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Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925

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Re: Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925

#11

Post by DocTomoe »

richliss wrote: post #2

As someone who grew up in a city that did this, it was a terrible idea then and remains so. Town planners who like brutalism and everything modern are insane. Just look at Birmingham, England - they knocked down beautiful buildings to put up brutalist eyesores to then knock down brutalist eyesores and replace them with a different type of modern architecture that will look awful in 20 years. There's a reason that peo…

Turns out that people who dislike brutalist living silos are often also the same people who think we have a housing crisis. You can't have everyone live in Bath unless you demolish it and put Pruitt-Igoe 2.0 onto it. And as you've correctly pointed out: what then would be the attraction of any desirable place?

Re: Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925

#12

Post by jodrellblank »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #3

The big problem with Le Corb is not that his stuff is ugly. It’s that his designs are inhuman. No one with any choice wants to live or work in that kind of development. It’s striking! Bold! Architects love the look! But form should follow function and Le Corb’s idea of function is “a machine for living” and there’s not too much room in that vision for things extraneous to living like “dreaming” or “enjoying life,” so…

This "Not Just Bikes" video[1] recently on YouTube makes a similar case for generic concrete business parks in the USA and Canada compared to one in the Netherlands. That nobody with any choice wants to live or work there, that they are full of hostile in-between space and strictly segregated from housing and shopping by 6-lane roads, and inhuman feeling. Designed with car access as the priority and bus access as an afterthought and without pedestrian or cycle access at all, as if the only reasons to be 'outside' at all are driving or parking.

The Netherlands one in the video has dedicated roads for busses which get priority over cars at traffic lights, dedicated paths for bikes and pedestrians which get priority over busses and cars at traffic lights and are separate from the roads so people aren't walking right by vehicles, and a train station. It has narrow car lanes with both directions separated with an easier pedestrian crossing experience, floodwater management integrated as a nice looking canal feature rather than as a storm drain by a road; pretty building design and path design to make a more pleasant environment to walk in, and buildings having large and accessible entrances for pedestrians without forcing them to cross bits of mud or large expanses of car park.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDXB0CY2tSQ

Re: Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925

#13

Post by DocTomoe »

nemo44x wrote: post #5

Even the Nazis weren’t this ambitious once they took Paris. Yikes.

In fact, the Nazis tried to not damage Paris too much because Hitler liked the architecture.

(Yes, when the Americans came, the plan was to demolish the city. But that was much later).

Re: Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925

#15

Post by swayvil »

DocTomoe wrote: post #11
richliss wrote: post #2

As someone who grew up in a city that did this, it was a terrible idea then and remains so. Town planners who like brutalism and everything modern are insane. Just look at Birmingham, England - they knocked down beautiful buildings to put up brutalist eyesores to then knock down brutalist eyesores and replace them with a different type of modern architecture that will look awful in 20 years. There's a reason that peo…

Turns out that people who dislike brutalist living silos are often also the same people who think we have a housing crisis. You can't have everyone live in Bath unless you demolish it and put Pruitt-Igoe 2.0 onto it. And as you've correctly pointed out: what then would be the attraction of any desirable place?

The problem is too many people.

The question is, what horrible dystopian method are we gonna use for those who insist on breeding like rats?

Forced sterilization? Containment ghettos? Euthanasia squads?...

Yes, scary. But so are megablocks.

Re: Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925

#16

Post by verisimi »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #3

The big problem with Le Corb is not that his stuff is ugly. It’s that his designs are inhuman. No one with any choice wants to live or work in that kind of development. It’s striking! Bold! Architects love the look! But form should follow function and Le Corb’s idea of function is “a machine for living” and there’s not too much room in that vision for things extraneous to living like “dreaming” or “enjoying life,” so…

But what's wrong with living in a tiny space stacked together with everyone else like tinned sardines on the shelf?!

Re: Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925

#18

Post by adolph »

OpieCunningham wrote: post #14

Le Corbusier, a pioneer of YIMBYism. To be fair, housing costs in Paris would be much more reasonable, both due to such a glut of housing and the subsequent decreased interest in living there.

Destroy the village in order to save it

http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2010/02/it-became-necessary-t...

Re: Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925

#19

Post by dirtyid »

Big fan of megablock living in east Asia. Radiant City plan wouldn't have fared well in real life, but I imagine project if built, would be remediated into nice high density mix use neighbourhoods over time. Infill some street level retail, updated cladding over time. Could have worked, and probably better quality units for more people than constantly modernizing Haussmann blocks.

Re: Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925

#20

Post by orthoxerox »

DocTomoe wrote: post #11
richliss wrote: post #2

As someone who grew up in a city that did this, it was a terrible idea then and remains so. Town planners who like brutalism and everything modern are insane. Just look at Birmingham, England - they knocked down beautiful buildings to put up brutalist eyesores to then knock down brutalist eyesores and replace them with a different type of modern architecture that will look awful in 20 years. There's a reason that peo…

Turns out that people who dislike brutalist living silos are often also the same people who think we have a housing crisis. You can't have everyone live in Bath unless you demolish it and put Pruitt-Igoe 2.0 onto it. And as you've correctly pointed out: what then would be the attraction of any desirable place?

Why not build more Baths next to the old one instead?
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