THE RADIANT CITY
Le Corbusier

[Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris] Le Corbusier: THE RADIANT CITY [Elements of a Doctrine of Urbanism to be Used as the Basis of Our Machine-Age Civilization]. NYC: Orion Press, 1967. First American Edition (First edition in English of Le Corbusier's La Ville Radieuse). A fine hardcover book in full, decorated cloth in a near-fine dust jacket: DJ shows a couple of minor scuffs. A very nice copy of this oversized, easily-abused volume. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print.

This edition was printed in the Netherlands by N. V. Drukkerij Koch en Knuttel using the plates from the 1933 edition.

9.5 x 12 hardcover book with 344 pages and hundreds of b/w and color photographs, plans and drawings by the author. First edition in English of Le Corbusier's La Ville Radieuse. Originally published in the French in 1933, the book remains one of the architects most important and influential monographs. Translated by Pamela Knight. A truly lavish production that must bee seen to be truly appreciated.

In addition to being an artist and architect, Corbu was also a city planner. "Modern town planning comes to birth with a new architecture," he wrote in a book titled simply Urbanisme. "By this immense step in evolution, so brutal and so overwhelming, we burn our bridges and break with the past." And boy, di he mean it! His vision of the city included no congested streets and sidewalks, no more bustling public squares, no more untidy neighborhoods. Instead, people would live in hygienic, regimented high-rise towers, set far apart in a parklike landscape. This rational city would be separated into discrete zones for working, living and leisure. Above all, everything should be done on a big scale ‹ big buildings, big open spaces, big urban highways. And he wrote all this down in a book ‹ a big book!

He called it La Ville Radieuse, the Radiant City. I don't want to give away how this story ends, so you'll just have to read the book...

out of stock