Nature and Space: Aalto and Le Corbusier [Paperback]

Sarah Menin (Author), Flora Samuel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2002 | ISBN-10: 0415281253 | ISBN-13: 978-0415281256 | Edition: 1

This book is a unique comparative study of two of the very greatest figures in modern architecture - Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto. In assessing the historical, personal and intellectual influences of their attitudes to nature and the creative direction of their work, this book offers a unique understanding of the diversity at the heart of modernism. Through an analysis of the architects' own writing about their ideas and philosophies, a more thorough comprehension is gained of their thoughts on urban living and by looking at their most widely known work, the authors analyse the architects' intentions to build nature into the heart of their architecture. The authors argue that there are many similarities between the attitudes towards nature held by Le Corbusier and Aalto, and that these similarities had an important place in the generation of their architecture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Understanding architecture is never easy or neat, but this thoughtful book makes the process richer.' - Building Design

'The authors' arguments should not be ignored - as they point out, while we are ready to accept the idea of Aalto and Le Corbusier's anti-rationalism, we still demand a raison d'être for their work.' - The Architects' Journal

About the Author

Dr. Sarah Menin is a lecturer at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University. In 1999 Dr. Menin was awarded a Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship to study the parallels between Aalto and Le Corbusier's interests in nature and patterns of creativity.
Dr. Flora Samuel is a lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. Following her training at Cambridge and Princeton, where she held a teaching fellowship, Dr. Samuel practiced as an architect before writing her PhD on Le Corbusier's scheme for La Sainte Baume.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415281253
• ISBN-13: 978-0415281256
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,184,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars nature and obscuratism, October 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Nature and Space: Aalto and Le Corbusier (Paperback)

This is a strange book. Two architects from the height of modernism, one a half generation older than the other other. First there's Le Corbusier, THE man responsibe more than any other for changing the direction of architecture in the 20th century. A visionary. An idealist. Uncompromising. Brutal. An individualist. And then we have his half-mentor, the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto - who has just a handful of buildings outside his own country and came to prominance for a hospital and a library design in his own country at the height of Modernism (the CIAM conferences), and was championed by its highly influential 'official historian' Sigfried Giedion. And what do these 2 have in common apart from the latter being influenced by the former? That is, Aalto follwed Le Corbusier but corrected his more zealous ideas, appropriating them for a more organic line of design. The 2 authors put it down to God and nature! What an audacious reductionism! Neither architect was religious. Le Corbusier may have originally been from the mountains of Switzerland, but reduced nature to numbers. Aalto was from a rural country -period. And what basis do the authors use to make their claims? Psychoanalysis! They had problems with their mothers and wives. Well what male creative mind didn't?

Sadly most books on Aalto are coffee-table jobs - and this one is certainly not one of those. And there is yet to be a book on Le Corbusier not written by one of his apologists - and this one is no different. Thankfully, at least, this book is a serious, brave effort to say something deep and meaningful about these 2 architects. But it gets bogged down in its highly questionable methodology.