Le Corbusier and the Tragic View of Architecture (1973)

From the early 1920s until his death in 1965 Le Corbusier was the most widely discussed, the most fiercely attacked and most staunchly defended, the most irrepressibly articulate and yet the most enigmatic architect in the world. He dominated architecture as Picasso did painting. He still remains an enigma.Le Corbusier was only one of his several pseudonyms – his real name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret – and under it he assaulted not only the academic and traditional in architecture but also the evils of modern society, its waste, hypocrisy and disorder. He sought to bring harmony to industrial civilization through reason and lyricism. But his spirit was that of a fighter, not a peace-maker. Hence his irrationalities and the many contradictory explanations which have been advanced to resolve the apparent conflict between his works and his words.In this stimulating book Charles Jencks discusses Le Corbusier’s career from its early beginnings in Switzerland to the final international years, setting his private life and public image, his theories and his buildings, his paintings and his propaganda in relationship with one another. And he finds the explanation for the belligerence of this prophet of harmony to be his tragic Nietzschean view of the human condition, with conflict as the key to creation and joy.The book contains much fresh information and is fully illustrated with photographs some of which are published here for the first time. Making no concessions to idolators (nor to detractors) of Le Corbusier’s genius, it is one of the first truly dispassionate investigations of his work to appear since the great architect’s death.