Le Corbusier's Maison Curutchet

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Summary: Le Corbusier in Argentina
Review: Interestingly enough, Le Corbusier flew to Buenos Aires with the master of flight, Antoine du Saint Exupery. He gave a few lectures there and later on his return to Paris drew up on his own initiative a series of urban proposals for Buenos Aires. Nothing happened until a surgeon, Dr.Curutchet, sought his services for the design of his house and clinic at La Plata, Argentina. The book charts the design of this transitional house which sits right in the phase shift from the smooth purist villas to the rough tectonic gestures of his postwar years. It was aslo the model for his urban ambitions for Argentina, like the Citrohan protoype for Europe in the twenties. It is also the first modular building. The book offers a context and the detailed process of the design from the atelier in Paris to the remote site. Le Corbusier never saw the site nor the finished house. The book provides an appraisal of the work of a relevant architect. This house encapsulates almost all of his salient principles, ie, The Five Points. Two essays by the author explore the spatial and formal qualities of the house, from his post-purist painting compositions to promenade architecturale. It is more than a guide book and provides an insight into Le Corbusier's design process. It also helps belie the notion that Le Corbusier was an arrogant formalist who could not tolerate suggestions or collaboration.