Le Corbusier, ici et là-bas

Abstract

With Le Corbusier, travel is much more than discovering exotic regions. In 1929, Le Corbusier was invited to Buenos Aires by Victoria Ocampo, a francophile and patron of the arts, to deliver ten conferences. One year later, he published the ten Buenos Aires conferences under the title Précisions sur un état présent de l 'architecture et de l 'urbanisme (Precisions on the present state of architecture and city planning). An urbanization plan was proposed for Buenos Aires, with the skyscrapers of the business district, built on a platform, overlooking the Rio de la Plata. The architect transcribed «over there » -Buenos Aires -principles forged «here » a few years earlier in manifesto-projects, like the Voisin plan for Paris. A back and forth situation between «here » and «over there ». In his eyes, the entire north and south American continent could be reduced two future metropolises, New York and Buenos Aires. Obvious misunderstandings and shifts. New ideas, however, are born out of these shifts.