Le Corbusier

A revised and updated edition of a bestselling introduction on one of the leading architects of the 20th century. Le Corbusier is probably the most famous architect of the 20th century. The richness and variety of his work and his passionately expressed philosophy of architecture have had a gigantic impact on the urban fabric and the way we live. Weaving through his long and prolific life are certain recurrent themes – his perennial drive towards new types of dwelling, from the early white villas to the Unité d’Habitation at Marseilles; his evolving concepts of urban form, including the Plan Voisin of 1925 with its cruciform towers imposed on the city of Paris and his work at Chandigarh in India; and his belief in a new technocratic order. The distinguished critic and architecture historian Kenneth Frampton re-examines all the facets of his artistic and philosophical world-view in light of recent thinking, and presents us with a Le Corbusier for the 21st century. This revised edition features a new introduction; some illustrations have now been replaced with colour.

'Essential reading for all present and future architectural students … read, absorb, enjoy!' - ASI Journal, 'Frampton has been able to make sense of Le Corbusier’s life in a way that has eluded some other authors' - The Times Higher Education Supplement, 'Exemplary' - Time Out

Kenneth Frampton was born in 1930 and trained as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London. He has taught at a number of leading institutions in the field, including the Royal College of Art in London, the ETH in Zürich, the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam, EPFL in Lausanne and the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio. From 1972 to 2019 he served as Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York. He is the author of numerous essays on modern and contemporary architecture, has served on many international juries for architectural awards and building commissions, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2018 he was awarded the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale. His publications include Studies in Tectonic Culture (1992), Labour, Work and Architecture (2005), American Masterworks (2008), Kengo Kuma: Complete Works (2012) and A Genealogy of Modern Architecture (2013). The fifth edition of his classic text Modern Architecture: A Critical History was published by Thames & Hudson in 2020.