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Toward an Architecture
Vers une architecture (Toward an Architecture, originally mistranslated as Towards a New Architecture) is a 1923 collection of essays written by French architect Le Corbusier advocating for the tenets of modern architecture. It dismissed eclecticism and Gothic architecture as mere stylistic experiments, instead advocating for fundamentally changing how humans interacted with buildings. It claimed that the industrial age demanded an architecture and aesthetics based purely on the relationship between function and form. It is notable for positing that architecture can help solve social issues, a key aim of early modern architecture. The manifesto is sometimes referred to simply as Vers in English.
Since its publication, it has been influential on discourses of modernism in architecture, attracting both supporters and detractors inside and outside the profession. In 1960, the architectural historian Reyner Banham wrote that its influence was "beyond that of any other architectural work published in this [20th] century to date."
In 1918, Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant announced a series of books in Après le cubisme that included the "in press" Vers une architecture. They reiterated this claim in a 1921 advertisement in L'Esprit nouveau, the avant-garde French magazine of which both men were founders. The majority of the book would eventually appear in the magazine's pages as twelve separate essays, beginning in 1920. Nine of these would be condensed into three triads for the book. With a budding reputation in painting circles, Corbusier intended the articles to establish him as an intellectual in architecture. The essays synthesized ideas Corbusier had developed during a 14-year Grand Tour of Europe at the turn of the century and time working for the modernist architects Auguste Perret and Peter Behrens. Broadly, it was an attempt to reconcile Corbusier's German and Latin influences and industrialization and Classical culture.
Before its eventual distribution in 1923, the book went by various working titles, including Architecture ou révolution, Architecture et révolution, and L'architecture nouvelle, though the 1918 title was eventually used. In 1922, Corbusier obtained a contract from the publisher Crès for a first printing of 3,000 copies. The unconventional layouts initially provoked consternation but were eventually used. The book was a success and Crès agreed to publish a series of volumes under the name Collection de L'Esprit nouveau. The series included the 1924 second edition of Vers and continued until 1932. The first volume of Corbusier's Oeuvre complète from 1930 extends his considerations of his own work begun in Vers.
Kenneth Frampton identifies additional influences on the book including early 19th-century utopian socialism and publications from the Deutscher Werkbund, particularly a 1913 essay by Walter Gropius. Cohen further identifies Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Baudelaire, John Ruskin, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Comte de Lautréamont as literary and "structural" influences.
Though Le Corbusier is credited as the sole author, the book's authorship is somewhat unclear. Corbusier co-signed the original essays with fellow purist painter and friend Amédée Ozenfant as "Le Corbusier-Saugnier" when they were published in L'Esprit nouveau, indicating that Ozenfant may have contributed to the articles (Saugnier was Ozenfant's mother's name). Indeed, the first edition of the book (as well as an initial sketch of the cover) identifies the text's author as "Le Corbusier-Saugnier," though Corbusier dedicated it to Ozenfant in order to undercut Ozenfant's authorship claim. However, Corbusier began claiming sole authorship in 1924 and the dedication is absent from editions including and subsequent to the 1924 reprint. As their friendship deteriorated into the 1930s, Ozenfant claimed that the book had developed out of conversations between the two of them, though the ideas principally belonged to Adolf Loos's 1913 Ornament and Crime essay and Auguste Perret. Later, Ozenfant implied that he withdrew his public claim to authorship at Corbusier's request, though as late as 1936, a "rumor" was still attributing the book to both of them. Today, Vers continues to be solely attributed to Corbusier.
Vers is composed of seven essays. It begins with short, aphoristic summaries of each essay in a section titled "Argument" (Advertissment) preceded by an Introduction. In his 1927 translation, Etchells replaces Corbusier's preface with his own 12-page Introduction. Goodman's 2007 translation contains Corbusier's revised second edition Introduction and a lengthy article by the architectural historian Jean-Louis Cohen contextualizing the book. Banham notes that Corbusier says very little affirmatively about aesthetics in Vers, instead relying on functionalism to justify his presented work. The argument is advanced through metaphorical links between the various essays and the juxtaposition of Classical and industrial references, heightened by the prose's poetic quality.
Vers is loosely organized into an "academic" and a "mechanical block," reflecting the dual concerns of purism. In Etchells's translation, the essays are titled "The Engineer's Aesthetic and Architecture" (Esthétique de l'ingénieur, architecture): "Three Reminders to Architects" with sections on "Mass" (a mistranslation of the French), "Surface," and "Plan" (Trois rappels a MM. les architects encompassing Le volume, La surface, and le plan); "Regulating Lines" (Les tracés régulateurs); "Eyes Which Do Not See" divided into sections on "Liners," "Airplanes," and "Automobiles" (Des yeux qui ne voient pas and Les paquebots, Les avions, and Les autos); "Architecture" with sections titled "The Lesson of Rome," "The Illusion of Plans," and "Pure Creation of the Mind" (Architecture, La leçon de Rome, L'illusion des plans, and Pure création de l'esprit); "Mass-Production Houses" (Maisons en série); and "Architecture or Revolution" (Architecture ou révolution; published for the first time in Vers).
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Toward an Architecture
Vers une architecture (Toward an Architecture, originally mistranslated as Towards a New Architecture) is a 1923 collection of essays written by French architect Le Corbusier advocating for the tenets of modern architecture. It dismissed eclecticism and Gothic architecture as mere stylistic experiments, instead advocating for fundamentally changing how humans interacted with buildings. It claimed that the industrial age demanded an architecture and aesthetics based purely on the relationship between function and form. It is notable for positing that architecture can help solve social issues, a key aim of early modern architecture. The manifesto is sometimes referred to simply as Vers in English.
Since its publication, it has been influential on discourses of modernism in architecture, attracting both supporters and detractors inside and outside the profession. In 1960, the architectural historian Reyner Banham wrote that its influence was "beyond that of any other architectural work published in this [20th] century to date."
In 1918, Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant announced a series of books in Après le cubisme that included the "in press" Vers une architecture. They reiterated this claim in a 1921 advertisement in L'Esprit nouveau, the avant-garde French magazine of which both men were founders. The majority of the book would eventually appear in the magazine's pages as twelve separate essays, beginning in 1920. Nine of these would be condensed into three triads for the book. With a budding reputation in painting circles, Corbusier intended the articles to establish him as an intellectual in architecture. The essays synthesized ideas Corbusier had developed during a 14-year Grand Tour of Europe at the turn of the century and time working for the modernist architects Auguste Perret and Peter Behrens. Broadly, it was an attempt to reconcile Corbusier's German and Latin influences and industrialization and Classical culture.
Before its eventual distribution in 1923, the book went by various working titles, including Architecture ou révolution, Architecture et révolution, and L'architecture nouvelle, though the 1918 title was eventually used. In 1922, Corbusier obtained a contract from the publisher Crès for a first printing of 3,000 copies. The unconventional layouts initially provoked consternation but were eventually used. The book was a success and Crès agreed to publish a series of volumes under the name Collection de L'Esprit nouveau. The series included the 1924 second edition of Vers and continued until 1932. The first volume of Corbusier's Oeuvre complète from 1930 extends his considerations of his own work begun in Vers.
Kenneth Frampton identifies additional influences on the book including early 19th-century utopian socialism and publications from the Deutscher Werkbund, particularly a 1913 essay by Walter Gropius. Cohen further identifies Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Baudelaire, John Ruskin, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Comte de Lautréamont as literary and "structural" influences.
Though Le Corbusier is credited as the sole author, the book's authorship is somewhat unclear. Corbusier co-signed the original essays with fellow purist painter and friend Amédée Ozenfant as "Le Corbusier-Saugnier" when they were published in L'Esprit nouveau, indicating that Ozenfant may have contributed to the articles (Saugnier was Ozenfant's mother's name). Indeed, the first edition of the book (as well as an initial sketch of the cover) identifies the text's author as "Le Corbusier-Saugnier," though Corbusier dedicated it to Ozenfant in order to undercut Ozenfant's authorship claim. However, Corbusier began claiming sole authorship in 1924 and the dedication is absent from editions including and subsequent to the 1924 reprint. As their friendship deteriorated into the 1930s, Ozenfant claimed that the book had developed out of conversations between the two of them, though the ideas principally belonged to Adolf Loos's 1913 Ornament and Crime essay and Auguste Perret. Later, Ozenfant implied that he withdrew his public claim to authorship at Corbusier's request, though as late as 1936, a "rumor" was still attributing the book to both of them. Today, Vers continues to be solely attributed to Corbusier.
Vers is composed of seven essays. It begins with short, aphoristic summaries of each essay in a section titled "Argument" (Advertissment) preceded by an Introduction. In his 1927 translation, Etchells replaces Corbusier's preface with his own 12-page Introduction. Goodman's 2007 translation contains Corbusier's revised second edition Introduction and a lengthy article by the architectural historian Jean-Louis Cohen contextualizing the book. Banham notes that Corbusier says very little affirmatively about aesthetics in Vers, instead relying on functionalism to justify his presented work. The argument is advanced through metaphorical links between the various essays and the juxtaposition of Classical and industrial references, heightened by the prose's poetic quality.
Vers is loosely organized into an "academic" and a "mechanical block," reflecting the dual concerns of purism. In Etchells's translation, the essays are titled "The Engineer's Aesthetic and Architecture" (Esthétique de l'ingénieur, architecture): "Three Reminders to Architects" with sections on "Mass" (a mistranslation of the French), "Surface," and "Plan" (Trois rappels a MM. les architects encompassing Le volume, La surface, and le plan); "Regulating Lines" (Les tracés régulateurs); "Eyes Which Do Not See" divided into sections on "Liners," "Airplanes," and "Automobiles" (Des yeux qui ne voient pas and Les paquebots, Les avions, and Les autos); "Architecture" with sections titled "The Lesson of Rome," "The Illusion of Plans," and "Pure Creation of the Mind" (Architecture, La leçon de Rome, L'illusion des plans, and Pure création de l'esprit); "Mass-Production Houses" (Maisons en série); and "Architecture or Revolution" (Architecture ou révolution; published for the first time in Vers).