Trope Photographs. Excerpt from the book "Public and Private: Architecture as Mass Media"

Contents:

• Fake images

Ad Marginem has published architectural historian Beatriz Colomina's book "Public and Private: Architecture as Mass Media." In this work, the author explores the interaction between architecture and media, as well as their influence on the perception of public and private space. We are pleased to present an excerpt from the book dedicated to how Le Corbusier edited photographs of his buildings. This process not only emphasized the uniqueness of his architectural solutions, but also shaped the perception of them in the public consciousness.

Forged Images

In the sixth issue of L’Esprit Nouveau magazine, Le Corbusier presented his only building in La Chaux-de-Fonds, which he himself acknowledged as significant for his work. This house, built in 1916, was not included in the complete collection of his works. In the accompanying article, Ozenfant, writing under the pseudonym Julien Caron, discusses the difficulties of photographing architecture. He notes: "If photography distorts even surfaces, how can we expect it to accurately convey volume?" Indeed, the photographs presented raise doubts - they look like a "fake".

Le Corbusier adapted photographs of the Villa Schwob, striving for an aesthetic of purism. On the courtyard-facing façade, he concealed the pergola, leaving only a white strip on the ground. He also cleared the garden of greenery and distracting elements such as shrubs and vines, allowing the house's clearly defined outer wall to be emphasized. The design of the service entrance on the garden side was also modified: the projecting hallway with rectangular steps was trimmed to the same plane as the door, a change that can be seen when compared with the original plans published in the same article. The hallway window also became a simple square opening. These changes highlight Le Corbusier's commitment to minimalism and functionality, a hallmark of his architectural philosophy.

Le Corbusier eliminated all picturesque and contextual elements in his houses, focusing on the formal properties of the architectural object. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that photographs of his house from L'Esprit Nouveau lack any hint of the actual site, which, incidentally, has a significant slope. By removing the reference to a specific site, the architect makes his architecture more independent of the surrounding environment. In Le Corbusier's works of the 1920s, this relationship between the ideal object and the ideal site is constantly evident. For example, he designed a small villa for his parents on the shores of Lake Geneva, without even knowing exactly where it would be built. In Buenos Aires, he proposed a suburban development plan including twenty "replicas" of the Villa Savoye, underscoring his desire for the universality of architectural solutions.

An analysis of the "Complete Works of Le Corbusier" reveals that other photographic materials were also manipulated. For example, in the published photographs of the Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier camouflaged prominent columns by painting them gray. These columns were likely wet and visible in other photographs. Interestingly, the published cross-section of the Villa Savoye corresponds to an earlier version of the project than the one that was built. This underscores Le Corbusier's value of a document that better reflects the concept of the house than an exact depiction of the completed architectural structure.

The distinction between real space and the space on the page is also clear. Because the latter is a simplification, certain elements, such as wet columns, which are unproblematic for the building's empirical perception, can be distracting in photographs. In Stein's plan for the Villa, which was published in the Complete Collection, he removed two supports at the edges of the apse projecting from the dining room into the living room. This change creates a plan that conveys the house's spatial and experiential perception. The absence of the two supports accentuates the villa's diagonal orientation and further disrupts the "central axis." Thus, Le Corbusier uses photographs and plans as tools to convey his architectural ideas, underscoring his approach to architecture as an art, where concept is paramount.

Caron J. Villa of the architect Le Corbusier, 1916 // L’Esprit nouveau. 1922. Vol. 6. P. 693.

The tinted photographs are kept in the photo library of the Le Corbusier Foundation, known as Fondation Le Corbusier, Photothèque L2. These unique images represent a valuable heritage of the architectural and artistic culture associated with the works of the famous architect. The photo library includes a variety of materials that allow for a deeper understanding of the work of Le Corbusier and his influence on modern architecture.

In the book «Elements of a Synthesis», the author S. von Moos explores important aspects of the work of Le Corbusier, one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. The edition, published by Cambridge: MIT Press in 1979, offers an in-depth analysis of the principles underlying his architectural projects on page 299. This work examines the key elements that shape Le Corbusier's unique style, as well as his philosophical approaches to urban planning and design. This book will be useful for both students of architecture and professional architects seeking to understand Le Corbusier's influence on modern architectural thinking.

Le Corbusier. Precisions on the Current State of Architecture and Urbanism. Paris: Editions Kresse, 1930. P. 139.

In this work, Le Corbusier analyzes current trends in architecture and urban planning, emphasizing the importance of functionality and aesthetics in the creation of modern cities. His ideas remain significant today, as they influence the development of architectural practices and concepts of the urban environment. The text is fundamental for understanding the evolution of 20th-century architectural thinking and its influence on modern urban planning.

I am grateful to Margaret Sobieski for her remark about the “missing” columns of the Villa Savoye, which she made at a seminar at Columbia University. This observation underscores the importance of detail in architecture. For more information, see Le Corbusier. Oeuvre complete 1929–1934, published in Zurich by Editions Girsberger in 1935, pp. 24–31.

Le Corbusier, the renowned architect and theorist, in his Oeuvre complète 1910–1929 (Edition Girsberger, Zurich, 1930) discusses the key aspects of architecture and design that shaped his unique style. On pages 142–144, the author analyzes the principles of functionalism and rationalism, emphasizing the importance of harmony between form and function. This publication presents not only architectural projects but also philosophical reflections that have had a significant influence on modern urban planning and design. Le Corbusier emphasizes the need to create comfortable and convenient living spaces, a concept that remains relevant today.

Colin Rowe argued, "At Garches, the central dominant is deliberately destroyed and the concentration at one point is fragmented, with the result that fragments of the center are randomly distributed around the periphery, creating areas of interest at the edges of the space." This idea, from his work "Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays" (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1977, p. 12), highlights a unique approach to architectural analysis. However, a weak point of this in-depth study, based on classical concepts of representation and photography, was the restoration of the supports on the plan of the Villa Stein. Rowe placed it for comparison with the plan of Palladio's Villa Foscari (Malcontenta), as if the representation of the villa at Garches in the Complete Collection were simply a misprint. This aspect of the analysis raises questions about the perception of architecture and the meaning of spatial organization in the context of historical representation.

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