Le Corbusier, gray areas.
FALSE Standard| N° d'inventaire | 22391 |
| Format | 13 x 21 |
| Détails | 271 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2018 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782954285290 |
For the first time, a collective work bringing together eight authors from five countries, and prefaced by the philosopher Emmanuel Faye, takes a calmly lucid look at a monument of 20th-century history: the architect and urban planner Le Corbusier. Researchers, writers, and journalists, all driven by the same quest for truth, tackle the illustrious figure here without taboo. His relations with French fascism, his disinterest in social issues, his biological, hierarchical, and eugenic vision of humanity, his normative conception of the body and space, the legend he forged at the cost of a few lies, the opposition of his followers to any critical analysis of his ideas: each text takes the time to study all these facets from an unexpected angle. Because not everything has yet been said about the prophet of the "radiant cities," whose abundant prose has remained, until now, much less commented on than the famous constructions. Upon closer inspection, Le Corbusier reveals himself to be quite different from his official portrayal as an apolitical, humanist builder, which recent essays have begun to chip away at. After decades of pious praise and watered-down explanations, a real reflection has begun in recent years. It is deepened in this book, which draws on previously unpublished sources.
For the first time, a collective work bringing together eight authors from five countries, and prefaced by the philosopher Emmanuel Faye, takes a calmly lucid look at a monument of 20th-century history: the architect and urban planner Le Corbusier. Researchers, writers, and journalists, all driven by the same quest for truth, tackle the illustrious figure here without taboo. His relations with French fascism, his disinterest in social issues, his biological, hierarchical, and eugenic vision of humanity, his normative conception of the body and space, the legend he forged at the cost of a few lies, the opposition of his followers to any critical analysis of his ideas: each text takes the time to study all these facets from an unexpected angle. Because not everything has yet been said about the prophet of the "radiant cities," whose abundant prose has remained, until now, much less commented on than the famous constructions. Upon closer inspection, Le Corbusier reveals himself to be quite different from his official portrayal as an apolitical, humanist builder, which recent essays have begun to chip away at. After decades of pious praise and watered-down explanations, a real reflection has begun in recent years. It is deepened in this book, which draws on previously unpublished sources.