Le Corbusier speaks of architecture from an almost romantic standpoint, with more than just a hint of existentialism. I like the way he speaks of his craft, and I like a majority of his work even more, yet I find some of his idea's expressed through his work quite controversial to his words in these articles. His proposal for low income housing in Paris is frightening, we've seen the effects of these buildings in many cities world wide. These highrises set in a grid pattern across a poor section of a city must affect the minds of their inhabitants in ways unimaginable to us. Not only are these people already on the periphery of society, but they are all squashed into these buildings and subliminally told that they are all the same, and always will be.
In Sao Paulo, young men scale these buildings and adorn them with graffiti, putting their lives at risk almost daily just to stand out amongst their peers. All across the U.S.A. these projects have become fortresses for gangs, and are symbol of hopelessness for ghetto youth. These buildings are a cheap band-aid for a massive problem, they are a symbol of "the man's" minimal efforts to correct his past crimes, just give these people shelter, some food stamps and let them eat each other.
I personally think Le Corbusier's house's to be some of the most beautiful buildings of the modern age, the only problem is I have only ever seen them in the country side, where only the "big business man" he speaks of can afford to live.
Of course these plans for Paris were drawn up along time ago, before Rap music made everyone violent, how could he have known? Guns or no guns, "badmanism" or not, it doesn't take a Jainist monk to realize that cramming all the welfare recipients into the same hive is inhumane.
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