Product Description

Widely regarded as the greatest architect of the 20th century, the Swiss-born Le Corbusier (1887-1965) left an indelible mark on modern building design and city planning. Here celebrated architectural photographer Roberto Schezen joins with Columbia University architectural historian Kenneth Frampton-one of the world's foremost experts on modern architecture and on Le Corbusier-to bring us the most authoritative and visually enthralling exploration of Le Corbusier's greatest buildings.

From the Chapel of Ronchamp in Nôtre Dame du Haut, France, and the Unité d'habitation in Marseille, to the city of Chandigarh in India and the Carpenter Arts Center at Harvard University, these triumphs of modern architecture -shown in more than 100 newly commissioned photographs supplemented by the architect's own original measured drawings and sketches-provide a glowing tribute to the audacious spirit, bold, functional expressionism, and boundless imagination that are Le Corbusier's enduring legacy and the hallmarks of his genius.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #817810 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Le Corbusier was a challenging figure, intent on using his "five points of a new architecture" to change the "new man's" living and working spaces in order to bring them in line with the technology, aesthetics, and politics of his age. Combining a design-forward coffee table look with Frampton's (Labor, Work and Architecture) world class art historical chops, this book concisely documents 17 buildings designed by one of the most visionary architects of modernism. Moving chronologically by commission, with one chapter per project, Frampton provides contextual information about patronage and sites as vast as the capital at Chandigarh, India (Punjab province) and as small scale as the rural French domestic refuge Le Petit Cabanon. His vivid, imaginative narratives capture what it is like to walk in and around such structures as the gorgeous concrete Chapel of N"tre Dame-du-Haut in Ronchamp, France. The 100 color and 25 duotone images by photographer Roberto Schezen can look a little like architectural product shots, but they get the buildings at good angles and in good lights. Some of Le Corbusier's sketches further illuminate several of the most exhilarating buildings of recent times.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Kenneth Frampton is the Ware Professor of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University and an internationally renowned architectural critic and author. Roberto Schezen is a noted architectural photographer.