Le Corbusier
22 quotes
Biography
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, was a French-Swiss architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland to French-speaking Swiss parents and acquired French nationality in 1930.
"Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shade reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image of these is distinct and tangible within us without ambiguity. It is for this reason that these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms. Everybody is agreed to that, the child, the savage and the metaphysician."
"The "styles" are a lie."
"Une maison est une machine-à-habiter."
"It is a question of building which is at the root of the social unrest of today: architecture or revolution."
"Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and the city."
"The Despot is not a man. It is the Plan. The correct, realistic, exact plan."
"The object of this edict is to enlighten the present and future citizens of Chandigarh about the basic concepts of planning of the city so that they become its guardians and save it from whims of individuals."
"The city of Chandigarh is planned to human scale. It puts us in touch with the infinite cosmos and nature. It provides us with places and buildings for all human activities by which the citizens can live a full and harmonious life. Here the radiance of nature and heart are within our reach."
"Vehicular traffic is completely forbidden in the green strips, where tranquility shall reign and the curse of noise shall not penetrate."
"The age of personal statues is gone. No personal statues shall be erected in the city or parks of Chandigarh. The city is planned to breathe the new sublimated spirit of art. Commemoration of persons shall be confined to suitably placed bronze plaques."
"Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep."
"Vous savez, c'est la vie qui a raison, l'architecte qui a tort."
"A hundred times I have thought: New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: it is a beautiful catastrophe."
"My own duty and my aim is to try and raise people out of their misery, away from catastrophe; to provide them with happiness, with a contented existence, with harmony. My own goal is to establish or re-establish harmony between people and their environment."
"A house is a machine for living in."
"To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects."
"The home should be the treasure chest of living."
"Genius is personal decided by fate but it expresses itself by means of system. There is no work of art without system."
"The present moment is creative creating with an unheard-of intensity."
"I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies."
"A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times : It is a beautiful catastrophe."
"The materials of city planning are sky space trees steel and cement in that order and in that hierarchy."