Tag Archives: Le Corbusier

Deconstructing the matador

Posted on March 18, 2017 by

Here is something else from Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Jake Barnes is at a bullfight in Pamplona describing to Lady Brett, as they watch, the finer points of an impressive new, young, very handsome matador’s style: Romero never made … Continue reading →

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Riding by versus looking at

Posted on March 17, 2017 by

Yesterday I posted a couple of quotes from Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Of a taxi ride down the Boulevard Raspail, the author has his protagonist muse: “It is a street I do not mind walking down at all. But … Continue reading →

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Sussman on Corbu’s autism

Posted on March 1, 2017 by

One reason people prefer traditional to modern architecture is that their eyes literally refuse to look at blank walls. Shown a picture of a building with a blank wall, the eye of an observer will linger anywhere – on a … Continue reading →

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Corbusier’s nasty drivel

Posted on February 25, 2017 by

Anthony Daniels wrote in 2015 a masterful defenestration of modern architecture’s chief founder, “The Cult of Le Corbusier,” for Quadrant, an Australian magazine. I offer this one quote, along with my assurance that the essay in its entirety will comfort … Continue reading →

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Le era (er, error) de Corbu

Posted on February 8, 2017 by

Here is what Alistair Horne has to say about Le Corbusier in his book Seven Ages of Paris. It is on page 330. In my opinion, he lets the guy off too lightly. … [A]fter 1919 most new building shifted … Continue reading →

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Deconstructing Villa Savoye

Posted on December 21, 2016 by

In the center of the photo above is the Villa Savoye, possibly the most famous work of Le Corbusier, the most influential of modern architecture’s founders. He inspired so much of the poor quality and deadening allure of the built … Continue reading →

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“Strikingly modern” house?

Posted on July 23, 2016 by

On Saturdays, when the “House of the Week” beckons in the Providence Journal, my wife and I guess its asking price. Victoria is usually closer. This week, the house at 346 Claypool Dr., an appealing traditional house built in 2007 … Continue reading →

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Not the ‘male gaze,’ but …

Posted on May 15, 2016 by

I know, this may seem to be drilling down more deeply into the sexuality of architecture than most readers of this family blog would like to drill, but I just could not resist. My last post, “Playboy and modernism,” referred … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Fascism, modernism paired

Posted on April 21, 2016 by

Mother’s milk flowing from her gentle soul, a good friend expressed at lunch yesterday her dismay at the fascist tendencies of modernist architect Philip Johnson. She is no fan of his buildings (there are two in Providence), but she was … Continue reading →

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Will Stirling quote Wren?

Posted on October 21, 2015 by

Take all the nominees for the Carbuncle Cup – a British contest for the year’s worst architecture – and all the nominees for the Pritzker Prize and its British equivalent, the Sterling Prize. Mix thoroughly. Now separate the buildings to … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment