"This introduction to the architecture and ideas of Le Corbusier for children of ten and over - it will fascinate architecture minded adults too - brings to life the man, the architect, his work and the world in which he lived. The words are his own and with the accompanying photographs and drawings serve to reveal the philosophy behind the architecture."
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Comments
Le Corbusier
I would like to raise a general and very disturbing question.
Is it really appropriate for us to educate our children that individuals like Le Corbusier are worthy of study and emulation? Other persons who have at some point in history damaged aspects of humankind enter the history books as villains, not as examples to follow. Do we really wish to "bring to life" this particular character? Most of my friends and colleagues dismiss him because they already know what Le Corbusier did, but children unfortunately soak up what is presented to them by authority. Should we not be at least a little more careful when it comes to influencing impressionable young minds?
ALGORITHMIC SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: Chapter 8.3, "Inhuman Experiments"
Nikos Salingaros
Who Is A More Important Thinker, Corbu or Salingaros?
According to planetizen's poll to determine the top 100 urban thinkers:
Nikos Salingaros is number 11.
Le Corbusier is number 26.
A few decades after Corbu began developing his ideas, American cities were being massively rebuilt according to his prescriptions. Let's hope that, a couple of decades from now, we are massively rebuilding according to Salingaros' prescriptions.
PS: Of today's starchitects, the highest seems to be Rem Koolhaas at number 65. The starchitects get the media attention, because their buildings are designed to call attention to themselves, but they are not important thinkers.
Charles Siegel
Le Corbusier for kids
Dear Nikos, I think a book like this is only bought by architect parents. You wouldn't be so worried, in an architect's library, all type of Architecture books fill the shelves. If -and only if- the child becomes interested and forgets the computer games for a while, the parent will have the opportunity to explain basic concepts, and those concepts have to be compared with different ones, there is no other way to explain Le Corbusier's theory except by comparison in the social historical context of post war. The child's mind is not ready for any opinion on the subject, but, a simple drawing could awake one's inner feelings to love architecture, independently of whose project it is. In this sense, I think a simple book could trigger a future career, when the child is grown up, he'll understand which is the best way to follow, at least for him. Best regards.
Corbusian humor
A Corb picture book for kids is both appropriate and not.
For one, his architecture can easily be understood by children because of the child like world view he held and how absolutely inane his work is. On the other hand, his world view was so bleak and the architecture and urbanism he propagated so injurious to people that it seems a creul joke that kids should be introduced to it.
I understand that aesthetics is a matter of taste, but this is a man who did not like people or community and could only promote his outsized ego. Ask a kid to draw a house and even if they grew up in a corbusian projects building, they will draw a box with a sloped roof.