L'ESPRIT NOUVEAU.
LE CORBUSIER: COSTRUZIONE E RICOSTRUZIONE
DI UN PROTOTIPO DELL'ARCHITETTURA MODERNA

Giuliano Gresleri

8.5 x 9.25 softcover book with 184 pages and 317 black and white photographs and diagrams. Exceptional history of Corbusieršs L'Esprit Nouveau pavilion at the 1925 International Exposition and its 1977 recreation in Bologna, Italy.

From retropolis.net: In 1925, Le Corbusier's Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau set in motion a debate about modern architecture that has continued in Paris to this day. Le Corbusier was granted one of the worst building sites at the International Exposition. Therefore Corbu and his associates erected the Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau, and announced that this spirit's program was "to deny decorative art, and to affirm that architecture extends to even the most humble piece of furniture, to the streets, to the city, and to all." The house of the future, he continues, must be a machine ā habiter, a "machine for living," and not a three-dimensional backdrop for interior Decorators.

As exposition authorities laid eyes on Le Corbusier's cellule, they were horrified. The uncompromising geometry of the exterior was carried out mercilessly through the interior. A slab of stone cantilevered out over the living room, forming a kind of interior balcony. Boxlike furniture faced Juan Gris paintings on the wall, and stark Jacques Lipchitz sculptures adorned the otherwise Spartan Decor. Art Deco was nowhere to be seen. In its place was Le Corbusieršs uncompromising vision of modernism: less playful, more severe, more demanding in its adherence to the dominating presence of pure Form.

But the crowning audacity lay beneath the glass of the exhibit tables that Le Corbusier had placed strategically in the other part of his exhibit. Here, in his Plan Voisin de Paris, the upstart architect proposed the demolition of vast sections of Paris ­ especially the second, third, ninth and tenth arrondissements ­ and replaced these historic sections with Le Corbusier high-rise complexes on a grand scale. Each of the projected facilities would hold three thousand people, and free them spatially from the dead hand of the past.

Most of French architectural authorities were incensed at this brazen attempt to destroy the history and character of Paris. To begin with, they ordered a 20-foot high fence to be erected around the entire Esprit Nouveau pavilion, in hopes of hiding the shameful spectacle from curious visitors. The French Minister of Fine Arts, however, had the fence removed. The international jury was astonished, but proposed to award the audacity with a first prize. The French Academy, annoyed that the fence had been removed, had its revenge by vetoing the international jury's vote. The end result was for Le Corbusier what every avant-garde French artist most desires: a succes de scandale. From that time forward, his reputation as a leading architect was confirmed, and Le Corbusier never wanted for commissions.

Spreads from this volume can be viewed here.

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