Le Corbusier Le Grand by Editors of
Phaidon
What An Amazing Person
Le Corbusier Le Grand is an enormous and enormously appealing
monograph on one of the greatest and most controversial visionaries of the
twentieth century: Le Corbusier (1887-1965). Publisher Phaidons super-
sized volume features thousands of stunning photographs of the seminal
architect, his buildings and plans, writings, and related documents
(sketchbooks, personal snapshots, even postcards). With the turn of each
page, readers can follow Corbusiers trajectory from revolutionary young
artist and prolific writer to globe-trotting, celebrity-crusader for modern
architecture and urban planning. Esteemed architectural historian and
Corbusier expert Jean-Louis Cohen provides an elegant introductory essay
to this veritable archive of images. We learn that although the Swiss-born
Le Corbusier hailed from a small town in a small country under the modest
name Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, he was destined for greatness--largely
of his own design. A prime mover behind the International Style (perhaps
the first truly global architectural-design language), Corbusier brought
modern design principles and their promise of improved living standards to
the world stage. Futuristic high rise apartment complexes, office towers,
highly functional streamlined interiors and furniture made primarily of
industrial materials may all be attributed in part to him and his controversial
utopian mission to transform our daily lives into a highly functional and
beautiful system. Le Corbusier Le Grand is an extravagant, yet essential
tome for libraries, those interested in modernism, city planning, and

especially those with a really big coffee table. --Lauren Nemroff Take a
Look at Featured Images from Le Corbusier Le Grand
(CLICK on Images to Enlarge)
Personal Review: Le Corbusier Le Grand by Editors of Phaidon
It is nice to see the grand master of Modernism getting such a beautiful
tome dedicated to the incredible width and breadth of his work. There was
a time not so long ago when Le Corbusier was much vilified and
Modernism thought to be dead. But, here we are restoring many of the
great works of the era and resurrecting the movement as it seems
Americans are finally embracing the clean lines if not the socialist vision of
Le Corbusier.
Le Corbusier had a tough time in America. His one work is the former
Carpenter Center at Harvard, essentially a walk-through model of his
vision. His ideas for the United Nations Building in New York, like the
unrealized League of Nations Building in Zurich, were essentially cribbed
and made into a pastiche of his egalitarian architecture. He saw America
as a nation ruled by Rockefellers and wanted no part of it after being part
of the design team on the UN Building. Peter Blake writes humorously
about this time in No Place Like Utopia.
The chapters take in the full scope of his work with photos and illustrations
that give greater richness to his work than in the monograph that was
compiled by Willy Boesiger and Oscar Stonorov during the 50s and 60s,
available through Birkhauser. Le Corbusier oftened presented his projects
as storyboards illustrating the process of his work. What makes this book
special is the number of photographs of Le Corbusier himself, as well as
attention to his Purist works of art that often provided the ground work for
his architecture.
For admirers of Le Corbusier this book is a must have. For those seeking
an introduction there are more affordable ways to go such as Kenneth
Frampton's monograph, Le Corbusier: Architect of the Twentieth Century.
However, there is no discounting the great influence this man has had on
Modern Architecture.
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