• critical theory
  • paper boards with dust jacket
  • offset-printed
  • sewn bound
  • black-and-white
  • 25 x 19 cm.
  • 124 pp.
  • edition size unknown
  • unsigned and unnumbered
  • ISBN 0876636776

Le Corbusier : Aircraft

Le Corbusier

description

A republication of the original book by Le Corbusier. "'The airplane is the symbol of the new age,' declared Le Corbusier in the introduction to this book, first published in 1935. 'A new state of modern conscience. A new plastic vision. A new aesthetic.' In its paean to the 'joyous and productive impulse of the new machine-civilsation' this book, written by the master architect of Modernism, explores two themes. Firstly, it celebrates the sheer beauty of the airplanes themselves and the 'functional' spareness of their parts and elements - wingspars and propellors, engine frames and ailerons are contrasted with the godlike qualities of the aviators - 'once in the air, they exult in the daring of their departure.' Secondly there is the discovery of the aerial images, the bird's eye view as 'a new function added to our sense, a new standard of measurement, a new basis of sensation.' With unconscious irony, Corbusier predicts that the airplane 'indicts the city': 'cities must be extricated from their misery, come what may. Whole quarters of them must be destroyed and new cities built.' The commanding vigor of the text is matched by a dynamic range of illustrations, selected and laid out by Le Corbusier himself, a dramatic image of an aircraft carrier bears the title 'and Neptune rises from the sea, crowned with strange garlands, the weapons of Mars'. The result is a book that encapsulates the enthusiasm and excitement of the first aerial age, and the stimulus the airplane gave to the visual and intellectual ideas of the time." -- from interior flap. Printed in black-and-white. Includes list of illustrations.

New York, NY: Universe Books,
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$28.99
Condition:  Used
$27.99
Condition:  Collectible