Le Corbusier
Introduction by Jean-Louis Cohen
Translation by John Goodman
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.
Jean-Louis Cohen (1949-2023) authored over 30 books on architectural history and was a preeminent authority on Le Corbusier. John Goodman is a translator and art historian. He has rendered some thirty books from French into English.
Chosen as a Favorite Book of 2007 by the Art and Architecture Critics of The New York Times
"A new translation by John Goodman with an introduction by the architectural historian Jean-Louis Cohen will allow architecture buffs to experience Le Corbusier's manifesto in its full glory."
—The New York Times
"Bursting with passion, wit and aphorisms . . . this seminal polemic is well worth reading (or rereading) for Le Corbusier's incisive analysis of early 20th Century architecture . . . Jean-Louis Cohen's scholarly introduction sheds fresh light. . ."
—Chicago Tribune
358 pages
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