to represent,to inhabit, and to possess"a terri- a reactionpoetique, exhibition cata- and idem, "Les Leqonsdu voyage in Le Corbusieret la Had Le Corbusier'sscheme been realized,it would logue (Paris:H6tel de Sully, 1988), d'Orient," tory.91 Mediterrande(Marseilles: Editions have markedan of such as no colonial 165-73. appropriation Algiers Parentheses,Mus&e de Marseille, plannerhad elsewhereever achieved.The comprehensive 3. In his notes from 1915 for a book 1987), 37-49. Bozdogan studies scale of the proposaland its aggressiveseizure of the city's on city building, Le Corbusiercited Corbu's sketches against the back- the urban form of Istanbul to ex- of Orientalism: geographyfrom the coastline to the mountainswould have ground abstracting transformedthe urban - the now minia- plain his concept of "unity."See Le Le Corbusierfrom his cultural in- image radically CorbusierSketchbooks, vol. 1, 1914- heritance, she frees him from the turized casbaha of the controlledexistence of the symbol 1948 (Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press; legacy of Orientalism. See Sibel colonized people and their "different"culture, a constant New York:Architectural History Bozdogan, "Journeyto the East," reminderof the powerof colonialism. Foundation, 1981), 6-7. Journalof ArchitecturalEducation

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41, no. 4 (1988): 38-45. Her position 20. Le Corbusier,Journey to the setting are the eleventh-centuryEl- 36. Le Corbusier,Journey to the has been challenged by Richard East, 103. Kebirand the seventeenth-century East, 90. of Architectural El-Djedid. It is noteworthythat Le Ingersoll,Journal 21. Le CorbusierSketchbooks 1:6. In 37. Gautier, Education no. 4 61. Corbusierdid not even mention Thdophile 42, (1989): 1915, to illustratethe concept of Constantinople (New York, 1873), them by name; nor was he intrigued 7. Daniel's third realm is power. See unity in city form, Le Corbusier 87. by their architecture. Norman Daniel, Islam, Europe,and mentioned one other city, Isfahan. 38. Le Corbusier,Journey to the Empire (Edinburgh, 1966), xvi. His other referenceswere to build- 30. For a discussion of ethnographic - East, 167. ings to the interiorof the Cathe- surrealism,see James Clifford, The 8. Charles Brouty illustratedmany dral of Notre Dame in Paris,to other Predicamentof Culture:Twentieth- 39. Ibid., 100-103. popularbooks on Algeria,among Gothic cathedralsand to the Egyp- CenturyEthnography, Literature, them Lucienne Favre'sTout 40. Le Corbusier,The DecorativeArt tian temples (the latter two unspeci- and Art (Cambridge,Mass.: l'inconnu de la casbah d'Alger ftarvard of Today,trans. James I. Dunnett fied), to the exterior of the Greek UniversityPress, 1988), 117-51. (Algiers, 1933). According to a letter Mass.:MIT Press, temples, and to the mosque com- (Cambridge, from Jean de Maisonseul to Samir 31. The Mission Dakar-Djibouti, 1987), 190. 5 plexes. Rafem[sic], dated January1968, which took place between 1931 a well-known" 22. Le Corbusier,La Ville radieuse 41. Le Corbusier,Poesie sur Alger, Brouty, "very figure and 1933, was the first large-scale in took Vincent, Freal, 1933; 17. the casbah, Le Corbusier (Paris: English expedition. For the link between around the Le trans., New York:Grossman Pub- quarter (AlgiersFiles, ethnographyand colonialism, see 42. Ibid., 11-13. CorbusierArchives, Fondation Le lishers and Faber & Faber, 1967), Michel Leiris's article important Le La Ville Corbusier, Paris,hereafter FLC). 230. devant le colonial- 43. Corbusier, radieuse, "L'Ethnographie 233. 23. Les modernes no. 58 9. Le Corbusier,Journey to the East, Le CorbusierSketchbooks 1:6-7. isme," Temps 6, 88. The association of Islamic monu- (August 1950): 357-74. Among eth- 44. Le Corbusier,Quand les ments with nomadic tents has been studies of see M. blanches 10. Le Corbusierwrote in a letter nographic Algeria, cathe'dralesetaient (Paris: made before. Consider, for example, Goichon, La Vie femininedu Mzab: Editions Plon, 1937), 46-47. to KarlOsthaus on 28 July 1911, Viollet-le-Duc's argument that for Etude de sociologiemusulmane "J'avaistant rev6 de Constanti- 45. Le Corbusier,Poesie sur Arabs"monuments were nothing (Paris:Librairie Orientaliste, Paul Alger, in Le Corbusier: 44. nople" (quoted but tents." See Gauthier, 1927); Mathea La 38, Le Passe reaction Eugene-Emmanuel Gaudry, a poetique, 162). Femmechaouia de Viollet-le-Duc, preface to Jules l'Aurks(Paris: 46. Cotereau quoted in J. J. Deluz, 11. Le to the Les Arts arabes LibrairieOrientaliste, Paul Corbusier,Journey Bourgoin, (Paris, L'Urbanismeet l'architectured'Alger 85. and the workof East, 1873). Gauthier, 1928); (Algiers:Office des Publications Therese Rivierein Fanny Colonna, 12. 12. Ibid., 88. 24. Le Corbusier,Journey to the Universitaires,1988), Aurks/Algerie,1935-36: Photo- East, 104. 47. Raoul L'Idde 13. Ibid., 90. graphiesde TherdseRivibre (Paris: Girardet, coloniale 25. Ibid., 100. Editions de la Maison des Sciences en France (Paris:Pluirel, 1972), 14. Theophile Gautier, Voyage de A small 176-99. pittoresqueen Algirie, ed. Madeleine 26. Ibid., 95. l'Homme, 1987). group of French women Cottin (1845; reprint,Geneva: ethnographers 48. Quoted in ibid., 185. There was, 27. Ibid., 143. focused their studies on LibrairieDroz, 1973), 179-80. Algerian nevertheless, a vocal opposition 28. For he referredto the women. example, to these policies by the French 15. Le Corbusier,letter to the Gov- builders of the casbah as "terrible ernor of 16 FLC. 32. Le Corbusier,La Ville radieuse, Communist Partyand a group of Pa- Algeria, May 1942, warriors,"who, en- paradoxically, 230. risian intellectuals. Surrealistartists, a de vivre and knew how 16. Le Corbusier,Poesie sur Alger joyed joie writers,and poets - among them to relax. See Le "Le Folk- (1950; facsimile reprint,Paris: Corbusier, 33. Le Corbusier,"Le Folkloreest Andre Breton, Paul Eluard,Louis lore est fleurie des tradi- Fondation Le Corbusier, 1989), 16. l'expression I'expressionfleurie des traditions," Aragon,and Yves Tanguy - named tions," 32. 31. 17. Le Corbusier,"Le Folkloreest the concept of la grandeFrance 29. Le d'un "intolerable" the l'expressionfleurie des traditions," Corbusier,"Proposition 34. Le Corbusier,La Ville radieuse, and, condemning Plan Directeur et de sa standpoint of the socialist party in Voici la Francede ce mois 16 (June d'Alger 230, 233 (Le Corbusier's emphasis). its of ex- 1941): 31. r6gion pour aider aux travauxde la acceptance colonialism, Commission du Plan de la Region 35. On nineteenth-century trans- plained their version of the real goals 18. Le Corbusier, to the Journey d'Algeret comme suite la seance formations in Istanbul, see Zeynep of the exposition in May 1931 as East, 149. ai du 16 Juillet 1941," FLC. The Qelik, The Remakingof Istanbul "nothing other than to give the citi- 19. Le Corbusier,Poesie sur Alger, two mosques that Le Corbusier (Seattle: Universityof Washington zens of the metropole the conscious- 16. proposed to return to their original Press, 1986). ness of proprietors,which they will

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need in orderto hear without flinch- Le Corbusierwas a strong critic of 60. M. Pasquier-Bronde,"Alger," in of Le Corbusier,"trans. Stephen ing the echo of distant gunfires." Prost'surbanism. Previously, he ibid., 39, and Charles Montaland, Sartarelli,in The Le Corbusier See "Ne visitez pas l'Exposition had fluctuated in his evaluation of "L'Urbanismeen Algerie,"in ibid., Archive,ed. H. Allen Brooks,32 vols. Coloniale," in Tractssurrealistes et Prost'swork. As seen in his state- 51-52. (New York:Garland, 1982-84), ddclarationscollectives, 1922-1939, ment, above, from 10:xxxviii-xxxix. quoted Quand 61. Le Corbusier,La Ville radieuse, vol. 1 (Paris:Le TerrainVague, les cathedralesetaient blanches,he 229. 72. Le Corbusier,"Le Folkloreest 1980), 194-95. In response to the praised Prost (if indirectly)on the fleurie des traditions," exposition, the surrealistartists or- success of colonial urbanismin Mo- 62. Le Corbusier,letter to the Pre- 1'expression fect of 18 FLC. 32. ganized an anticolonial exposition. rocco; however, in 1931, during his Algiers, May 1942, See the book forthcoming by visit to Fez, he noted that "Prost's 63. Le Corbusier,Questionnaire C, 73. In the light of this discussion, I Herman Lebovics, TrueFrance city planning is nothing but confu- 1931-35, FLC; idem, note for M. must referonce again to Tafuri's Cornell (Ithaca: UniversityPress, sion" ("Sketchbook:Espagne// Sabatier,6 May 1941, FLC; and analysisthat sees in Le Corbusier's 1992), chap. 2. Route 3 lb//B7," in Le Corbusier idem, La Ville radieuse,244. megastructuresinto which residents Sketchbooks1:440). could insert their choice of buildings 49. While in Istanbul, Le Corbusier, 64. Le Corbusier,"Le Folkloreest "the allowed to the too, had carefullystudied Hagia 50. Quoted in Jean-ClaudeVigato, fleurie des greatest liberty" l'expression traditions," Architectureand Uto- Sophia. Yet he did not share Prost's "The Architectureof the Colonial 30. public (Tafuri, While this observationis enthusiasm for the Byzantinehis- Exhibitions in France,"Daidalos 15 pia, 131). 65. Le Corbusier,note for M. valid as far as the tory of the city, which he considered (March 1986): 28-29. Europeanpublic Sabatier,and idem, in is it is disturb- "imperiallycorrupt" and which he "Proposition Algiers concerned, 51. On Lyauteyin Morocco, see d'un Plan Directeur." that Tafuri dismisses the believed "could not be brought to ing city's Paul Rabinow,French Modern: Muslim as a life" because "its spirit [had] de- 66. The conservationof the upper population nonentity. Normsand Formsof the Social Envi- parted from the very few stones that casbah and the transformationof 74. 22. ronment(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Prost, "Rapportgeneral," remain[ed]" (Le Corbusier,Journey the lower casbah into a "museum Press, 1989), 277-319; Janet Abu- 75. Le "Note financiere to the East, 89). Henri Prost re- quarter"were matters decided by Corbusier, Lughod, Rabat: UrbanApartheid in C de l'urbanisation turned to Istanbul in 1934, when then. See Rene Lespes, "Les Villes," annexe au Projet Morocco(Princeton: Princeton Uni- the Turkishgovernment commis- in Les Arts et la techniquemoderne du Quartierde la MarineAi Alger," versity Press, 1980), 131-73; and FLC. sioned him with the master plan for en Algerie 1937 (Algiers, 1937), 1934, GwendolynWright, The Politics of the city. He workedthere from 1937 25-26. UrbanDesign in FrenchColonial 76. Le Corbusier,Questionnaire B, to 1951 and his plan was largely FLC. Urbanism(Chicago: Universityof 67. See Montaland, "L'Urbanisme 1931-35, implemented. On Prost, see Press, 1991), 85-160. en Algerie,"51, and Pour le paysan L'Oeuvred'Henri Prost: Architecte et Chicago 77. Joseph Sintes, "Le Quartierde la et l'artisanindiganes (Algiers: urbaniste (Paris:Academie d'archi- 52. Rabinow,French Modern, 288. Marine et la Casbah,"Les Travaux Gouvernement Ge6nralde l'Algerie, tecture, 1960), and Jean Royer, nord-africains,31 December 1932. 53. See Abu-Lughod,Rabat. Direction General des Affaires "HenriProst: L'Urbanisation," et des Territoiresdu Sud, 78. "LesVilles," 10-11. Urbanisme88 3-31. 54. in ibid., 141. Indiganes Lespis, (1965): During Quoted Service de l'Economie Sociale approximatelythe same years,from 79. One of the most memorable, if 55. Quoted in Daniel, Islam, Eu- Indigane, 1939), 140-41. To hasten 1939 to 1949, Le Corbusierwas in- sentimental, essays on the topic was rope,and Empire,489. the pace and increase production volved on and off in a written Frantz Fanon, who traced rockyprocess and to more by of a master for the 56. Quoted in Abu-Lughod,Rabat, provide "precision" the of this to the developing plan to the work,these schools and work- origins policy early city of Izmir, which he completed 143. 1930s. See Frantz Fanon, "Algeria shops promoted the use of modern in 1949, but which remained Unveiled," in A Dying Colonialism, 57. Ibid., 142. machinery. unimplemented. Originally,in trans. Haakon Chevalier (New York: 58. Henri "Le d'un 1928, Prost had designed a plan for Prost, D6veloppement 68. Le Corbusier,"Proposition Grove Press, 1965), 35-67 (first pub- de l'urbanismedans le Izmir, but Corbu was able to per- protectorat Plan Directeur." lished in 1959 as L'Ancinq de la du Maroc, de 1914 A 1923,"in Jean suade the authorities to substitute 69. Prost, 22. revolutionalgerienne). auxcolonies "Rapportgeneral," Prost'splan with his own. See the Royer,ed., L'Urbanisme Also see 145. les Abu-Lughod,Rabat, 80. Le Corbusier,La Ville radieuse, between Le Cor- et dans pays tropicaux,vol. 1 (La correspondence d'un 260. busier and the French Ambassador Charit&-sur-Loire:Delayance, 1932), 70. Le Corbusier,"Proposition 60, 68. Plan Directeur." to Ankara,14 February1939, 23 81. J. Lorrain,Heures d'Afrique February1939, 9 March 1939, and 59. Henri Prost, "Rapportgeneral," 71. ManfredoTafuri, "'Machineet (1899),quoted in Yvonne 30 January1940, FLC. By this time, in ibid., 21-22. memoire':The City in the Work Knibiehlerand Regine Goutalier, La

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Femmeau tempsdes colonies (Paris: Wlad Godzich (Minneapolis:Uni- Editions Stock, 1985), 40. versityof Minnesota Press, 1986). 82. Le Corbusier,Journey to the 89. Von Moos, "Le Corbusieras East, 83. Painter,"92-93. 83. Ibid., 94. 90. Tony Smith develops the no- tion of "colonialconsensus" in The 84. Ibid., 125, 128-30. FrenchStake in Algeria, 1945-1962 85. Favre,Tout l'inconnude la (Ithaca:Cornell University Press, casbah d'Alger,10 ("sex appeal"is 1978), 28-29. English in the original). 91. I have borrowedthese terms 86. Quoted in Samir Rafi, "Le from Said's analysisof the appro- Corbusieret 'Les Femmes d'Alger,"' priation of the geographyof Algeria Revued'histoire et de civilisation in Albert Camus's fiction. See du Maghreb (January1968): 52. Said, "Narrative,Geography, and Prostitution was rampant in the Interpretation,"88-90. casbah, a phenomenon attributed to French See David encouragement. Credits Gordon, Womenof Algeria:An Essay Figure on Change (Cambridge,Mass.: 1. Le Corbusierpeintre, exhibition tHarvardUniversity Press, 1968), 42. catalogue (Basel:Galerie Beyeler, According to Favre,in the early 1971). 1930s there were five to six hundred 2, 3, 6,7, 9, 11, 14-16. Le active" in "girls... permanently Corbusier,La Ville radieuse (Paris: in the lower the casbah, especially Vincent, Freal, 1933). casbah (Favre,Tout l'inconnude la 4, 5, 8, 10, 18. Le Corbusier, casbah d'Alger,103). The presence to the East, trans. Ivan of the brothels was so overwhelming Journey ZakniCwith Nicole Pertuiset that, not to be confused with them, Mass.: MIT Press, many families residing in the quar- (Cambridge, ter posted signs declaring "honest 1987). home" [maisonhonnete]; others 12, 13, 17, 20. Le Corbusier,Poesie dressed their daughtersa la sur Alger (1950; facsimile reprint, frangaiseso that they would not Paris:Fondation Le Corbusier, be bothered on the streets of the 1989). casbah. See Sintes, "Le Quartier 19. Le CorbusierSketchbooks, vol. de la Marine et la Casbah." 1, 1914-1948 (Cambridge,Mass.: 87. De Maisonseul, letter to Rafem, MIT Press;New York:Architec- 5 January1968. This document was tural History Foundation, 1981). first discussed Rafi himself in "Le by 21, 22. Fondation Le Corbusier. Corbusieret 'Les Femmes d'Alger,"' 51-52, and then by Stanislausvon Moos, "Le Corbusieras Painter," trans. Jane O. Newman and John H. Smith, Oppositions 19-20 (Winter- Spring 1980): 89-91. The postcard collection is at the Fondation Le Corbusier. 88. See MalekAloulla, The Colonial. Harem, trans. MyrnaGodzich and

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