Towards a Public Space Le Corbusier and the Greco-Latin Tradition in the Modern City

• Main Author: Sequeira, Marta 1977- (Author)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: London New York Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2018
• Subjects: Le Corbusier > 1887-1965 > Criticism and interpretation; City planning > History > 20th century; Public spaces
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Physical Description: xi, 197 pages illustrations 25 cm.
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-191) and index
• ISBN: 9781472475916

The public spaces in Le Corbusier's plans are usually considered to break with the past and to have nothing whatsoever in common with the public spaces created before modernism. This view is fostered by both the innovative character of his proposals and by the proliferation in his manifestos of watchwords that mask any evocation of the past, like l'esprit nouveau ("new spirit") and l'architecture de demain ("architecture of tomorrow"). However, if we manage to rid ourselves of certain preconceived ideas, which underpin a somewhat less-than-objective idea of modernity, we find that Le Corbusier's public spaces not only didn't break with the historical past in any abrupt way but actually testified to the continuity of human creation over time.