Le Corbusier: The Godfather Of Modern Architecture | Behind The Artist

[@Divertedflight]

Those supposed hated areas of old Paris with tight streets and old buildings are now (those not knocked down by Le Corbusier's tribe anyway.) highly sought after neighbourhoods for their human scale, cosy organic lines of sight and interactive street life. All they needed was good plumbing and drainage which they now have.

[@marcher.arrant]

Amen! I was absolutely horrified by his idea of putting those towers in the Marais!!! It would have totally ruined it! It is scary knowing someone wanted to do that, I had no idea. Imagine him and Hausmann teaming up, they would be able to squeeze every bit of charm and magic out of Paris as a team

[@andybaldman]

This is the best art channel on KZbin.

[@bioliv1]

"The cities will be part of the country; I shall live 30 miles from my office in one direction, under a pine tree; my secretary will live 30 miles away from it too, in the other direction, under another pine tree. We shall both have our own car. We shall use up tires, wear out road surfaces and gears, consume oil and gasoline. All of which will necessitate a great deal of work … enough for all." - Le Corbusier, 1935

[@ReynaSingh]

I always looks forward to new videos from this channel. Thank you

[@43painter]

In 1986 I moved to Amsterdam because I was accepted at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Art. To get a living space the easiest and quickest way was in the subburbs of Amsterdam in that time, if one wanted enough living and wòrking space. So I moved to the Bijlmer, in the south under Amsterdam. The whole area was ( more or less ) inspired by the architecture of Le Corbusier. I've lived there for ten years and I can tell you it was TERRIBLE ! It was life threatening to walking there on your own at night ! The whole archiecture was immensely unpersonal, cold and alienated. Nóbody dared to make use of the green ground floor spaces and walking routes. Only the criminals dared. In 1996 I moved to Amsterdam West and it was SUCH a relief to actually have a kind of social control again. Small scaled houses where the neighboors knew when I returned home after a nights drinking. So Le Corbussiers reality was merely one , based on a drawing table reality. Not my cup of thee.

[@bioliv1]

Thanks for your report!

[@43painter]

@@bioliv1 That specific interpretation of Le Corbusier - the place where I lived - left certain things out, because otherwise it became too expensive for ordinairy people ( like me ). The rent would've been much higher. So the municipal of Amsterdam did only the basics. So there were no shops, offices or community spaces and the absence of those important elements made it so cold, unpersonal and in fact unlivable. Le Corbusier did some amazing architecture, so for a good understanding : I am not against his view on architecture. Have a nice summer.

[@bioliv1]

@@43painter "The cities will be part of the country; I shall live 30 miles from my office in one direction, under a pine tree; my secretary will live 30 miles away from it too, in the other direction, under another pine tree. We shall both have our own car. We shall use up tires, wear out road surfaces and gears, consume oil and gasoline. All of which will necessitate a great deal of work … enough for all." - Le Corbusier, 1935

[@y-sin3111]

So you’re saying that Le Corbusier’s architecture brainwashes law-abiding citizens into becoming antisocial criminals and frightens old people? Wow, that’s some magical concrete. Perhaps it is simply the case that the society you lived within was degenerate and tolerant of antisocial behaviour?

[@mcchuggernaut9378]

His mother saying "Yes, very good, but my roof is still leaking." is made to sound like a villainess in this documentary. But imagine being bankrupted by your famous son because of the first house he built, and whom you have indulged for your entire adult life, then later being built another house by him that isn't even basically sound. It seems like he may have wanted to impress his mother, but he kept disregarding her basic comfort and feelings in pursuit of his passions. Would any of you think it is OK to bankrupt your parents for your career aspirations and then "make up for it" years later after the damage had been done by putting them in an artistic experiment of a home for your own vanity which had water coming through the ceiling? It sounds like his parents indulged their eccentric son out of love and got no appreciation and shit on for it. She showed a remarkable amount of patience, if you ask me...

[@danielboard9510]

Its interesting, when you think about architecture, the master does not necessarily, know the techniques. When you think of Michelangelo, he had a studio to teach, who were doing his art for him. However, as an architect, have you ever actually built anything? The theory of form and thought, is not necessarily the practice.

[@KenDanieli2]

This is the problem with artists and elitists. They don't care if the building works. The mother was 100% right.

[@al4381]

@@danielboard9510 Architecture was always a craft taught as living traditions, like how stonemasons were craftsmen who'd go from city to city to build cathedrals according to their own skills and accumulated knowledge. The separation of labour from design is more modern, even if all those previous craftsmen always had a chief architect to guide the projects. Michelangelo taught his students by doing himself, he still carved statues, and engaged with all the buildings he designed. He wasn't just a theorist

[@danielboard9510]

@@al4381 My father was a builder and I will always remember being on a Job and him receiving the plans from an architect. He said 'the best thing we can do with these, is burn them, And just build it ourselves.' That stuck with me. because I knew he had the skills and knowledge to be able to build a house, from scratch. There is something, primitive, to knowledge that is useful, than that that is aesthetic. Maybe if we forgot the aesthetic, there might be more people with roofs above their heads. In the same way that art does not have to be beautiful.

[@michaelepp6212]

"Looking at the Marseille building now, surrounded by a sea of buildings, it actually looks ridiculous when one considers the social purposes it claimed to fulfill". - Also Rossi

[@aggiesjc]

That Marseille building looks like a monolithic horror to me.

[@Divertedflight]

Regarding the Villa Savoye, it's a beautiful modernist building, but the first owner hated living there. It froze in the winter, always leaked badly in the rain, so much so, that it was claimed the ceilings were soaking and effectively rained inside various rooms, while water pooled deeply for weeks on the roof. Eventually it was abandoned in a mere decade to various non residential uses. It's been necessary to restore the building three times since.

[@BillWoodillustrator]

Pretty much the complaint of anyone living in a FLW Usonian home too. 🤔

[@asddsa28]

sounds like a bad architect i think is was a good artist who made buildings

[@majorgunn]

All true!

[@feriyaanim]

A great start to get to know him. Thank you!

[@tigerphid9677]

The same thing happened to Albany, New York, USA. Much of the city's dingy urban core was demolished to create a minimalist airy plaza and tall modernist buildings for the New York state government.

[@rjlchristie]

It's always nice to know who to blame.

[@acacioalvarenga1]

Greetings from Brazil, tks for the content

[@williamwoody7607]

Fabulous documentary. Thank you so much.

[@keithrobinson5752]

The only good thing you can say about him is that he actually lived in his own design, unlike architects that have long 'admire' his work but in no way would ever want to live or work in one of his 'creations'

[@aaron2709]

Watch the first 2 minutes of the movie Dredd (2012). The future-dystopian city is a copy of 'Ville radieuse.' There's a reason why nearly all future-dystopian cities are rendered with Corb's inhumane, Brutalist vision/legacy.

[@nokshanobish4585]

I had the opportunity to visit some parts like stair, roof, lobby, yard etc ( would have been better if they allowed to explore most parts) of parliament building at chandigarh by Le. Most of it felt lefeless and the stair almost felt suffocating and cavelike.

[@jeremyhaines3847]

This is so very interesting and informative

[@omgteancupcake]

Would love to see Waldemar to do a documentary on Ellsworth Kelly please

[@pimentoso]

Great documentary!!!

[@dafyduck79]

Man how he was only wrong Nobody wants to live in his concrete monster buildings and city center appartments are sky racketing pricies Its the street what makes houses attractive for living

[@mdude625]

That’s the problem w/ utopian thinking; it always fails, because we humans are fallible and imperfect. People need to cultivate humility, and realize they don’t need to do this , that utopia won’t ever be in this world, but the next.

[@majorgunn]

it was a horrible idea then as it would be today... Ego's similar to what we must deal with today

[@43painter]

I wonder what his opinion would've been of the work of Oscar Niemeyer ( 1907 - 2012) ?

[@newtronix]

I bet he wishes he had the chance to build Brasilia! They were very similar in the way they thought about social housing but I guess Niemeyer went philosophically further being a communist!

[@asddsa28]

i find myself feeling im being panted a rosey picker of a guy and his art and not the truth witch i can see with my own eyes the ruff leaking bit is gold it tells me all about him.

[@KenDanieli2]

And the narrator and experts on screen all bow down to him and disparage the poor mother for rightly pointing out the fucking building is useless if the roof leaks perpetually.

[@mdude625]

I wouldn’t say a leaky roof is a small thing. Mold will ruin your health.

[@timothyhopkins6960]

Wonderful thank You 🙏

[@thomaskaralis1042]

What an incredible documentary! He truly was a genius and his buildings are beyond magnificent

[@interrobangings]

Haha, no

[@stefanisilva2493]

He was a scammer

[@aggiesjc]

38:08 "Le Corbusier applied all his architectural know-how to it" in building his elderly mother a house to live out her years. 38:18 "It was very functional and agreeable." Then at 38:30 "...but Marie, dissatisfied, focused on the small problem she encountered in this house"-- THE ROOF LEAKED. So the world-famous architect applies all his know-how and designs a very functional and agreeable house for an elderly woman, but she is out of line for thinking the ROOF SHOULDN'T LEAK? Also, regarding that rectangular shoebox for his mom, I'd love to know the reasoning for putting two incredibly narrow steps at the front door -- looks like a super way to get an elderly person injured.

[@Moodboard39]

Wouldn't that be construction job to do

[@Geoffrey6_]

​@@Moodboard39Sadly, when you're an Übermensch like Le Corbusier, even your slightest mistakes will be portrayed as giant failures. *Populus loquetur.*

[@stefanisilva2493]

​@@Geoffrey6_More like the opposite: those who acquired fame and prestige will have their mistakes atenuated and their fails read as "inovation" reguardless of poor results - Halo Effect. Our brains don't think is possible for a "genius" to do stupid things.

[@MrSergiostone]

Casa Curuchet in La Plata is fantastic!!

[@43painter]

Thank The Gods his plans for the centre of Paris didn't came through. It would've been desastrously ugly.

[@music-lb2vx]

wow youtube has become unbearable, every 3 minutes i have to skip an ad. Is there somewhere else i can watch the whole thing?

[@schluehk6892]

Impressed by how Charles Jeanneret-Gris styled Le Corbusier as a ... business consultant, a new kind of professional: a cool looking project maker and solution provider, an artist who deals with new technologies and creates an air of scientific infallibility. Even the humanitarian/democratic rhetoric of the left, later inherited by the neolibs, was present. As an admirer of Nietzsche, he imagined the overman as the prototype of the professional managerial and consultancy class.

[@chriskappert1365]

Flat roofs are originaly found in country's with a dry climate .......😮 Was there a specific reason for that ? 😊

[@sealevel8513]

There is so much similarities between some buildings from all over world I am just wondering if there maybe be only one architect foreseeing over things and then you get the secondary architects thats the ones you go on about all the time they are the ones that go down in history as building these buildings.While at the same time hiding the main architect from us?

[@horsepowermultimedia]

Le Corbusier: The Godfather of Modern Architecture and the Devil of Good Architecture

[@rajsingharora26]

He did get to build his city its called Chandigarh in India.

[@aggiesjc]

His housing block in Marseille actually gives me the creeps. Monolithic, unattractive, frightening at sight. The addition of primary colors is like adding insult to injury. His term "machine for happiness" sounds quite ominous, actually. He tried to impose his architecture on cities throughout the world, since European cities weren't welcoming it enough (it's said in this documentary that he welcomed the destruction of cities by bombing so he could get more work for himself). He designed a building 10 kilometers long for Algiers -- thank goodness for them that didn't happen. His work in Chandigarh, India isn't included in this documentary, but it, too, is monolithic (the secretariat building), unwelcoming, unattractive and frightening. The assembly building in Chandigarh looks like a dirty nuclear power plant at best, with a grim, filthy water feature out front, and the high court building looks like a child's concept with the wacky misshapen cutouts in the concrete and again the primary colors. As if that all weren't enough, he tosses in the "House of Shadows," a pointless and confusing structure on the grounds of government buildings.

[@Moodboard39]

Damn all that lol u must do better ??

[@MayankChhaya]

His works in India are curiously omitted.

[@andybaldman]

Racism.

[@MayankChhaya]

@@andybaldman You think so?

[@Divertedflight]

Yes that's very odd.

[@Divertedflight]

@@MayankChhaya I now suspect the documentary was originally French on a limited budget. I'm sure I've heard the female narrator used on other French productions as a English translator/replacement. His Indian buildings were probably out of easy reach for filming.

[@MayankChhaya]

@@Divertedflight Probably so but they could have mentioned them in the narration with at least a few photographs. I was born in a city which has some remarkable private homes and other buildings by Corbusier. I am talking about Ahmedabad. Anyway, thank you for your observation.

[@yujishinohara1uponatime]

Please do a video on architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

[@iivaridark6850]

Horrible music mostly and too short time to watch the visual details but at least one thing was remarkable: His mother reminded him (wisely, I think) of realities of the architecture, which is meant for life not for show - the leaking roof was a bad design and whatever other great features there might have been, were shadowed with the leaking roof...

[@KenDanieli2]

and the clueless writers and experts thing the mom was wrong about this.

[@TomSuntotheMax]

Now, I understand why his work was so sterile, unappealing and dull. If I was his mom with the leaking roof I would have been pissed too. All of his works show a desire for people to live as HE wanted them to, not at all like they might want to live. Beware all would be artists of the desire to control others with your art. It always leads to crap.

[@andybaldman]

That’s just like, your opinion man.

[@TomSuntotheMax]

@@andybaldman You don't find his work cold and colorless and controlling? Are you sure you are looking at Le Corbuisier?

[@andybaldman]

It looks like all modern buildings today. He was just 90 years ahead of his time.

[@TomSuntotheMax]

@@andybaldman He found a cheap use for concrete that wold certainly appeal to builders. And there is nothing wonderful about today's architecture.

[@bioliv1]

I'm a cog in a machine, living in the desolate remnants of a machine world, full of machines for living in. My life sucks!

[@iainmurray5716]

Are you sure this is not Arthur Askey?

[@patriciagerresheim2500]

Le Corbusier's buildings look cold and mass-produced, like housing projects thrown up after WWII, all square and boxy. They have no soul, and all that concrete has no warmth. They remind me of films like 'Modern Times' and 'Metropolis'. Yes, he may have been famous all over the world, but his mother was right. If the roof leaks from day one, it means the house was not designed well. No one should have to put up with that, especially if the designer should have known that something as basic as a proper pitch to the roof would have prevented it.

[@Moodboard39]

Well, that what construction or whoever u call that fix house leaks

[@Moodboard39]

Not bulletproof

[@DonnaSnyder]

Sure would appreciate captions.

[@13minutestomidnight]

First he set up shop with no credentials and little formal training, bankrupted his parents by building them an extravagant house he knew they couldn't afford, and then complained endlessly about his life where he got no work (in two different towns). Then he became friends with a high-society socialite, got work because of his friend's contacts and endorsements, and instantly became a successful celebrity artist/architect. Let me put it this way: his theories about architecture and modernity advocate mass-producing basic units of housing for everyone (but not for himself or his family, clearly),essentially throwing away creativity and individuality for the inner-city high-rise estate. But even his other works seem to be either highly derivative or pretty much…sterile/bland.

[@iivaridark6850]

He had at least some ability of marketing...

[@Moodboard39]

It's called marketing ....u don't wtf u talking about

[@BillWoodillustrator]

Pretty much the complaint of anyone living in a Frank Lloyd Wright too… 😂

[@joseffinat966]

quo Vadis,Domine ? Waar gaat ge heen Heer ?( Joh,13:16

[@BillWoodillustrator]

I didn’t know he had ‘mummy issues’

[@mikejones-go8vz]

No mention of Chandigarh in India, that interested me, these buildings were magnificent along with the church, very organic, the Paris city would’ve been a nightmare, leave it to the Saudi now to create a nightmarish future

[@lilianaprina5991]

He is a fabulous man and great designer...

[@PjRjHj]

Surely you are joking?

[@claudettedelphis6476]

Thank you so much for educating us 🌸 Le Corbusier is the genius ahead of his time 💐

[@Thomas-n1n4o]

How? By normalising lazy architecture? Making cites depressing places to look at?

[@PjRjHj]

It's troubling how many people see a psychopath and think "genius"

[@letsif]

Fix the fucking roof!

[@Moodboard39]

Idiot, this falls on the contractors not the architecter..not responsible for that ...

[@markflint2825]

Shame about the English pronunciation of French words: Difficult to understand her at times!

[@MPHORROCKS]

Unfortunately, the narrator sounds like she's has as much knowledge of her subject as quantum mechanics. A narrator's voice sets the tone of a documentary and IMHO, her tone falls short of the (rather serious) genius she's talking about.\

[@Moodboard39]

Not everyone has a voice ...or could narrate...

[@andybaldman]

Wow, lots of haters here.

[@tommcfadden5232]

The godfather of all that is ugly in modern architecture.

[@Jokuvaanjee]

Horrible artist and somehow even worse architect. Unfortunately he was very overrated and influental… the damage has already been done.

[@biomuseum6645]

He’s Stravinsky with buildings

[@rjlchristie]

As an admirer of Stravinsky I must object to that.

[@pearlsammo1638]

If you think Stravinsky was tone deaf and incompetent, then sure.

[@biomuseum6645]

@@rjlchristie I heard a quote of goethe that architecture is frozen music, so because Le Corbusier and Stravinsky were both fathers of their own modern art, I said the analogy

[@Bonserak23]

Wanna add any more fucking ads?

[@FatRecluseTV]

So sad he could never impress his mother 😔 kinda soul crushing seeing as he was so influential but still could not achieve the one thing he strived…

[@Moodboard39]

Wasn't his responsibility to fix leaks ...don't u or his mother know between a contractor and architect

[@PjRjHj]

She likely had good reasons, he was a monster of a person privately and professionally

[@andrewwilson9048]

Another hagiography to 'modern architecture'. No ones likes this stuff

[@pablojc]

Great documentary but AWFUL voice narrator. I can't stand it.... Too bad because it was really interesting

[@Moodboard39]

Idk how people don't get pass post production ughhh... Check if they sound good , clear , sick of it ....don't have mangers overseeing ????

[@chucrut5985]

One of humanity's biggest smoke sellers.