We’re in Paris, 1917, where Charles-Edouard Jeanneret is making friends, thinking about sex (and writing enormous letters about it), designing the occasional mechanised abattoir / concrete garden terrace, going bankrupt, trying to sell concrete blocks to postwar society, inventing a new style of painting, launching a highly costly art magazine, and (finally!) acquiring the name under which he would become famous — Le Corbusier!
One of us had a very creaky chair in this episode. Also we were drinking again. Apologies for both.
We discussed —
- The breeze block plant at Alfortville
- Societe d'Applications du Beton Arme
- a Slaughterhouse at Challuy, near Nevers
(for no good reason) Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle’ (1906)
- Unbuilt project for a dama Water Tower in Podensac
- his meeting and collaboration with Amedée Ozenfant
- Purism as a style in Art — the Tate has a good definition
- Fernand Léger
- L’Esprit NouveauPierre Jeanneret
We’ve been reading —
- Nicholas Fox Weber ‘Le Corbusier: A Life’ (2008)
- Jean-Louis Cohen ‘Le Corbusier: Le Grand’ (2014)
- Oppositions 15-16 (1980)
- Catherine de Smet ‘Le Corbusier: Architect of Books’ (2004)
Music —
Victor Marching Bank ‘French Reel’ (1918) archive.org
Jean Sablon ‘Sur Les Quais de Vieux Paris’ (1941) archive.org
Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra ‘The Last Time I Saw Paris’ (1940) archive.org
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