I TRE INSEDIAMENTI UMANI
Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier: I TRE INSEDIAMENTI UMANI. Milan: Edizioni di Comunitè, August 1961. First Italian-language edition. Quarto. Blue cloth over flexible boards titled in white. Printed dust jacket. 204 pp. Fully illustrated in black and white. Dust jacket lightly edgeworn with a couple of small chips and short, closed tears. A very good copy in a very good dust jacket. Uncommon.
8.25 x 8.25 hardcover book with 204 pages fully illustrated in black and white. Translated from the French by Luciana Zucchi Petit, with book design by Jean Petit. One of the three Corbusier books reissued by Jean Petit as part of the Cahiers Forces Vives book series.
Table of Contents:
- Constatazioni fondamentali (L'abitazione ed il deserto delle città - Sobborghi, città-giardino e città tentacolari - Rivoluzione dell'architettura ed urbanistica moderna - Dottrina dei trasporti ed occupazione del territorio) [Fundamental Findings (Housing and the Desert of Cities - Suburbs, Garden City and Sprawling Cities - Modern Architecture and Urbanism Revolution - Transport Doctrine and Territory Employment)]
- Un'etica del lavoro (Condizioni morali - Condizioni materiali) [Work Ethics (Moral Conditions - Conditions materials)]
- I tre insediamenti umani (Occupazione del suolo - L'unità di sfruttamento agricolo (L'unità rurale - Il villaggio cooperativi) - La città industriale lineare (L'unità industriale - La fabbrica verde - 4 chilometri all'ora: abitazione e recupero - A cento chilometri all'ora: la qualificazione) - La città radiale-concentrica degli scambi) [[The three human settlements (Occupation of the soil - The unit of agricultural exploitation (The rural unit - The cooperative village) - The linear industrial city (The industrial unit - The green factory - 4 kilometers per hour: habitation and recovery - A hundred kilometers per hour: the qualification) - The radial-concentric city of the exchanges]
- Realtà (Dall'Oceano agli Urali - L'aereoplano) [Reality (From the Ocean to the Urals - The airplane)]
- Incidenza su Parigi (La città - Parigi, estate 1942 - Dichiarazione di principio - Le abitazioni - La circolazione - Il centro - Stabilimenti industriali) [Incidence on Paris (The city - Paris, summer 1942 - Declaration of principle - Housing - Circulation - Center - Industrial plants]
- La vita stessa apre il cammino [Life itself opens the way ]
- Studi di urbanistica [Urban planning studies]
Few would protest that Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Charles Edouard Jenneret, is one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. He articulated provocative ideas, created revolutionary designs and demonstrated a strong, if utopian, sense of purpose – to meet the needs of a democratic society dominated by the machine.
Le Corbusier, like his father, began by learning the art of metal engraving. However, he was encouraged by a teacher to take up architecture and built his first house at the age of 18 for a member of his school's teaching staff. In 1908, he went to Paris and began to practice with Auguste Pierret, an architect known for his pioneering use of concrete and reinforced steel. Moving to Berlin, Le Corbusier worked with Peter Behrens, who taught him about industrial processes and machine design. In 1917, he returned to Paris where he met post-cubist Amedee Ozenfant and developed Purism, a new concept of painting. In 1920, still in Paris, he adopted the pseudonym, Le Corbusier.
Paradoxically, Le Corbusier combined a passion for classical Greek architecture and an attraction to the modern machine. He published his ideas in a book entitled, Vers une Architecture, in which he refers to the house as a "machine for living," an industrial product that should include functional furniture or "equipment de l'habitation." In this spirit, Le Corbusier co-designed a system of furniture with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. The tubular steel furniture projected a new rationalist aesthetic that came to epitomize the International Style.
During the 1920's and 30's, Le Corbu concentrated on architecture and during the 1950's he moved towards more expressive forms that revealed the sculptural potential of concrete. Over the decades, his work has included mass housing blocks, public buildings and individual villas, all conceived with what he called the "engineer's aesthetic."