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Le Corbusier: The City of Refuge, Paris 1929/33
The City of Refuge complex—commissioned by the Salvation Army as part of its program to transform social outcasts into spiritually renewed workers—represents a significant confluence of design principles, technological experiments, and attitudes on reform. It also provides rare insights into the work of one of the twentieth century's greatest architects, Le Corbusier.
Brian Brace Taylor draws on extensive archival research to reconstruct each step of the architect's attraction to the commission, his design process and technological innovations, the social and philosophical compatibility of the Salvation Army with Le Corbusier's own ideas for urban planning, and finally, the many modifications required, first to eliminate defects and later to accommodate changes in the services the building provided. Throughout, Taylor focuses on Le Corbusier's environmental, technological, and social intentions as opposed to his strictly formal intentions. He shows that the City of Refuge became primarily a laboratory for the architect's own research and not simply a conventional solution to residents' requirements or the Salvation Army's program.
Brian Brace Taylor draws on extensive archival research to reconstruct each step of the architect's attraction to the commission, his design process and technological innovations, the social and philosophical compatibility of the Salvation Army with Le Corbusier's own ideas for urban planning, and finally, the many modifications required, first to eliminate defects and later to accommodate changes in the services the building provided. Throughout, Taylor focuses on Le Corbusier's environmental, technological, and social intentions as opposed to his strictly formal intentions. He shows that the City of Refuge became primarily a laboratory for the architect's own research and not simply a conventional solution to residents' requirements or the Salvation Army's program.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published December 22, 1987
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January 23, 2023
Perhaps the most outstanding architectural monograph of (fairly) recent times is Brian Brace Taylor’s study of Le Corbusier’s Salvation Army Hostel in Paris, published originally in French and Italian, and now in English by the University of Chicago as "City of Refuge".
This gives us a detailed account of how L-C actually invented this commission for himself by paying court to the Princesse de Polignac a/k/a the American Miss Singer the sewing machine heiress, who was keen on doing charity work for the Salvation Army, and of how the technicalities of the design was then worked out by L-C’s long-suffering cousin Pierre Jeanneret, who was left to resolve the practicalities of accommodating hundreds of poor smelly beggars behind a south-facing sealed glass wall while Corbu went round the salons; the Princesse a/k/a Miss Singer made sure that L-C incorporated a private suite for her into his design, at the top floor of the building.
This is a readable warts-and-all account, told from the human point of view, of how a great building is conceived and brought to fruition: its successes and its technical failures (which were considerable).
This gives us a detailed account of how L-C actually invented this commission for himself by paying court to the Princesse de Polignac a/k/a the American Miss Singer the sewing machine heiress, who was keen on doing charity work for the Salvation Army, and of how the technicalities of the design was then worked out by L-C’s long-suffering cousin Pierre Jeanneret, who was left to resolve the practicalities of accommodating hundreds of poor smelly beggars behind a south-facing sealed glass wall while Corbu went round the salons; the Princesse a/k/a Miss Singer made sure that L-C incorporated a private suite for her into his design, at the top floor of the building.
This is a readable warts-and-all account, told from the human point of view, of how a great building is conceived and brought to fruition: its successes and its technical failures (which were considerable).
Displaying 1 of 1 review