Le Corbusier Le Grand (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Le Corbusier Le Grand is an enormous and enormously appealing monograph on one of the greatest and most controversial visionaries of the twentieth century: Le Corbusier (1887-1965). Publisher Phaidon's super-sized volume features thousands of stunning photographs of the seminal architect, his buildings and plans, writings, and related documents (sketchbooks, personal snapshots, even postcards). With the turn of each page, readers can follow Corbusier's trajectory from revolutionary young artist and prolific writer to globe-trotting, celebrity-crusader for modern architecture and urban planning. Esteemed architectural historian and Corbusier expert Jean-Louis Cohen provides an elegant introductory essay to this veritable archive of images. We learn that although the Swiss-born Le Corbusier hailed from a small town in a small country under the modest name Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, he was destined for greatness--largely of his own design. A prime mover behind the International Style (perhaps the first truly global architectural-design language), Corbusier brought modern design principles and their promise of improved living standards to the world stage. Futuristic high rise apartment complexes, office towers, highly functional streamlined interiors and furniture made primarily of industrial materials may all be attributed in part to him and his controversial utopian mission to transform our daily lives into a highly functional and beautiful system. Le Corbusier Le Grand is an extravagant, yet essential tome for libraries, those interested in modernism, city planning, and especially those with a really big coffee table. --Lauren Nemroff

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From School Library Journal

This slip-cased, oversized book, weighing 20 pounds and containsing over 2000 illustrations, summarizes the life and work of the most important modern architect of the 20th century: the legendary, controversial, and confrontational Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier was not exclusively an architect but an artist (painter and sculptor), urbanist, author, furniture designer, world traveler, and media figure. What is most impressive in this volume are the huge-scale photographs drawn from the Le Corbusier archives at the Fondation Le Corbusier in France. These photographs are personal, professional, indicative, anecdotal, illustrative, and symbolic of the entire saga of Le Corbusier's life and career over 60 years. They make this book an absolute gold mine for anyone wanting to understand and steep themselves in the spirit and character of this greatest modern architect of the last century. The written material is also first-rate: Jean-Louis Cohen, France's best-known historian of modern architecture, contributes an informative introduction, and Tim Benton, a well-known British architectural historian, writes opening texts for individual chapters. Recommended for architecture and art libraries as well as public libraries with serious art collections.—Peter S. Kaufman, Boston Architectural Ctr.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press Inc. (July 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714846686
• ISBN-13: 978-0714846682
• Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 13.2 x 3.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 20.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #184,618 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Le Corbusier Le Grande, July 5, 2008

By	Richard F. Geary "Geary Design, Inc." (Naples, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Imagine being able to sort through Le Corbusier's private archive on your own; his sketches, his private correspondence, his family picture album, his artwork and his original architectural drawings. This tome is like no other on Pe're Corbu that you have ever seen. This massive, [35 lb], volume is a wealth of original documents about Corbu - the man! There is very little in the way of hyper-academic text, publisher-prepared drawings and the same old stock photos of his work. There are so many photos of the architect that have never been published that one wonders if he had a photographer with him at all times. This work allows you to see his often stormy relationships with the press, government officials, friends, his family and other architects. For me this was a totaly unexpected format and in the beginning I was a little put off. I was especially puzzed by the myriad of hand written letters that are faithfully reproduced. Then I realized that the second small volume in the slipcase has the etxt of all these letters in translation. The more I looked at the material the more facinated I became. I realized that this allows a glimpse into the workings of a man, an artist and an architect unlike any architecture book I have ever seen. This book will not fit on your book-shelf and once you see it you will probably never let it leave your coffee table. For me this book is in-expensive at twice the price. You won't be sorry.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HUGE, but very accessible, August 27, 2008

By	Mark (Virginia) - See all my reviews

The July 5, 2008 review makes a good case for this book. The format is daunting due to its size, but the photos and text are large and easy to "take in". In some ways it is like a scrapbook, as it has images that are related to Le Corbusier (French ID card, letters to/from people) as a person. It touches on the entire range of his life: social, architect/artist/sculptor/inventor, bookmaker, traveler, etc.

A complete bibliography of books ON him would have been a nice addition. There is a complete bibliography of the 35 books he published, but the biblio by others is weak.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grand Indeed!, November 28, 2008

By	James Ferguson (Vilnius, Lithuania) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

It is nice to see the grand master of Modernism getting such a beautiful tome dedicated to the incredible width and breadth of his work. There was a time not so long ago when Le Corbusier was much vilified and Modernism thought to be dead. But, here we are restoring many of the great works of the era and resurrecting the movement as it seems Americans are finally embracing the clean lines if not the socialist vision of Le Corbusier.

Le Corbusier had a tough time in America. His one work is the former Carpenter Center at Harvard, essentially a walk-through model of his vision. His ideas for the United Nations Building in New York, like the unrealized League of Nations Building in Zurich, were essentially cribbed and made into a pastiche of his egalitarian architecture. He saw America as a nation ruled by Rockefellers and wanted no part of it after being part of the design team on the UN Building. Peter Blake writes humorously about this time in No Place Like Utopia.

The chapters take in the full scope of his work with photos and illustrations that give greater richness to his work than in the monograph that was compiled by Willy Boesiger and Oscar Stonorov during the 50s and 60s, available through Birkhauser. Le Corbusier oftened presented his projects as storyboards illustrating the process of his work. What makes this book special is the number of photographs of Le Corbusier himself, as well as attention to his Purist works of art that often provided the ground work for his architecture.

For admirers of Le Corbusier this book is a must have. For those seeking an introduction there are more affordable ways to go such as Kenneth Frampton's monograph, Le Corbusier: Architect of the Twentieth Century. However, there is no discounting the great influence this man has had on Modern Architecture.