Architect's philosophy

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-
Gris
Le Corbusier
The Architect, by his
arrangement of forms,
realizes an order which is a
pure creation of his spirit;
by forms and shapes he
affects our senses to an
acute degree and provokes
plastic emotions; by the
relationships which he
creates he wakes profound
echoes in us, he gives us
the measure of an order
which we feel to be in
accordance with that of our
world, he determines the
various movements of our
heart and of our
understanding; it is then
that we experience the
sense of beauty.
Born: October 6, 1887, La Chaux-de-Fonds,
SwitzerlandDied: August 27, 1965, Roquebrune,
France
Cause of Death: Heart attack
Nationality: French, Swiss
Spouse Yvonne Gallis (m. 1930-1957)

‘Space and light and order.
Those are the things that
men need just as much as
they need bread or a place
to sleep.’
Le Corbusier's High Court Building
Le Corbusire’s five points of
architecture

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge

Assembly Building in Chandigarh

The "styles" are a lie.
Architecture is stifled by
custom.
The "styles" are a lie. Style is a
unity of principle animating all
the work of an epoch, the
result of a state of mind which
has its own special character.
Our own epoch is determining,
day by day, its own style. Our
eyes, unhappily, are unable yet
to discern it.
The Open Hand Monument : the hand to
give and the hand to take; peace and
prosperity, and the unity of mankind"

Three reminders to architects
Mass
Our eyes are constructed to enable us to see forms in light. Primary forms are
beautiful forms because they can be clearly appreciated. Architects today no
longer achieve these simple forms. Working by calculation, engineers employ
geometrical forms, satisfying our eves by their geometry and our understanding
by their mathematics; their work is on the direct line of good art.
Excerpts from Towards a New Architecture
(1923)
La Ville
Radieuse
Unité d'habitation

Surface
A mass is enveloped in its surface, a
surface which is divided up
according to the directing and
generating lines of the mass; and
this gives the mass its individuality.
Architects today are afraid of the
geometrical constituents of surfaces.
The great problems of modern
construction must have a
geometrical solution. Forced to work
in accordance with the strict needs
of exactly determined conditions,
engineers make use of generating
and accusing lines in relation to
forms. They create limpid and
moving plastic facts.
(1923)
Unité d'habitation
Chapel of Ronchamp

Plan
The Plan is the generator. Without a
plan, you have lack of order, and
willfulness. The Plan holds in itself
the essence of sensation. The great
problems of tomorrow, dictated by
collective necessities, put the
question of "plan" in a new form.
Modern life demands, and is waiting
for, a new kind of plan, both for the
house and for the city.
(1923)
Brise-soleil, popularized by Le
Corbusier is sun baffle outside the
windows or extending over the entire
surface of a building’s facade. Many
traditional methods exist for reducing
the effects of the sun’s glare

Towards New Architecture
(1923)
The lesson of Rome
The business of Architecture is to establish emotional relationships by means of
raw materials. Architecture goes beyond utilitarian needs. Architecture is a
plastic thing. The spirit of order, a unity of intention. The sense of relationships;
architecture deals with quantities. Passion can create drama out of inert stone.

(1923)
The illusion of plans
The Plan proceeds from within to without; the
exterior is the result of an interior. The elements
of architecture are light and shade, walls and
space. Arrangement is the gradation of aims,
the classification of intentions. Man looks at the
creation of architecture with his eyes, which are
5 feet 6 inches from the ground. One can only
deal with aims that the eye can appreciate, and
intentions that take into account architectural
elements. If there come into play intentions that
do not speak the language of architecture, you
arrive at the illusion of plans, you transgress the
rules of the Plan through an error in conception,
or through a leaning towards empty show.

(1923)

(1923)
Pure creation of the mind
Contour and profile are the touchstone
of the architect. Here he reveals himself
as artist or mere engineer. Contour is
free of all constraint. There is here no
longer any question of custom, nor of
tradition, nor of construction nor of
adaptation to utilitarian needs. Contour
and profile are a pure creation of the
mind; they call for the plastic artist.

A House Is a Machine for living
in
A HOUSE IS NOT A MACHINE to
live in," wrote the pioneering
modernist Eileen Gray in response
to Le Corbusier

Born: September 1, 1930, Sikandarabad,
Andhra Pradesh, British India
Died: June 16, 2015, Mumbai, India
Cause of Death: After a brief illness
Nationality: Indian
Spouse: Monica (m. -2015)

THE BLESSINGS OF THE SKY
Charles Correa
In India, the sky has profoundly affected
our relationship to built form, and to
open space. For in a warm climate, the
best place to be in the late evenings and in
the early mornings, is outdoors, under the
open sky. Such spaces have an infinite
number of variations: one steps out of a
room. . . into a verandah. . . And thence on
to a terrace from which one proceeds to an
open courtyard, perhaps shaded by a tree
. . . or by a large pergola overhead. At each
moment, subtle changes in the quality of
light and ambient air generate feelings with
in us feelings which are central to our
beings. Hence to us in Asia, the symbol of
Education has never been the Little Red
Schoolhouse of North America, but the
guru sitting under the tree. True
Enlightenment cannot be achieved
within the closed box of a room one
needs must be outdoors, under the
open sky.

OPEN TO SKY & SEMI COVERED SPACES

Pluralism & Equity
Principle of Equity (an issue
of the greatest political
significance to the Third
World) – as well as other
equally crucial principles,
such as: people’s
participation, income
generation, identity,
pluralism, and so forth.
The Ismaili Centre, Toronto

Pluralism & Equity
The Ismaili Centre, Toronto

Pluralism & Equity
Squatter-Housing (1973,
unbuilt) in Bombay, in which 4
units are clustered together
under one roof in a pattern
which generates such a
continuum (ranging from the
most private to the most public)
of open spaces. This was
further developed in the
incremental housing at Belapur,
New Bombay (1983-86)

Architecture is not a queue in
which we all have to line up,
with perhaps the Americans
ahead, or the Chinese behind.
No, each of us has the
opportunity to be on the cutting
edge of where we live. No one
else can do that. It’s up to us to
understand that opportunity.

Other Notable Buildings and Signature Elements
British Council building, Delhi (1987-92)
Jawahar Kala Kendra cultural centre,
Jaipur (1986-92)
Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya
at Sabarmati Ashram,
Ahmedabad
Champalimaud Centre
for the Unknown,
a medical research centre
in Lisbon

Correa's Kanchanjunga
apartments in Mumbai are
designed to allow breezes to
ventilate the rooms, with
deep verandas like
‘courtyards in the air’
Jawahar Kala Kendra, an
arts centre in Jaipur,
Rajasthan

•The plan is a pattern of gardens within
gardens , divided into 9 squares . •The five
central ones are halls and courtyards , while
the 4 corner positions are occupied by
specialized functions.
•The Vidhan Sabha , the Vidhan Parishad,
central library, and combined hall .It also
contains a host of other facilities : offices,
cabinet rooms, cafeterias , common rooms
for security staff etc.

The complex and ambiguous
relationship between man and
nature is central to Indian
architecture
ALL THE BEST

Architect's philosophy

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Architect's philosophy