Katarzyna Kazmierczak (PL)
RADICAL OR NON RADICAL Fake interview with Le Corbusier The Plan Vison is is considered to be the most insane and radical modernist urban plan which was ever created. Do you think people will like it? Le Cobusier: In my opinion yes. My idea was to create the centrum of Paris as a pleasant, spacious garden city where greenery can be seen through the window, and to play football or sit on a bench among the trees just out in front of the block. I think people will like it more than view from the window on the narrow yard or wade through the crowded, chaotic and dirty streets in search of a piece of the park.
BLURRED FOCUS
Can you present the main assumptions of the Plan Vison? Le Cobusier: The center of the Paris should be razed to the ground with the exception of the most valuable monuments. Streets would be located on a geometric grid as Manhattan. Architecture will consist of a huge (sixty-floors!), with mathematical regularity spread cruciform skyscrapers and lower blocks broken at right angles. The buildings will be created from prefabricated materials and be completely unified. The entire foundation will be filled with green and recreational areas. How did you solve the problem of communication in your project? Le Cobusier: The whole city would cut the highway, and the traffic in the center would be subordinated to the cars passing through the intersection collision, while pedestrians would not have to walk around the city, with green areas in fornt of the block. The Plan Vison met with criticism and was not completed. In my opinion it appears that you wanted to create the perfect place to live for people. Could you presnet some of your UnitĂŠ d'Habitation ? Le Cobusier: I think one of the first and most famous of these buildings, also known as CitĂŠ radieuse is located in Marseille, France. Could you tell us about the idea of the project? Le Cobusier: The idea was to created the place where people will have everything. The Marseille building comprises 337 apartments arranged over twelve stories, all suspended on large piloti. The building also incorporates shops with architectural bookshop,sporting, medical and educational facilities, a hotel which is open to the public,and a gastronomic restaurant, Le Ventre de l'Architecte ("The Architect's Belly"). Inside, corridors run through the centre of the long axis of every third floor of the building, with each apartment lying on two levels, and stretching from one side of the building to the other, with a balcony. The flat roof is designed as a communal terrace with sculptural ventilation stacks, a running track, and a shallow paddling pool for children. There is also a children's art school in the atelier. Thank you. I think your design is brilliant and definitely makes our life easier. But don't we think that human nature is curiosity?? Will we feel good to spend almost all of our life in the same building??
#5