Le Corbusier
Pioneer of modern architecture
Most quoted
"The architect, by his arrangement of forms, realizes an order which is a pure creation of his spirit; by forms and shapes he affects our senses to produce plastic emotions; by the relationships which he creates, he awakens in us profound echoes, he gives us the measure of an order which we feel to be in accordance with that of our world, he determines the various movements of our heart and of our understanding; it is then that we experience the sense of beauty."
— from Towards a New Architecture, 1923
"Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shade reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders, or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image of these is distinct and without ambiguity. It is for this reason that these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms."
— from Towards a New Architecture, 1923
"Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shade reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image of these is distinct and without ambiguity. It is for this reason that these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms."
— from Towards a New Architecture, 1923
All quotes by Le Corbusier (365)
Light is the key. Light is the soul of architecture.
The materials of city planning are: sun, space, greenery, steel and reinforced concrete, in that order and in that hierarchy.
The city that is a good machine is the city that is a good organism.
The plan is the generator. Without a plan, there is disorder, arbitrariness, violence.
The street is a living room.
The architect is a plastic artist, not a decorator.
The dwelling, the street, the city, are three forms of the same problem.
The problem of the dwelling is a problem of the epoch.
The house is a shelter for man, a machine for living in, a tool for life.
The city is a machine for living.
The curve is a disaster.
The dwelling is a cell, the city is a body.
The city must be a garden.
The city must be a park.
The city must be a forest.
The city must be a machine.
The city must be a work of art.
The city must be a poem.
The city must be a song.
The city must be a dream.
Contemporaries of Le Corbusier
Other Architectures born within 50 years of Le Corbusier (1887–1965).