Le Corbusier Quotes

(...)mimarlığın, kendilerini bütünüyle ve ateşli bir biçimde ona adayanlara bir tür mutluluk getireceğini, düşüncenin doğum sancılarından ve ışıltılı dünyaya gelişinden doğan o kendinden geçmeye benzer duyguyu yaşatacağını sezemediler. Buluşun, yaratıcılığın gücüdür bu ve insana içindeki en saf şeyleri verme olanağını sağlar.

Una nueva sociedad crea su hogar, ese receptáculo de la vida.

The object of this edict is to enlighten the present and future citizens of Chandigarh about the basic concepts of planning of the city so that they become its guardians and save it from whims of individuals.

Vehicular traffic is completely forbidden in the green strips, where tranquility shall reign and the curse of noise shall not penetrate.

When the cathedrals were white, spirit was triumphant. But today the cathedrals of France are black and the spirit is bruised. The works of the new civilization are coming together in a symphonic crescendo. The guiding spirit is faltering. The young act, but they do not know. The old cling to their accumulated treasures, but are unable to accomplish anything further.

You employ stone, wood and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good, I am happy and I say: "This is beautiful." That is Architecture. Art enters in.

Truth to tell, the modern man is bored to tears in his home; so he goes to his club. The modern woman is bored outside her boudoir; she goes to tea-parties. The modern man and woman are bored at home; they go to night-clubs.
But lesser folk who have no clubs gather together in the evening under the chandelier and hardly dare to walk through the labyrinth of their furniture which takes up the whole room and is all their fortune and their pride.

Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and the city.

What modern man wants is a monk's cell, well lit and heated, with a corner from which he may look at the stars.
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Vous savez, c'est la vie qui a raison, l'architecte qui a tort.

The age of personal statues is gone. No personal statues shall be erected in the city or parks of Chandigarh. The city is planned to breathe the new sublimated spirit of art. Commemoration of persons shall be confined to suitably placed bronze plaques.

A house is a machine for living in. Baths, sun, hot-water, cold-water, warmth at will, conservation of food, hygiene, beauty in the sense of good proportion. An armchair is a machine for sitting in and so on.

Now, the plan is the generator, “the plan is the determination of everything; it is an austere abstraction, an algebrization, and cold of aspect.” It is a plan of battle. The battle follows and that is the great moment.

It is a question of building which is at the root of the social unrest of today: architecture or revolution.

The truthfulness of materials of constructions, concrete, bricks and stone, shall be maintained in all buildings constructed or to be constructed. The seed of Chandigarh is well sown. It is for the citizens to see that the tree flourishes.