How Does Le Corbusier Create A Better Society?

Through a multitude of significant changes physically, conceptually, economically, and more, the societal reformation of cities in the Progressive Era had set themselves as the foundations of American civilization. The juxtaposition between the rich and poor statuses in these urban areas show the drastic separation within developing cities. Through this division caused a wide variety of living conditions, the majority of which held the overcrowded sections of cities where the population mostly stayed while the higher end communities had more luxurious lives. Through this success of entrepreneurship and economic growth from all aspects in cities, the entire landscape, both physically through innovative architecture and the perspectives outside rural and suburban areas had on them, had transformed for the better in these areas.

Paul Goldberger, an American architectural critic once quoted, “Urbanism works when it creates the journey as desirable as the destination.”

Well known in cities at the time were the City Beautiful movement and the city practical, however, social issues were merely pushed to the side. Wirka (1996) explains that “both are undoubtedly important movements in the history of planning” (p. 57), however, she goes on

One of the most important writers of the Enlightenment was the philosopher and novelist Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). The work of Rousseau has influenced a generation and beyond and it is argued that the main ideals of the French and American revolutions arose from his works, for example The Discourse on Equality. The main concept of Rousseau's thought is that of 'liberty', and his belief that modern society forced humans to give up their independence, making everyday life corrupt and unfree. One of the central problems Rousseau confronted is best summed up in the first line of arguably his most important work, The Social Contract.

Chicago’s notorious reputation for crime-ridden, poor quality public housing is a direct result of public policy during the reign of former mayor Richard J. Daley. Instead of using public housing to give lower income families a decent place to live, as was the intent of most public housing at the time, it was used to segregate blacks by concentrating them into certain parts of the city. Cabrini-Green was obviously one of these places. The architecture of Cabrini-Green also played a part in the inevitable doom of the project. City officials realized that the renowned architect LeCorbusier’s “island in the sky” concept of urban community, where giant high-rises grew out of the ground with enormous green space in between them, would be good for public housing. In reality, the green space separated the projects from the rest of the city, concentrating slums into ugly concrete structures that quickly fell into disrepair, resulting in “hulking high-rises in poor black neighborhoods.” Also, 95% of those living in public housing in

An essential need of the city and urban life, for bringing people together and seeing architecture as a social form. (147-148 writing on cities)

However, before he became the revolutionary figure that he is most known for today, Cartier studied law and after his graduation, in 1835, he was offered to join the bar of Lower Canada to begin practising in his profession in the office of Edouard-Étienne Rodier. Two years later, Cartier’s profound dislike for the government caused him to take part in the rebellion of 1837, inspired by Louis Papineau. Due to that unsuccessful event, he was forced to flee to the United States, but was allowed to return the next year to continue practising law. Instead, he decided to enter the field of politics and was elected to go to the legislative assembly of Canada. There, he was a main representative and leader of the French Canadians and became a Canadian statesman where he represented Verchelles and Montréal.

Between Marie Curie and Louis Pasteur I think that Louis Pasteur made more significant contributions to society. I think this because he saved millions of lives with inventing a way to pasteurize milk. He also found out how to cure rabies. If he hadn't made these contributions a lot of people would have died. That is why I think Louis Pasteur made great contributions to society.

Paris as the City of Light, or the “modern” Paris, emerged in the mid 19th century as the demolition of “Old Paris” by Prefect Haussmann paved the way for the urban renewal program set out by the Emperor Napoleon III. New streets, sewers, and parks, and new town halls, hospitals, and schools were all created at this time. Not all were admired though. In fact, some Parisians grew angry that the historic core of Paris was lost in these bold projects. Lights throughout Paris evolved over the 19th century as well. Candle-lit lanterns that once lit the city became oil-burning lamps. It wasn’t until the year 1900 that Paris was illuminated by electric lighting, and formally became known as “Ville Lumière.” Main monumental spaces such as the Palais de l’Électricité, the Eiffel Tower, and even the new central wide boulevards were illuminated with these lights. Paris displayed the pleasures of the city to visitors who came to experience it, however, it also divided Parisians on the basis that the city’s traditions and memories were destroyed. Despite being called the most cosmopolitan city in the world by Baedeker, its history left out the dark side of it all. Paris was desolated of its historic memories and its traditional morals. However, renovations did bring sunlight and air into the historically beloved unhealthy, cramped streets. Ultimately, this image of Paris is all about its visually appealing aesthetics and does not mention what a true Parisian, in the center-periphery or banlieues, for example, would vision.

Imagine a city where no green space can be found. Where concrete and steel buildings rise up and block the sun. Where streets are chaotic and gridlocked and citizens are stuffed in cramped, dirty and unsanitary apartments. This was the world of 19th-century cities where human health and happiness were disregarded for economic gain. These horrid conditions shaped the lives and ideas of three very influential men: Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright. They took their own experiences and redesigned the sprawling metropolis to improve the lives of the residents. Each man created urban utopias that included green spaces, farms, and parks to improve air quality and the livelihoods of the people. Despite theses similar views, each design differed from the others. Howard, Le Corbusier, and Wright all completely reimagined the urban city in differing ways based on scale, distribution of land and technology. Their design concepts have been adapted across the globe and implemented into modern urban planning everywhere.

“The best that can be said of the conception is that it did afford a chance to experiment with some physical and social planning theories which did not pan out. “ This quote reflects Jane Jacob’s philosophical ideas in an attempt to criticize the social housing’s design approach and its associated urban planning in modern era. “The physical and social theories” outlines the urban planning idea of social housing (Utopian idea) and according to Jane’s statement, such experiment of these theories were deem to be unsuccessful. It is inevitably certain to some extent that a provocative statement towards modern era social housing approaches would hold true due to the minimal success the plans brought to the city, such as solving the working class commendations temporarily. Nevertheless, it is a failure to deliver long-standing social improvements corresponded with the increasing suspicion of modernism, one cannot simply attribute ill fate to its “innovative physical features” (As Jane said, the Utopian and Utopia), but should rather considered a range of other elements in the larger aspect of society: factors such as difficulty of racial integration, problems of financing and management, lack of bridging between architecture and planning, as well as the increasing preference of suburban lifestyle from the rising mid class. These problems reflected evidently in some stereotypes of social housing communities built in the modern era such as Pruitt-Igoe, sunny side Gardens, Paul

New Urbanism, a burgeoning genre of architecture and city planning, is a movement that has come about only in the past decade. This movement is a response to the proliferation of conventional suburban development (CSD), the most popular form of suburban expansion that has taken place since World War II. Wrote Robert Steuteville, "Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for nearly all human transportation"1. New Urbanism, therefore, represents the converse of this planning ideology. It stresses traditional planning, including multi-purpose zoning,

“Architecture or Revolution?” in Le Corbusier’s belief was the only way to avoid class-based revolution in industrialized architecture (Quirk, 2012). Le Corbusier, born Charles Édouard Jeanneret, was born into an artistic family in 1877 in a small village in Switzerland. His mother was a pianist and his father was a designer of watch dials. Even though he learned piano and father’s trade he got interested in the architecture when he was 13 years old. He learned from L’Eplatenier, a teacher in La Chaaux-de-Fund. His teacher opened his eyes and led him to the direct observation of life. He was an instinctive genius by turning older building designs into newer more modern designs. Le Corbusier is one of the most significant architecture’s of the 20th century, and one who led architecture to the modern era.

As a result of a booming development of the nineteenth century city, “progressive” architects of the time started to deliberate and conceive opinions to create long term solutions. Known for his radical cultural manifestos, Le Corbusier is one of the architects that epitomizes the change in ideal of the Machine Age. He introduced ideas of living in completely analogous, planned, designed, and then built, cities. Le Corbusier 's proposition for the City of Tomorrow had in its roots the intention of creating a series of fundamental principles that would become the skeleton of any modern city plan. However, considerations that were not applied during that period of time, are the cause of its unsuccessful development.

The garden city movement, a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard, had a significant influence on urban planning. The theory of urban planning has envolved over the past hundred years, some have attempted to emulate theories from the garden city movement, while others have been revised based on Howard’s original ideas. The Garden City concept spawned many ideas of urban planning. Among these ideas, the Garden Suburb, Satellite City, the New Towns Movement and the New Urbanism are all significant theories in the history of urban planning and had their influence to this day. The integration of town and country, the separation of conflicting land uses and modes of travel, and the ideas of growth management are all elements of the Garden City concept that have made made their ways into plans of most major Western cities.