Le Corbusier and Contemporary Architecture: Comparative Critical Analyses

3 units

This graduate seminar employs comparative critical analyses to explore 20 works of the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965), as well as works by 10 contemporary architects that share disciplinary ordering principles with the works of Le Corbusier: Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente and José Oubrerie (associates of Le Corbusier), Henri Ciriani, Michel Kagan, Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara (Grafton Architects), Luigi Snozzi, Waro Kishi, Alberto Campo Baeza, and Thomas Phifer. Le Corbusier was one of the most important architects of the modern era, and his works continue to exercise enormous influence on contemporary architecture. This course will explore the architectural ordering principles that structure his work and the manner in which these ordering principles have been employed by contemporary architects. Analytical methods employed in the course will cover the full range of contextual, cultural, material, constructive, and experiential attributes of buildings, with particular emphasis on Le Corbusier's focus on the manner in which the spaces of a building are ordered by the patterns of occupation and the poetics of use as well as the poetics of construction (or the way in which a building is built) and of what materials the building is made, as well as how all of these factors combine to construct the experience of those who inhabit it. Following introductory lectures by the faculty, each of the subsequent 10 class meeting will consist of a presentation of selected pairings of buildings -- two by Le Corbusier (generally a public building and a private house) and one by a contemporary architect -- to be presented by a team of two or three students. Readings from the text and other sources (scanned by TA) will be assigned and then discussed during each class. Students will be evaluated on both the quality of their individual presentations and the quality of their participation in the class discussions. Summary papers and CDs of the PowerPoint presentations will be due at the end of the semester.