Toward an architecture / [Book]
Le Corbusier ; introduction by Jean-Louis Cohen ; translation by John Goodman.
- Los Angeles, Calif. : Getty Research Institute, c2007.
- xiii, 341 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.
- Texts & documents .
Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-334) and index.
Published in 1923, Toward an Architecture had an immediate impact on architects throughout Europe and remains a foundational text for students and professionals. Le Corbusier urges readers to cease thinking of architecture as a matter of historical styles and instead open their eyes to the modern world. Simultaneously a historian, critic, and prophet, he provocatively juxtaposes views of classical Greece and Renaissance Rome with images of airplanes, cars, and ocean liners. Le Corbusier's slogans--such as "the house is a machine for living in"--and philosophy changed how his contemporaries saw the relationship between architecture, technology, and history. This edition includes a new translation of the original text, a scholarly introduction, and background notes that illuminate the text and illustrations.