le Corbusier...

just finished my modern B lecture... today... was modern B day. tutorial was okay... the discussion was pretty interesting, yet very boring in a sense of its topics. well, i realised that i have really very different view of le corb. although i do favour in his architecture... but my views of his intentions was rather... less humane. was contemplating a couple of times, whether i should had voice out my oppinions... which were very crude and individualistic. they were all discussing on le corb's design intentions, trying to be concern for the public, yet his solutions was still very naive. mine however, totally contradicts to it. being the fact that he was totally individual in his intentions... basically he just cut and pasted all his favourite ideas and forms into his buildings... having his own identity and style to be known in the world, nothing to do with the context and stakeholders. unlike his earlier works... for the international style... of very duplicatic design styles.
anyway, the lecture was pretty interesting, discussing on the later works/ second half of le corb's and wrights' design ideas. yea... it was a pity though, the lecturer touched very little on one of my all time favourite le corb buildings... the Carpenter Centre for the visual arts, at harvard university. she had very little time to spare with... and it was actually the last slide. sigh... its a building that has been talked about very little in lectures and books. probably of its less significant impact it lied into le corbs design... unlike the Chandigrah, Ronchamp, Villa Savoye... etc.
Yeap.

Le Corbusier 1963
The Carpenter Center is Le Corbusier's only building in North America, and one of the last to be completed during his lifetime. Its wonderful collection of concrete forms bring together many of the design principles and devices from Le Corbusier's earlier works: the ondulatoires (windows above left) from La Tourette; the brises soleils (below) originally from the Marseille unité d'habitation but angled later in Chandigarh (but here with glass for the Massachusetts climate); and the original Five Points from the 1920s 'accentuated in a new way: as if the Villa Savoye had been exploded inside out, with ramp and curved partitions extending into the environment.' The ramp and architectural promenade is particularly strong at the Carpenter Center.
'At the heart is a cubic volume from which curved studios pull away from one another on the diagonal. The whole is cut through by an S-shaped ramp which rises from one street and descends towards the other... The layers and levels swing out and back from the grid of concrete pilotis wihtin, making the most of cantilevering to create interpenetrations of exterior and interior, as well as a sequence of spatial events linked by the promenade architecturale of the ramp.'
William J.R. Curtis in Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms