Instead, he drew parallels between architecture and the ‘Engineer’s Aesthetic’, arguing that engineers were to be praised for their use of functionalism and mathematical order. This implies that he saw the aesthetic, not as just another style, but as the very substance of architecture. In order to progress, he believed, it was necessary for architects to abandon the notion of traditional styles and decorative effects: ‘Architecture has nothing to do with the various ‘styles’… sometimes pretty, though not always and never anything more.’ This reiterated the argument that functionalism was more important than appearance. Often misunderstood, his famous declaration, ‘The house is a machine for living in,’ meant that the guiding principle for architects should be to make the house as well suited to its purpose as was a machine. Much of Le Corbusier’s manifesto Vers une architecture (1923) is dedicated to promoting the architectural virtues of the machine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |