"Architecture or Revolution": Taylorism, Technocracy, and Social Change

Author(s): Mary McLeod

Source: Art Journal, Vol. 43, No. 2, Revising Modernist History: The Architecture of the
1920s and 1930s (Summer, 1983), pp. 132-147
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/776649
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'Architecture o r Revo lutio n":
Taylo rism, Techno cracy, and
So cial Change
By Mary McLeo d
Le Co rbusier's so cial and po litical
po sitio nco ntinues to beo neo f the
mo st co ntro versial d imensio ns o f his ca-
reer. Ontheo nehand , Po st-Mo d ernist
critics and architects d eno uncehis messi-
anicso cial visio n: his belief that architec-
tureis a to o l fo rso cial
red emptio n.
Charles
Jencks, fo rinstance, sarcastically d escribes
LeCo rbusier's "hero ico bject
o f every
d ay
use"as the"new, revo lutio nary
d eter-
gent";
theed ito rs o f Harvard Architecture
Review co nd emnhis
uto pianismwiththeir
assertio nthat "architecturecanpro fit mo re
by wo rking
withwhat 'is' ratherthanwhat
'sho uld be.'
"'
Ontheo therhand , histo ri-
ans haveo ftenbeen
skeptical
o f theclaim
that
po litics played
a significant
ro leinthe
fo rmulatio no f Le Co rbusier's wo rk.
Reyner
Banhamand Co linRo wecall
attentio nto theacad emicstrains inLe
Co rbusier's
thinking;
mo rerecently, Wil-
liamCurtis d ismisses
po litics
as irrelevant
to the
generatio n
o f LeCo rbusier's fo rms.2
Inco ntrast to the
po sitio n
o f current archi-
tectural
po lemics,
thestand ard bio graph-
ical
interpretatio n
maintains that hewas an
essentially apo litical man, go verned by
aesthetic co nsid eratio ns and an all-
embracing
humanism.3 PeterBlake's The
MasterBuild ers makes
explicit
this inter-
pretatio n:
Thefacts arethat Co rbuis
to tally
d isinterested in
po litics;
that hefind s
it
necessary,
at times, to d eal with
po liticians
ino rd erto achievecertain
impo rtant o bjectives
o f
planning
and
red evelo pment;
and that his o wn
"po litical"
philo so phy
has to d o with
suchissues as the
co ntinuity
o f civi-
lizatio no nearthand theneed fo r
assuring
such
co ntinuity-co ncerns
that areno t
easily
labeled interms o f
to d ay's po litical pressuregro ups.4
Fig.
1 "If Paris beco mes Americanized ."LeCo rbusier
published
this
newspaper
clipping d iscussing
PlanVo isin(1925)
inL'Almanachd 'architecturemo d erne(1925).
LeCo rbusierhimself wo uld haveglad ly
end o rsed this assessment-at least until
1930.
Thro ugho ut
thetwenties hevehe-
mently
d enied
any party affiliatio ns; he
frequently
cited thevario us
po litical epi-
thets
given
to him-Bo lshevist, Fascist,
petit bo urgeo is-as pro o f
o f his o wnneu-
trality.
Hewas, hed eclared , strictly
a
pro -
fessio nal man. At the co nclusio no f
Urbanisme, hestates:
I amanarchitect; no o neis
go ing
to
makea
po litician
o f me. Everyo ne,
inhis o wnd o mainwhereheis an
expert,
can
apply
his
special
kno wl-
ed ge
and carry
his so lutio ns to their
lo gical
co nclusio n....
[VilleCo ntempo raine]
has no label,
it is no t d ed icated to o ur
existing
Bo urgeo is-Capitalist So ciety
no rto
theThird Internatio nal. It is a tech-
nical wo rk....
Things
areno t revo lutio nized by
making
revo lutio ns. Thereal revo -
lutio nlies intheso lutio n
o f existing
pro blems.5
His task, likethat o f the
"healthy
and
virile"
engineer,
was to measure, analyze,
and
pro po se
so lutio ns-a ro le, LeCo rbu-
sierbelieved , remo ved fro mthe
vagaries
and fluctuatio ns o f
parliamentary po litics.
Yet this
purpo rted neutrality,
as Po st-
Mo d ernists haveintuitively und ersto o d , d id
no t
imply
iso latio no rd etachment fro m
so ciety.
LeCo rbusierwas
d eeply engaged
inso cial issues, altho ugh
his invo lvement
generally
d efies
party
labels. Wo rd s like
"technical,""lo gical,""so lutio n,"and
"expert"
all asso ciatehimwitha
general
132 Art Jo urnal
Fig.
2 A
wo rksho p plan
inrelief. An
impo rtant co mpo nent
o f
Taylo rism
was the
o rganizatio n
o f theo rd erand d irectio no f the
pro d uctio npro cess. Perspective
views and
mo d els were
frequently
used to illustratethe
pro d uctio n
flo w o f multi-sto ry wo rksho ps.
id eo lo gical po sitio n
current inpo stwar
Francethat was pred icated
o nAmerican
mo d els o f ind ustrial ratio nalizatio nand
managerial
refo rm. Bo thart and po litics
were
placed
und ertherubrico f
pro fessio nal
expertise.
Farfro m
being
vo id o f specific
po litical
and so cial implicatio ns,
this visio n
-inco rpo rating Taylo rism, Fo rd ism, and
o thermo d els o f so -called ScientificMan-
agement-frequently
led to specific
stances
o ninternatio nal co mmerce, wo rld go vern-
ment, trad eregulatio ns, pro d uctio n
hier-
archies, and land o wnership,
all o f which
heco nceived as essential co mpo nents
o f a
fo reseenso cial regeneratio n.
This visio n
linking techno lo gy
and so cial change,
as
this
essay
will
attempt
to sho w, was fund a-
mental to LeCo rbusier's architectureand
theo ry d uring
the
po stwarperio d .
Taylo rism
An
impo rtant
d imensio no f this id eo lo gical
stancewas Taylo rism,
theAmericansys-
temo f ScientificManagement.
Likemany
Euro peanpro fessio nals,
LeCo rbusiersaw
Taylo rism
as a means o f breaking
with
prewarso ciety,
a key to so cial renewal.
Thewo rd "Taylo rism"appears
inalmo st
every
o neo f his bo o ks fro mApres le
cubisme
(1918)
to La Villerad ieuse(1935);
Ville
Co ntempo raine
and PlanVo isin,
premised upo nspeed , efficiency,
and eco n-
o my,
werearchitectural visio ns o f the
Americanind ustrial
uto pia
mad emanifest
(Fig. 1).
Taylo rism, po pularized
inthefirst
years
o f the
century,
was a metho d o f labo rd is-
cipline
and
plant o rganizatio n
based upo n
o stensibly
scientificinvestigatio ns
o f labo r
efficiency
and incentivesystems.
Inthe
early
1880s theAmericanengineer,
Fred -
erick Winslo w
Taylo r,
d isturbed
by
wo rk
slo wd o wns, o rganized manufacturing
plants
and d evised wage
scales based o n
piecewo rk,
to
impro veefficiency and ex-
pand pro d uctio n(Figs.
2 and 3). His
o bjective
was to maximizetheratio o f
o utput
to
input,
benefits to co st; ratio nal-
ized management,
hebelieved , wo uld bring
o ptimal pro d uctio n.
Themo st
o riginal
featureo f his
system,
ho wever, was the
applicatio n
o f
efficiency
engineering
to labo rrelatio ns; Taylo rism
entailed , to usethewo rd s o f its zealo us
fo llo wers, "a co mplete
mental revo lu-
tio n." Bo thlabo rers and
management,
Taylo rexplained ,
"taketheireyes
o ff o f
thed ivisio no f the
surplus
as the
impo rtant
matter, and to gether
turntheirattentio n
to ward
increasing
thesizeo f thesurplus.
"6
Theincreased pro d uctivity
wo uld ulti-
mately
benefit all. With
scarcity
and co n-
straint eliminated , therewo uld no
lo nger
bebitterco nfro ntatio no verthed ivisio ns
subsumed by
a ratio nal techno lo gy
o f po lit-
ical and eco no miccho ice. As thehisto rian
Charles Maierhas sho wn, it was this po lit-
ical and so cial implicatio n,
mo rethanTay-
lo rism's strictly
technical features, that
generated
a Euro pean
interest.7
Befo reWo rld WarI Taylo rism
was
alread y
kno wninFranceby a small gro up
o f
technicians.
Theirinterest had first been
sparked
at theParis Expo sitio n
o f
1900,
whereBethlehemSteel exhibited high-
speed
steel. TheFrenchind ustrialists hailed
this example
o f Taylo r's experiments
as a
great
scientificinventio n,
and by 1914 the
metallurgist
Henri LeChatelier, "lebar-
num
frangais
d eTaylo r,"
had translated
threeo f Taylo r's
majo rwo rks: OntheArt
o f Cutting
Metals (La Co upe
d es metaux),
Sho p Management (La Directio nd es ate-
liers),
and ThePrinciples o f Scientific
Management (Les principes d 'o rganisatio n
scientifique).
In1907-08 ind ustrialists in-
tro d uced Taylo r's time-stud y
metho d s into
facto ries, but theseearly effo rts, kno wnto
thewo rkers as "systematized sweating,"
generated
a
spate
o f unfavo rablepublicity
and end ed abruptly
ina series o f vio lent
strikes thro ugho ut
theregio n
o f Paris in
1913.8
Wo rld WarI, ho wever, co mpletely
reversed this situatio n. Thed emand s fo r
rapid , precisepro d uctio n,
thelo ss o f man-
po wer,
and theintro d uctio no f new, un-
skilled (and o ftenweaker) wo rkers into the
labo rfo rceenco uraged
interest inAmeri-
canind ustrial inno vatio ns; in1916 the
publicatio n
o f theFrenchengineer
Henri
Fayo l's
Ad ministratio nind ustrielleet
generale
ad d ed impetus
to the"scientific"
o rganizatio n
o f war-related ind ustries.
Newly
ratio nalized enterprises
includ ed a
majo r
stateplant
fo rgunpo wd er
manufac-
ture, large
secto rs o f thesteel ind ustry,
the
shipbuild ing yard s
o f Penho et (thebuild ers
o f the
great
Frenchliners Paris and theIle
d eFrance), and a military
auto mo bile
repairsho p,
thelast celebrated in1918
thro ugh
a series o f lectures spo nso red by
theSo ciety
fo rtheEnco uragement
o f Na-
tio nal Ind ustry.
Thego vernment
itself was
a lead erintheintro d uctio no f the
precepts
o f ScientificManagement.
Albert Tho mas,
theMinistero f Armaments, spo ke
o f the
waras an"eno rmo us ind ustrial revo lu-
tio n"fo rFranceand
plead ed
withlabo r
and management
to intensify pro d uctio n,
igno re
class d ifferences, and accept Tay-
lo rism. Inearly
1918 Clemenceauhimself
signed
a d ecreeasking
that all head s o f
military
establishments stud y
new ind us-
trial
techniques
and
pro po sed
thecreatio n
o f a Taylo rite"planning d epartment"
in
every plant.9
But it was no t o nly thed emand s o f war
pro d uctio n
that generated
theimpulse
to ward s ind ustrial inno vatio n; thefo rmi-
d abletask o f reco nstructio nenco uraged
explo ratio n
o f mo re
general applicatio ns
o f mo d ern
pro d uctivetechniques. By
the
134 Art Jo urnal
Fig.
4 Aninvad ed area nearLens inNo rtheasternFrance,
No vember1918.
Fig. 5 Thenew city
o f Lens-Merico urt. This gard encity d evelo pment
withits pitched
ro o f ho uses and picturesqueplan
was typical
o f thereco nstructio neffo rts fo llo wing
the
war. Erected by
therailro ad co mpany No rd , it was o neo f several to wns d esigned
co mpletely by engineers.
Co nstructio nbegan
o neweek aftergo vernment
autho rizatio n,
May 9, 1919, and insix mo nths 800 ho uses wereco nstructed .
war's end , thed evastatio nwas immense:
inthe4,329 co mmunes that had beeno ccu-
pied
o revacuated , so me6,147 public
build -
ings-to wnhalls, scho o ls, and churches-
wererazed ; 293,039 d wellings
wereco m-
pletely d estro yed ;
ano ther435,961 ho mes
severely d amaged ;
and 52,734
kilo meters
o f
highways
need ed to berebuilt. Mucho f
no rtheast Francewas red uced to rubble:
so me100,000 wago nlo ad s
wererequired
to clearthed ebris fro mthecity
o f Armen-
tieres alo ne(Figs.
4 and 5).10 Altho ugh
afterthewarmany simply
wanted to
recap-
turethe
past
and returnto "no rmalcy,"
therewered issid ents, amo ng
them
pro gres-
siveind ustrialists, o fficials, and trad eunio n
gro ups,
who so ught
to ad apt
theinno va-
tio ns o f warto a
peacetimeeco no my.
In
February
1919 Lo uis Lo ucheur, theMinis-
tero f Reco nstructio n, d ecreed that "there
must befro mno w o no nly
o nehymn
o nthe
lips
o f every
Frenchman-thehymn
to
pro d uctio n,"
and Leo nJo uhaux, Secretary-
General o f the
principal
trad eunio nfed er-
atio n, theCGT, co nd emned theto leratio n
o f "thewo rst
prewar
metho d s and fo llies,
the
practices
that mad eo urind ustry puny
and shabby."
1 l
As
early
as 1917, Lieuten-
ant Co lo nel G.
Espitallier
d eclared that
"reco nstructio nsho uld bea
po int
o f
d epar-
turefo r
pro gress
to ward a mo rescientifi-
cally
mo d em[fo rmo f] o rganizatio n."12
Intheavant-gard e
art wo rld , LeCo rbusier
(thenstill Charles-Ed o uard Jeanneret) and
Amed eeOzenfant wereamo ng
thefirst to
anno uncetheirend o rsement o f new ind us-
trial metho d s:
Thewarhas end ed ; all is
o rganized ;
all is clearand
purified ;
facto ries are
built; no thing
is
just
likeit was befo re
theWar; the
great Struggle
tested
everything,
it d estro yed
senilemeth-
o d s and replaced
themwiththo se
whichthebattlepro ved
best.
[Taylo rism]
is no t a
questio n
o f
any-
thing
mo rethanexpo iting
intelli-
gently
scientificd isco veries.
Instinct, gro ping,
and empiricism
are
replaced by
scientificprinciples
o f
analysis, o rganizatio n,
and clas-
sificatio n.
13
Taylo rism,
a fund amental co mpo nent
o f
thePurists' l'esprit no uveau, no w became
a
pervasive
call ind iscussio ns o f reco n-
structio n, just
as it had beenin
plans
fo r
warpro d uctio n.
As a writerinRevued es
Vivantes explained ,
"Thewarmad ethe
Taylo r
metho d theo rd ero f the
d ay.
. ...
ThenameTaylo r, whichwas
barely
kno wn
inFranceby
well-info rmed peo pleo nly
a
few
years ago ,
is no w mentio ned
by every-
o ne: o wners, engineers
and wo rkers."
14
Also
impo rtant
to theintro d uctio no f
Taylo rism, ho wever, was a
lo ng-stand ing
3
Fig. 6
(left) Ad vertisement fo ra cement-gun, L'Esprit
No uveauno . 28. LeCo rbusier
used the
cement-gun
to co verthe
pressed
straw walls o f the
Esprit
No uveau
pavilio n,
as
well as the
gard enwalls o f his
ho using pro ject at Pessac.
Fig.
7
(right) A
page
fro m
L'Esprit
No uveau(no . 27), current events sectio n, No vember
1924. LeCo rbusierhad
previo usly published
the
upper
series o f
pho to graphs
inVers une
architectureto illustratetheevo lutio no f a "stand ard ."Heto o k the
lo wer-right
pho to graph
fro mL'Illustratio n(July 12, 1924), a French
picturemagazine
that co vered
clo sely
the
d evelo pments
o f theauto mo bile
ind ustry.
id eo lo gical straininFrench
po litics
o f
ratio nal ad ministrativerefo rm-in
partic-
ular, Saint-Simo nianism. Thenineteenth-
century so cial thinkerHenri d eSaint-Simo n
had
pro po sed
a
system
o f
o rganicinequality
with
"pro d uctive"
and "ind ustrial"ele-
ments
replacing
useless aristo crats and
land o wners; inhis 300-memberChamber
o f Inventio ns so me200
places
wereo ccu-
pied by engineers. Americantheo ries o f
refo rmwere
stro ngly reminiscent o f this
nineteenth-century uto pianplan
intheir
pro po sal
o f the
engineeras so cial manager,
theirco nd emnatio ns o f wasteand ineffi-
ciency,
and theirbelief that anincreased
aggregate
wealthwo uld bebeneficial to
all. Afterthe warSaint-Simo nianism
gained
a small
fo llo wing
withGabriel
Darquet's publicatio n
o f LePro d ucteur
(1920-33), named afterthenineteenth-
century perio d ical.15
This strict revival
fo und anecho inthe
general
end o rsements
o f
pro d uctio n, mo d ernizatio n, and new
techno lo gy by
such
pro minent figures as
the
po pularmayo ro f Lyo nand Rad ical
lead er, Ed o uard Herrio t; Clemenceau's
Ministero f Co mmerce, EtienneClementel;
theed ito ro f
Figaro , LucienRo mier; and
theresid ent
general
o f Mo ro cco , Marshal
Lyauty.
Oneo f themo st
impo rtant po pu-
larizers o f theAmericanind ustrial metho d s
was a
wo rking
mechanicand unio nlead er,
HyacinthDubreuil, who setwo stud ies
Stand ard s (1929) and No uveaux Stand ard s
(1931) were
amo ng
LeCo rbusier's mo st
heavily anno tated bo o ks. 16
By 1923
Taylo rismwas
po pulareno ugh
to bethe
subject
o f anelabo ratesatirepub-
lished o nthefro nt
page
o f
L'Intransigeant.
Sho rtly afterward s, LeQuo tid ienserialized
Henry Fo rd 's memo irs and in1925
pub-
lished a Frenched itio no f My Lifeand My
Wo rk.
17
Fo rd ismhad jo ined Taylo rismas
a mo d el o f ratio nalizatio n; the
assembly
line, stand ard izatio n, and the
expansio n
o f
a mass market
thro ughhigherwages and
lo wer
prices gaveimpetus
to thebelief that
so cial
pro blems co uld bealleviated within
thebo und aries o f
capitalism. TheFrench,
liketheGermans, appeared
to takethe
claims o f Fo rd 's
gho st-writtenbo o ks at
face
value, seeing
themas
"primitive
so cialism"; Fo rd 's
pro gno sticatio no f a
carfo r
every family was a
signo f the
well-being to co me.
18
Also
po pular, altho ugheventually o ver-
shad o wed
by Americanmetho d s, was a
nativeFrench
theo ry
o f ind ustrial ratio nal-
izatio n, Fayo lism.
Inco ntrast to
Taylo r
and Fo rd who co ncentrated o nthe
o pera-
tio nal levels o f
ind ustry, Henri Fayo l fo -
cused o nissues o f
management and ad min-
istrativerefo rm. His Ad ministratio nin-
d ustrielleet
generaleespecially attracted
French
emplo yers who had initially been
put
o ff
by
theexcessivetechnical d etail o f
thefirst articles o n
Taylo rism.
19
Le Co rbusier
pro bably
first became
familiarwiththe
principles
o f Scientific
Management d uring thewar
years,
when
hestud ied extensively at the
Biblio theque
Natio nale. In1917 hewro teto his Swiss
friend WilliamRitterthat hewas immersed
in
Taylo rism,
but no t witho ut so meambiv-
alence: hecalled it "theho rribleand in-
eluctable life o f to mo rro w."20 But his
d o ubts had
clearly
subsid ed
by
thetimeo f
the
publicatio n
o f Ozenfant's and his
Apres
lecubismethe
fo llo wing year,
and
thro ugh-
o ut the
partners'
cultural review
L'Esprit
No uveau(1920-25) references to mass
pro d uctio n
and eco no micefficiency abo und
(Figs. 6 and 7). Eveninits ad vertisements,
"Taylo rism"
is cited .21
LeCo rbusier's interest in
Taylo rism,
ho wever, was mo rethantheo retical.
By
December1914 hehad alread y d evelo ped ,
in
respo nse
to theimmensed evastatio no f
thefirst mo nths o f thewar, theDo m-ino
system,
o neo f theearliest
applicatio ns
o f
mass-pro d uctio ntechniques
to ho using.22
Afterhis arrival inParis inFebruary 1917
heserved as anarchitectural co nsultant fo r
theS.A.B.A. (So cieted 'Applicatio n
d u
Beto nArme), anasso ciatio no f
engineers
and ind ustrialists invo lved intheco nstruc-
tio no f natio nal d efense
pro jects. Sho rtly
afterward s, healso fo und ed his o wnenter-
prise,
S.E.I.E. (So cieted 'Entreprises
In-
d ustrielles et Etud es), whichinclud ed bo th
a small co ncreteblo ck facto ry
and a re-
searchsectio nd evo ted to the
stud y
o f co n-
creteand refrigeratio n.
LeCo rbusierd e-
scribed his enthusiasmfo rthis new ind us-
trial end eavo rto Ritter:
Thescene
magnificent:
eno rmo us
gas
meters, fo ur
hugechimneys
to the
east. I breathe
pro ud ly
o n
my
site:
thebureaucrat, the
agent,
thefunc-
tio nary,
theeunucharchitect will be
o bliterated o ne
d ay, finally.
I will
makebeautiful
prints
o f
my facto ry
and I will beableto talk o f
"my
sto cks"and
"my
sales"likea rice
o rco al merchant!23
At S.E.I.E. heco ntinued his
pursuit
o f
prefabricated
lo w-co st
ho using
"fo rreco n-
structio ninthed evastated
regio ns"
and
gained
first-hand
experience
with
Taylo r-
isminthetasks o f ind ustrial
d esign
and
pro d uctio n. Altho ugh
the
facto ry
venture
so o nraninto d ifficulties that culminated in
bankruptcy
inthe
early twenties, LeCo r-
busiermaintained clo seco ntact with
engi-
neers and ind ustrialists.
Thro ugho ut
thetwenties LeCo rbusier,
like
many
o f his German
co ntempo raries,24
regard ed Taylo rism
and serial
pro d uctio n
as fund amental
co mpo nents
o f so cial re-
newal. Whiletheaesthetic
suggestio ns
o f
mechanisticrepetitio nand stand ard izatio n
echo ed
many
o f his o wnfo rmal
principles,
the
pro mise
o f ind ustrial
efficiency
and
greaterpro d uctivity
allo wed himto co n-
ceiveo f architectureas a so cial to o l.
Only
withthe
applicatio n
o f mo d emind ustrial
Summer1983 135
techniques,
LeCo rbusierbelieved , co uld
architecturebepro d uced cheaply, and thus
beco meavailableto all.
This
argument
beco mes o neo f the
pre-
d o minant themes inhis famo us po lemic
Vers unearchitecture. As
Reyner
Banham
has d emo nstrated , thetext, co mpo sed
largely
o f a series o f articles published
in
L'Esprit No uveau, canbeinterpreted as a
d ialecticbetweeno ld and new, classical
and mechanical, architectureand
engi-
neering,
whichco nclud es that architecture
must
inco rpo ratethelesso ns o f mass pro -
d uctio no r
perish.25 Altho ugh
its links with
the
past
are
d eep
and
explicit,
thebo o k
stro ngly pro claims
a co mmitment to an
ind ustrial future. It is, infact, ina passage
fo llo wing
his
no stalgictributeto the
Acro p-
o lis that LeCo rbusierintro d uces his mo st
significant and o riginal argument,
"Mass-
Pro d uctio nHo uses". Herehe
specifically
ad vo cates Taylo rismand mo d emind ustrial
metho d s, and at thesametimeillustrates
his o wnstud ies fo rlo w-co st prefabricated
ho using: Do m-ino , Mo no l, Citro han, and
theImmeuble-Villas.
Thesectio n
o pens
withtheassertio nthat
Bo nnevay and Lo ucheur's reco nstructio n
plan
fo r500,000 lo w-co st d wellings
is an
"exceptio nal event,"and co ntinues with
thestatement that thebuild ing ind ustry is
co mpletely unequipped
to meet sucha
pro gram.26 Theo nly so lutio n, LeCo rbu-
sierasserts, is theaband o nment o f hand -
crafted
pro d uctio n
and the
wid espread
ad o ptio n
o f mo d emind ustrial
techniques
-technical
specialists, wo rksho ps,
stan-
d ard izatio n, mass
pro d uctio n;
theinno va-
tio ns o f war
manufacturing
must be
applied
to
ho using.
Thewarhas shakenus all
up.
One
talked o f
Taylo rism.
It was d o ne.
Co ntracto rs have
bo ught
new
plants
-ingenio us, patient
and
rapid .
Will
the
yard
so o nbea
facto ry?
Thereis
talk o f ho uses mad eina mo uld
by
po uring
in
liquid
co ncretefro m
abo ve, co mpleted
ino ne
d ay
as
yo u
wo uld fill a bo ttle....
No thing
is
read y,
but
everything
can
bed o ne. Inthenext twenty years,
big ind ustry
will haveco -o rd inated
its stand ard ized materials, co mpara-
blewiththo seo f
metallurgy;
tech-
nical achievement will havecarried
heating
and
lighting
and metho d s o f
ratio nal co nstructio nfarbeyo nd any-
thing
weare
acquainted
with. Co n-
tracto rs'
yard s
will no
lo nger
be
spo rad icd umps
inwhich
everything
breathes co nfusio n; financial and
so cial
o rganizatio n, using
co ncerted
and fo rceful metho d s, will beableto
so lvethe
ho using questio n
and the
yard s
will beo na
hugescale, runand
explo ited
like
go vernment
o ffices.
Dwellings
. . . will be eno rmo us
and
square-built and no
lo ngera d is-
mal
co ngeries; they
will
inco rpo rate
the
principle
o f
mass-pro d uctio n
and
large-scaleind ustrializatio n.27
This visio no f thefuturemo d els ho using
pro d uctio no n
airplaneand auto mo bile
manufacture. Just as Henry Fo rd 's assem-
bly
linewas to result in
lo wer-priced go o d s
and mo reavailableco mmo d ities fo rthe
wo rker, so , to o , ind ustrialized build ing
pro cesses wereto red uce
ho using
co sts
and
pro vid e
a "maximumd welling"fo r
all. Eventhe
relatio nship betweentenant
and land lo rd was to bechanged inthe
"inevitableso cial evo lutio n."Lo werco sts
wo uld
permit a systemo f rent
purchase
in
whichtenants wo uld takeshares inthe
enterprise.28 Similarly, a mo reefficient
urbanism, includ ing ratio nal
transpo rtatio n
systems and anincreased d ensity o f ser-
vices, wo uld lead to
greater
eco no mies
and increased land values. Oneneed no t
wo rry abo ut
sacrificing
therichto so lve
theso cial
pro blems
o f the
po o r.
Thesur-
pluses, as LeCo rbusierwas laterto
explain,
wo uld besufficiently largeto co mpensate
theo wners
"up
to the
present
valueo f
their
pro perty.'
'29 Ad d itio nal fund s wo uld
still remainfo r
greaterpublicservices. Le
Co rbusier's "technical so lutio n,"like
Taylo r's "mental revo lutio n,"o ffered an
impro ved enviro nment fo rall.
Theso cial
urgency
o f
implementatio n
beco mes thefo cus o f thelast
chapter
o f
Vers unearchitecture, written
specifically
fo rthebo o k's
publicatio n.
LeCo rbusier's
analysis was based
upo n
the
assumptio n
that the
physical enviro nment-namely,
ho using-was themajo rso cial ill
facing
France. "Thebalanceo f
so ciety co mes
d o wnto a
questio n
o f
build ing."30 Bo th
wo rkers and intellectuals (suchappeals
to
a
pro fessio nal
elitewereco mmo nto bo th
LeCo rbusierand
Taylo rist ad vo cates) suf-
fered
serio usly
fro mthelack o f
appro priate
d wellings: tuberculo sis, mental d emo ral-
izatio n, and thed estructio no f thefamily
were
amo ng
thed ire
co nsequences; so cial
upheaval
was imminent in
po stwarFrance.
Thebo o k co nclud es withhis famo us rhet-
o rical
plea
fo rrefo rm:
So ciety
is filled witha vio lent d e-
sirefo r
so mething whichit may o b-
taino rmay no t.
Everything
lies in
that:
everything d epend s o ntheeffo rt
mad eand theattentio npaid
to these
alarming sympto ms.
Architectureo rRevo lutio n.
Revo lutio ncanbeavo id ed .3'
This statement o f
stro ng pro test
was still
farless rad ical thantheco nclusio ns o f the
gro wing
Co mmunist
Party.
But
altho ugh
Vers unearchitecturewas a call fo rrefo rm
no t vio lent revo lutio n, fo r
wo rking
within
existing po litical
and eco no micstructures
ratherthan
o verthro wing them, it was
hard ly a retrenchment into architectureas
aniso lated
d iscipline.
Inco ntrast to the
Beaux-Arts
practio ners
who
rarely
co n-
sid ered inthe
prewarperio d
theissueo f
ho using o rnew materials, LeCo rbusier
was
arguing
fo ran
expansio n
o f the
very
co nceptio n
o f thearchitect's ro leto em-
bracetheco nsid eratio no f so cial
pro blems.
Taylo rism
and new ind ustrial metho d s were
theo nly way
thearchitect co uld co ntinue
to berelevant ina so ciety
threatened with
po tential
d estructio n.
LeCo rbusierstated this with
greater
zeal and to a
largerlay aud iencethand id
any
o f his French
co ntempo raries,
but he
was
hard ly alo neinhis
perceptio n
o f ho us-
ing
as "the
pro blem
o f theepo ch"and "at
thero o t o f so cial unrest."32 Withtheex-
ceptio n
o f theCo mmunists, all sid es o f the
po litical spectrum-republican, so cialist,
clerical-were inacco rd . InParis, abo ut
two fifths o f the
po pulatio n
weresaid to be
d angero usly ho used ; serio us o vercro wd ing
and
general
d eterio ratio no f living co nd i-
tio ns wereco mmo n. So me16,000 d eaths,
inthe1920s alo ne, wereattributed to these
co nd itio ns. Theseverity o f the
ho using
crisis threatened to d rive
trad itio nally
stable
mid d le-class
suppo rters
o f theThird Re-
public
into a
precario us
financial po sitio n
as
ho using
co sts so ared whileinco mestag-
nated .33 It was no t illo gical to seethese
co nd itio ns as lead ing
to so cial unrest. Like
LeCo rbusier, Lo ucheursaw large-scale
co nstructio no f lo w-co st ho using
as o neo f
the
o nly
means o f
preserving
theweak and
to ttering Republic.34
No rwereo therarchi-
tects
co mpletely
unawareo f thenecessity
o f
co ping
withthis immense
pro blem. Lo ng
befo rethewarend ed , as KennethSilver
has sho wn, architects argued
fo ranex-
pand ed co nceptio n
o f the
pro fessio n's
so -
cial ro le.35 Thearchitect Ad o lpheDervaux,
fo rinstance, claimed :
No w to createo rreco nstruct a
city,
is
assured ly anissueo f natio nal
eco no my,
but it's also architecture!
To sanitizea
tightly po pulated
regio n,
to
jo in
a river's banks witha
brid ge,
that's architecture.
To
planco nveniently
a lo cale, to
stud y
theinhabitant's so cial custo ms
and need s to easetheirlabo r, their
ed ucatio n, theirrest-that is, to
invo lveo nself withind ivid ual and
co llective psycho lo gy-that's
still
architecture.36
And the
large
exhibitio nLa CiteReco nsti-
tuee, held intheTuileries
gard ens
in1916
and
o rganized by
such
pro minent practi-
tio ners as
Agache, Jaussely, Jo urd ain, and
Plumet, fo cused o nthe
pro blem
o f re-
co nstructio nand theuseo f new ind ustrial
build ing
metho d s "to
spread
thefruitful
principles
o f asso ciatio n, co o peratio n,
re-
gro uping,
whichwill
co nspicuo usly
facili-
tatetherealizatio no f
plans
o f
d evelo p-
ment ..
37
Altho ughculturally,
co nservativefac-
136 ArtJo urnal
tio ns seemto haved o minatd inthe
po stwar
perio d -regio nalism
was
particularly
stro ng
inthe
early
twenties38-LeCo rbu-
sier's end o rsement o f scientificmanage-
ment was infact echo ed thro ugho ut large
segments
o f theParisianto wn-planning
mo vement. Leftists suchas Henri Sellier,
MaximeLero y,
and
Geo rges Beno it-Levy,
as well as mo reco nservativespo kesmen
suchas Lo uis Renault, PierreLhand e, and
Lo uis Lo ucheur, all ad vo cated so mefo rm
o f
"municipal Taylo rism."39 They
be-
lieved that a mo reefficient o rganizatio n
o f
transpo rtatio n
and services wo uld
pro d uce
less fatigued
wo rkers and thus
prevent
the
"d egrad atio n
and
d isintegratio n
o f human
capital."40
Fo rmo st o f theserefo rmers,
gard encity to wns, lo cated clo seto ind us-
try,
werethemo st ratio nal so lutio n. Beno it-
Levy,
fo rinstance, who sewo rk La Cite-
jard in(1904) LeCo rbusierhad stud ied
clo sely,
carried theno tio no f efficient
functio nal segregatio n(so mewhat analo -
go us
to
Taylo r's
d ivisio no f labo r)
to an
extreme. Hed ivid ed eachnew to wninto
"hamlets,"with
every hamlet representing
a d ifferent
specialty:
therewas to a hamlet
fo riro nwo rkers, fo r
carpenters,
and fo r
meno f letters.41 Also
po pular
was the
no tio no f theho meas a mo d el o f
manage-
rial efficiency,
anid ea
anticipated by
Alfred
d eFo villeand o thers o f theMuseeSo cial.
TheScientificManagement
ad vo cateFayo l
explained :
Likeany
o ther
enterprise,
theho me
has to bemanaged , i.e., it need s
fo resight, o rganizatio n, co mmand ,
co -o rd inatio n, and co ntro l....
Then
o nly
will theho me
play
the
part
whichbefits it inthe
manage-
ment training
o f
yo uth.42
But fo rmo st architects and urbanists the
applicatio n
o f ind ustrial mo d els to urban
planning
and ho use
d esign
was limited to
stud ies o f efficient
o rganizatio n
and man-
agement
o f the
physical plan. Mass-pro -
d uctio n
pro ced ures
were
largely igno red .
Theirinterests in
Taylo rism,
liketho seo f
mo st Frenchind ustrialists, weremo re
psy-
cho lo gical
thentechnical, mo reco ncerned
with
theo ry
thansubstance. Dubreuil, an
eyewitness
to bo thFrenchand American
experiments,
o bserved that
Taylo rism
had
no t
fully penetrated
evenAmericanfacto -
ries and was no mo rethana
superficial
glo ss
o nthe
o peratio ns
o f mo st French
enterprises.43
Lo ucheurand Renault, fo r
instance, d espite
certaininno vatio ns inwar
and auto mo bile
pro d uctio n,
mad eno effo rt
to
pro po seprefabricatio n
inthe
ho using
ind ustry
itself.
LeCo rbusier's techno craticstancewas
mo rerad ical thanthat o f mo st architects
and to wn
planners
inits end o rsement o f
no t
o nly efficiency
but also mass pro d uc-
tio n. Fo rd as muchas
Taylo rwas his mo d el;
stand ard izatio nand
prefabricatio nwere
pred o minant co ncerns, ho wevernaivehis
actual und erstand ing
o f theeco no micvari-
ables o f theco nstructio nind ustry may
have
been. Amo ng
theFrencharchitects o f the
early
twenties o nly Perret and Gamier,
bo thillustrated in
L'Esprit No uveau, shared
his interest innew ind ustrial metho d s.44
Yet, ino ther
respects
LeCo rbusier's
appro ach
to so cial
change
resembled that
o f themo reo fficial
to wn-planning
refo rm-
ers. Eco no micratherthanpo litical mea-
sures werethemeans to so cial refo rm. Big
business-"a
healthy and mo ral o rgan-
ism"-mo re than
parliament,
was
likely
to bethe
generato r
o f refo rm.
Business has mo d ified its habits and
custo ms. . ... Ind ustry has created
new to o ls. . . . Suchto o ls arecapa-
bleo f
ad d ing
to humanwelfareand
o f
lightening humanto il. If these
new co nd itio ns areset
against
the
past, yo u
haveRevo lutio n.45
Insho rt, LeCo rbusierenvisio ned the
"Revo lutio n"o f Fo rd ismand
Taylo rism
as an
impro ved co rpo ratecapitalism, prem-
ised o n
efficiency
and
eco no ny.
Fo rthe
ad vo cates o f
Taylo rism, so cial justicewas
a
pro d uct
o f technical ratio nalizatio n, no t
o f material
equality.
The
specificpo litical and so cial impli-
catio ns o f this
techno lo gical visio nbeco me
mo reevid ent if o neco nsid ers LeCo rbu-
sier's
writings
intheco ntext o f L'Esprit
No uveauas a who le.
Altho ugh
thereview
d ealt
pred o minantly
withthearts, it also
examined science, ind ustry, eco no mics,
so cio lo gy, and
fo reignaffairs as
to pics
o f
impo rtant co ncern.
By
thefo urthissue,
January 1921, thesubtitle
changed fro m
Revueinternatio naled 'esthetiqueto Revue
internatio naleillustreed el'activiteco n-
tempo raine; later, infact, L'Esprit No u-
veauwas to
publisha L'Esprit No uveau,
revueinternatio nalehebd o mad aired 'eco n-
o mique.46
As theed ito rs
explained
inthe
preface
to anarticle"Wilso net l'human-
isme
frangais,"
Afew o f o urread ers were
surprised
that l'Esprit No uveausho wed interest
ineco no micand
so cio lo gical ques-
tio ns.
L'Esprit No uveauwants to be
the
great Review
o f co nnectio nfo r
peo ple
who think, . . . who canno t
but realizethat inthis d ay and
ageall
subjects aremo rethanevero f
great
relevanceand that intellectual and
spiritual questio ns areclo sely related
to theso cial situatio n.47
Inthe
spectrum
o f well-kno wnFrench
cultural reviews o f the
epo ch, L'Esprit
No uveau
appears
as o neo f themo st aes-
thetically
and
po litically pro gressive. Only
Clarteand thelaterRevo lutio nSurrealiste
werefurtherto theleft. At a timewhen
many artistic
publicatio ns werecalling fo r
a
resurgence
o f
regio nal styles and a return
to la trad itio nlatine,48 L'Esprit No uveau
was
unequivo cal
inits end o rsement o f
mo d ern
techno lo gy and an
acco mpanying
so cial
change.
Intheelectio ns o f 1919, the
parties
o f the
right, gro uped
intheBlo c
Natio nal, wo n433 seats intheChamber,
against
a mere86 fo rtheRad icals and 104
fo rtheSo cialists; fo rthefirst timesince
the1890s, clerical and
reactio nary seg-
ments d o minated . Particularly d isturbing
to this co nservative
public, yearning
fo r
stability
afterthewartime
upheaval, was
L'Esprit No uveau's internatio nalist o rien-
tatio nand its co mmitment to land refo rm.
Altho ugh
fo rso meFrenchind ustrialists
the
ad vo cacy
o f new, pro d uctivemetho d s
was a
pro tectio nist call, a means to insure
France's ind ustrial preeminence,
fo rLe
Co rbusier, as fo rthetechno crats invo lved
inthe
Pan-Euro pemo vement, it was intrin-
sically tied to a bro ad erwo rld visio n.49
Taylo r's o rd erly facto ry creating o rd erly
menwas eventually
to lead to a mo re
o rd erly wo rld . LeCo rbusier's future, like
that o f theearlierSaint-Simo nians, was
o neo f o rd ero na series o f evergrand er
scales; ratio nalizatio nwo uld
spread
ineven
wid er
spheres, resulting eventually
inthe
attainment o f universal
harmo ny. Interna-
tio nal
co o peratio nand red uced trad ere-
strictio ns wereessential
co mpo nents
o f this
pro jectio n.
Just as trad itio nal class struc-
tures had littlerelatio nto
appro priate
man-
agerial hierarchies inScientific
Manage-
ment, so , to o , natio nal bo und aries had o nly
marginal co nnectio nto issues o f ind ustrial
pro d uctio nand eco no mic
exchange. The
architect's end o rsement o f aninternatio nal
stylisticvo cabulary related
d irectly
to his
co nceptio n
o f ind ustrial
efficiency
and a
netwo rk o f
ratio nally unified
enterprises.
Astand ard izatio no f architectural ele-
ments, LeCo rbusierstated inhis article
"No s
mo yens,"wo uld no t
o nly result in
greaterfo rmal
unity, but also lead to "uni-
versal co llabo ratio n"and "universal
metho d s."50 Thelarger-scalepro d uctio n
and wid eraccess to
techno lo gical inno va-
tio ns
resulting
fro ma bro ad ermarket wo uld
lo werco sts and benefit all. LeCo rbusier
cited the
Barrage
d eBarberine, with
parts
co ming
fro m
Germany, Switzerland , and
theUnited States, as an
example
o f the
kind o f
"great wo rk"
emerging fro minter-
natio nal
co o peratio n;
it embo d ied "thesum
o f man's
kno wled ge."Subsequently, he
suggested
inUrbanismethat Paris sho uld
berebuilt with
fo reigncapital; German,
American, Japanese, and
Englishinvest-
ment wo uld insurethe
city against future
attack.51 Insho rt, ratio nal business
prac-
tices meant wo rld
peace.
CamilleMauclair,
theart critico f
Figaro , was
particularly
sard o nicabo ut this
suggestio n
fo r"the
internatio nalizatio n o f thecentero f Paris":
This immensevalueo f thebuilt cen-
tero f Paris-it wo uld be
go o d fo ro ne
sectio n
o f
it to
belo ng
to
fo reigners.
If, o f thenumero us billio ns o f
gigan-
tic
glass
to wers to beraised , a
large
Summer1983 137
part belo nged
to Americans and Ger-
mans, d o n't
yo u
think that they wo uld
prevent
theto wers fro m
being d e-
stro yed by lo ng-rangecano ns....
Theinteresting thing
is no t to d e-
cid ewhetherthis
genius is reco ver-
ing
withthe
help
o f
psychiatry, but
whetherthis Picasso o f co ncreteis
no t ratherLenin.52
LeCo rbusier, perhaps
in
anticipatio n
o f
suchattacks, was careful in
L'Esprit No u-
veauto sho w
examples
o f "Frenchratio -
nalism"-Perrault's east
fagad e
o f the
Lo uvreo rGabriel's Placed ela Co nco rd e
-and to d efend the
straight
lineas French.53
But mo rethanmo st
co ntempo rary
French
architects heresisted thenatio nalismthat
was to characterizetheExpo sitio n
d es Arts
Deco ratifs o f 1925.
Other
aspects
o f L'Esprit No uveaureiter-
ated LeCo rbusier's internatio nalism. The
review
published numero us articles by
fo r-
eigners (Lo o s, Gro pius, Rathenau, and the
Czecho slo vakianSiblik), cited fo reign
perio d icals frequently, and d evo ted co n-
sid erable
space
to thed iscussio no f fo reign
literatureand
painting.
Erik Satie, inhis
"Cahiers d 'unmammifere,"rid iculed the
chauvinismthat
permeated
Frenchart cir-
cles: "Hewho d o es no t lo ve
Wagner
d o es
no t lo veFrance.
"s4
Thereview inits arti-
cles d evo ted to
"eco no mique"
and "so ci-
o lo gique"and inits o neissueL'Esprit
No uveau
Eco no miqueunequivo cally
re-
jected pro tectio nist po licies
infavo ro f free
trad eand
greaterinternatio nal exchange.
Mo d ern
ind ustry
and co mmercewereen-
visio ned as transcend ing natio nal bo und a-
ries and regio nal d ifferences. R. Chenevier,
thereview's
po litical spo kesman,
was
harshly critical o f theVersailles treaty and
pro claimed
theLeagueo f Natio ns a symbo l
o f
"l'esprit
no uveau."At a timewhen
anti-Bo lshevist sentiment was
stro ng
he
argued
fo reco no mic
rappro chement
with
theSo viet Unio n.55 Ona mo rehumanitar-
ian
plane
thereview waged
a
campaign
fo r
co ntributio ns to
fight
thefamineinthe
U.S.S.R., and afterLenin's d eathin1924
it
paid
tributeto themanwho "had kno cked
o ut o ld Russia".s56 Leninhimself had
stro ngly
ad vo cated
Taylo rism
as a means
o f
d evelo ping
thenew So viet state. Henri
Hertz, Chenevier's successo r, also vo cally
suppo rted
wo rld
go vernment,
and intheir
preface
to his article"L'Acheminement
vers les
grand s co nseils internatio naux,"
Ozenfant and LeCo rbusierend o rsed his
aspiratio ns:
He
gives
a
co mprehensive
view o f
theactual
embryo nic
stateo f these
o rganizatio ns-news
intheeco no mic
and
po litical histo ry
o f mankind -
whicharevast o rganizatio ns
o f
po wer, d irecting
natio ns. These
o rganizatio ns
tend to
imped e
the
ind ivid ual actio no f the
o rganizatio n
member; weare
expecting
fro mthe
meetings
a regulatio n
o f internatio nal
relatio ns, restraint o f ind ivid ual d e-
sires, a start in
thwarting ind ivid ual
impulse,
and therefo rethelimitatio n
o f
impulsived eclaratio ns o f war, the
creatio no f a mo restablestateo f
peace-peace being theo nly stateo f
so ciety
favo rableto theblo sso ming
o f wo rks o f thenew
spirit
inall its
fo rms.57
Theed ito rs ho ped that ultimately a series
o f
ratio nally
co nceived o rganizatio ns wo uld
lead to wo rld fed eratio n, bro ught to gether
by theties o f multinatio nal, ratio nal, pro -
d uctive
planning.
Altho ugh
this so cial visio n
represented
a liberal humanismbased o n"ratio nal"
analysis ratherthananything appro aching
Co mmunist
po licy,
critics were
quick
to
ind ict thereview's po sitio n
o nfo reign
affairs. Bo thCamilleMauclairand Alex-
and erd e
Senger,
theautho ro f theinfamo us
d iatribeLeCheval d etro ied ubo lshevisme,
called
L'Esprit
No uveauBo lshevist
pro pa-
gand a.
De
Senger, particularly perturbed
by thelarge
numbero f Jewishco ntributo rs,
cited Guillaume
Apo llinaire
as "a
typical
representative
. . . a bank
emplo yee
who semo theris Lithuanianand who se
fatheris unkno wn, and who senameis
Ko stro vitsky.
"58
Evenmo re
threatening
to
existing
French
capitalist so ciety, altho ugh
no t as
wid ely
ad d ressed
perhaps
becauseo f its o bvio us
uto pianism,
was
L'Esprit
No uveau's po si-
tio no nland o wnership.
LeCo rbusierstated
that
privatepro perty
was a "serio us barri-
er"to thetransfo rmatio no f
ho using
and
theurbanenviro nment. Altho ugh
hewas
careful, as
always,
to basehis
argument
o n
pro fessio nal,
no t
po litical, gro und s
and to
sto p
sho rt o f
calling
fo rthe
co mplete
abo li-
tio no f
private
land
o wnership,
heco n-
d emned inheritanceand theland lo rd 's
escape
fro m"the
ro ugh
waro f
co mpeti-
tio n."59 Paul Lafitte's article"A
pro po s
d ela Grand Crise,"ho wever, was mo re
specific:
state
o wnership
o f land was the
technician's so lutio nto thebarriers blo ck-
ing efficient urbanplanning;
it
"pro vid es
cities witha certain
flexibility,
which
per-
mits themto
ad apt
to all their
changing
need s, and to all the
requirements
o f a
pro gressiveso ciety."60
Ozanfant and Le
Co rbusierintro d uced Lafitteas a "subtle
theo retician"with"a
prud ent, clever, and
reaso nableeco no mic
pro gram.
"61
Despite
LeCo rbusier's
perso nal
reluc-
tanceto label himself, thereview also ex-
hibited leftist, tho ughhard ly so cialist,
sympathies
with
regard
to
parliamentary
po litics.
Intheissuereleased just
afterthe
1924 electio ns, bo thHenri Hertz and the
artist Jean
Lurgat,
ina statement
represent-
ing
ano bscureCartel d es Ind epend ants,
d eclared theirend o rsement o f Ed o uard
Herrio t's Cartel d es Gauches, whichco m-
prised
bo thRad icals and So cialists.62 To a
greaterextent thanits
pred ecesso r, the
co nservativeBlo cNatio nale, Herrio t's new
go vernment pro mised
to
spend
fund s o n
so cial refo rmand to red istributetaxes; the
Rad icals o ffered , as Hertz
explained
in
wo rd s reminiscent o f Vers unearchitec-
ture, "unerevo lutio npacifique."But bo th
Lurgat
and Hertz vo iced stro ng qualifica-
tio ns intheir
suppo rt
o f thegreat party
built
up by Gambetta:
Rad icalismis thehumus o f the
republic.
Withinit, amo ng its many
impurities,
is theseed o f a po litical
spirit.
Theelectio ns o f
May
11 arean
excellent
example
o f this. Thepo s-
sibility o f
renewing and re-erecting
the
publicspirit rests inthis big and
crass
party,
and resid es o nly
init. A
labo rio us and crud eamalgamatio n
o f current life, it
represents valuable
plans
and values, to whichit alo neis
ina
po sitio n
to
give intelligent
meaning.63
Herrio t, who as
mayo r
o f
Lyo nhad spo n-
so red
many
o f To ny Gamier's great public
wo rks, was himself a stro ng ad vo cateo f
Taylo rism;
inhis bo o k Creero f 1919 he
called fo r a
techno lo gically inspired
"fo urth
republic"
that wo uld aband o nthe
party intrigues, lo cal patro nage, and cafe-
co mpto ireco mites that had d o minated
pre-
warFrenchpo litics.64 Despite
thepro mise
o f suchrheto ric, theRad ical-So cialists'
po wer
baseo f small-to wnand peasant
interests
necessarily put
into
questio nany
ho pe
fo rrefo rm.
The
pro gressive
d imensio no f
L'Esprit
No uveau's ind ustrial
uto pia emerges
inits
end o rsement o f wo rld
go vernment,
o f the
mo d ificatio no f
pro perty arrangements, and
o f theelectio no f Herrio t's co alitio n. Mo re
co nservativestrains, ho wever, canbe
d etected inits
co nceptio n
o f so cial o rd er.
Mo st
apparent
o f thesewas thepro po sed
hierarchy
o f
po wer. Taylo rism,
which
purpo rted
to transcend
po litical
d ivisio ns
inits
guise
o f
pro fessio nal neutrality,
was
by
no means
egalitarian. Casting
asid e
trad itio nal d eterminants o f
po wer-wealth,
family,
and class-the
system,
likeSaint-
Simo nianism, pred icated
rank o n
capacity
and
expertise.
As LeCo rbusierhimself
explained :
the
right
manfo rthe
right jo b
is
co ld ly selected ; labo rers, wo rkmen,
fo remen, engineers, managers,
ad ministrato rs-eachinhis
pro per
place;
and themanwho is mad eo f
the
right
stuff to bea manager
will
no t
lo ng
remaina wo rkman; the
higherplaces areo pento all.65
This visio no f a
hierarchy
o f talent takes
material fo rminVille
Co ntempo raine
and
PlanVo isin, illustrated inthefinal issueo f
L'Esprit
No uveau.
Engineers,
ind ustrial-
138 ArtJo urnal
Fig.
8 Dio rama o f Ville
Co ntempo raine.
At theentero f the
to wn,
at the
cro ssing
o f thetwo
highways
is the
great transpo rtatio n
center. Theto wers, lo cated o neithersid e, co ntainbusiness and co mmercial facilities. Amo ng
thehills o ntheho rizo n, just beyo nd
a
wo o d ed "pro tected "zo ne, aretheGard enCities, ho using
wo rkers.
ists, financiers,
and artists wo rk inthegreat
skyscrapers
o f thecity center, "clo thed in
a d azzling mirage
o f unimaginablebeauty
(Fig. 8). Otheractivities, liketho sein
Beno it-Levy's hamlets,
arecarefully seg-
regated
inthesurro und ing
o utskirts. The
planning
o f theresid ential quarters
further
enfo rces therigid hierarchy
o f
physical
and so cial stratificatio n. Wo rkers and sub-
o rd inates, "their d estinies . . . circum-
scribed withinthenarro werbo und s o f
family life,"livein
gard encities; the
pro -
fessio nal eliteresid eclo seto thecity cen-
ter.66 Theurbanplan,
as ratio nally
d eter-
mined as theTaylo rist plant,
d o es embo d y
a new so cial o rd er, but inequities
ininco me,
habitatio n, and wo rk co nd itio ns remain.
Fo rtheTaylo rists, efficiency-no t
equality
-was themeans to so cial renewal.
L'Esprit
No uveauwas unabashed ly o ri-
ented to ward s LeCo rbusier's futureto wer
o ccupants.
Aned ito rial statement d escribed
synd icalism(theFrenchtrad eunio nmo ve-
ment) and Bo lshevismas being
und erthetragicaspect
fro mwhich
o nemust no t miss seeing thepathetic
attempt
at a need ed re-establishment
o f values, necessitated by persisting
mo nstro us ano malies suchas warand
thearms race.
Inco ntrast, theesprit
no uveauwas
created by
faithinthe
po ssibleo rga-
nizatio no f all facto rs o f pro gress;
the
pro d igio us
intellectual effo rt o f
the
perio d
has created aneliteo f
marvelo us fecund ity;
anelitewhich
has yet
to find a place
intheso cial
machinery
o rinthego vernment
and
whichis d ying
o f hunger.67
Thereview aimed , as theed ito rs reiterated
o nnumero us o ccasio ns, to ad d ress these
lead ers, to
pro vo ke
"anind ispensable
co n-
nectio nbetweentheelites"-an appeal
they
shared withtheSaint-Simo nianPro -
d ucteur. Altho ughthis publicatio n
d iffered
fro mL'Esprit
No uveauinits synd icalist
o rientatio nand its aimto d estro y
the"fi-
nancial pluto cracy,"
LeCo rbusierand
Ozenfant includ ed it inL'Esprit
No uveau's
list o f reco mmend ed publicatio ns
and called
it essential fo rtheirread ers.68 At least o ne
o f thePro d ucteur's writers, theeco no mic
theo rist Francis Delaisi, also co ntributed
to L'Esprit
No uveau. LeCo rbusierhad
ho ped
that Delaisi wo uld writethelast
chapter
o f Urbanisme, "Financeand Real-
izatio n. '69
Co nco mitant withthis elitist o rientatio n
was a preo ccupatio n
withend s, no t means;
anemphsis
o nmaterial results, no t
parlia-
mentary pro ced ures.
Fo rtheTaylo rists,
d ecisio ns werebased o nscienceand ratio -
nality; participatio n
and abstract rights
were
irrelevant inthefaceo f expertise. Thro ugh-
o ut L'Esprit No uveau,
LeCo rbusieralter-
nated betweennaively wishing
fo r
imple-
mentatio nand urging
autho ritarian co ntro l.
Co lbert,
Lo uis XIV, Napo leo nI, and
Haussmannwere
pro po sed
as thehero es o f
Paris. Theco nclud ing plate
o f Urbanisme
sho ws Lo uis XIV co mmand ing
thebuild -
ing
o f theInvalid es, and thecaptio n
und er-
neathread s:
Ho mage
to a great
to wnplanner.
This d espo t
co nceived immensepro j-
ects and realized them. Overall the
co untry
his no blewo rks still fill us
withad miratio n. Hewas capable
o f
saying,
"Wewishit,"o r"Suchis
o ur
pleasure.
"70
Awareo f thepo ssiblenegative
co nno ta-
tio ns, LeCo rbusierad d ed in
parentheses
"this is no t a d eclaratio no f the'Actio n
Frangaise,'" thereby d isclaiming any
co nnectio nto Charles Maurras' ro yalist
gro up.71
Ina laterpro po sal
fo ra statueina
wo rking-class neighbo rho o d
thearchitect
reco nciled his techno craticand autho ritar-
iantend encies by placing
casts o f his
mo narchical hero es o na ped estal co mpo sed
o f vario us auto mo biles. But simultaneo usly
heasserted , tho ugh
no t co nvincingly
to his
co ntempo rary critics, that his d emand s fo r
rad ical expro priatio n
and ind emnificatio n
were"withinthebo und o f practical po li-
tics"and "po ssible
und ero uro wnd emo c-
racy."72 Geo rges Beno it-Levy,
thePresi-
d ent o f theFrenchGard enCity
Asso cia-
tio n, had fewerhesitatio ns abo ut express-
ing
theautho ritarianstrainund erlying
mucho f theratio nalist d o ctrineo f the
to wn-planning
mo vement.
Theinad equacy
o f a d emo cratic
regime
insuchaffairs caneasily be
po inted
o ut. Oneregrets
theabsence
o f a Napo leo nIII, o rd ering
theco n-
servatio no f o penspaces,
o f thefo rts
and fo rtificatio ns, o ra Haussmann
who co mmand ed fo r17
years
at the
Ho tel d eVille. Oneregrets
theab-
senceo f a Musso lini, telling
the
Mayo r
o f Ro me: "Go verno r, infive
years
I will haverazed theentire
heart o f theo ld city
and themo d el
city
o f Ro me-Ostia will havebeen
built.
"73
Echo es o f frustratio nwiththeparliamenta-
ry go vernment
o f theThird Republicwere,
infact, heard thro ugho ut
Frenchso ciety.
Inthemid -twenties therampant
inflatio n
and severemarket fluctuatio ns, the
general
legislativeparalysis,
and thelingering
sense
that theGreat Ward emand ed pro fo und
if
und efined alteratio ns all co ntributed to the
anti-parliamentary
o verto nes manifest in
theresurgent po pularity
o f theActio n
Frangaise.
Evena rad ical sympathizer
such
as Hertz co mplained
inhis series "Bal-
butiements d e
l'esprit po litique"
o f the
d isplacement
o f "esprit po litique"
with
"esprit po liticien."Despite
thevicto ry
o f
theCartel d es Gauches in1924, Hertz saw
universal suffrage
as anembo d iment o f
po liticians' o ppo rtunism
and therefo remis-
trusted it.74 Almo st all po litical gro ups
vo iced inso mevariatio nLeCo rbusier's
d emand fo ra stro nger
executive. Fo rtho se
Summer1983 139
o ntheright,
therewas the
pro mise
o f a
mo re
rigid ly
hierarchical and stableso cial
o rd er; fo rtho seo ntheleft, the
po tential
triumph,
inMax Weber's terms, o f the
ratio nalizing
bureaucrat who
upheld
the
publicgo o d
o ver
capitalistic
ind ivid ualism.
LeCo rbusiershared this id eal o f a "man
o f
go o d
will"but also theco nservatives'
stro ng yearning
fo ro rd er.
Acco mpanying
theseautho ritarian tend -
encies wereso mewhat ambivalent attitud es
in
L'Esprit
No uveauto ward s thefamily
and its
impo rtance
to so cial equilibrium.
LeCo rbusier's pro clamatio ns
o f theho use
as a "machine-fo r-living,"
his
rejectio n
o f thehearthand d ining
tableas fo rmal
fo ci, and his cho iceinVilleCo ntempo raine
to
d esign
thecentral business city rather
thanthefamily-o riented gard encity sug-
gest
a d isd ainfo r, o rat least ind ifference
to , theFrenchd evo tio nto family life. In
his article"Mass-Pro d uctio nHo uses"Le
Co rbusiermad eit clearthat serial pro d uc-
tio nand Taylo risminevitably
d emand ed
thed estructio no f certainvalues based o n
trad itio nintheinterests o f efficiency:
Theho usewill no lo nger
bean
archaicentity, heavily
ro o ted inthe
so il
by d eep fo und atio ns, built "firm
and stro ng,"
theo bject
o f thed evo -
tio no nwhichthecult o f thefamily
and theracehas so
lo ng
beenco n-
centrated .75
This
challenge
to trad itio nal no tio ns o f
"maiso n,""famille,"and "patrie"
was
exaggerated
inthemind s o f LeCo rbusier's
critics
by L'Esprit
No uveau's interest in
psycho analysis
and sexuality.
Libertine
literaturewas o ftenreviewed favo rably;
And reGid e's L'Immo ralistecalled "a very
beautiful bo o k filled withthemo st d iverse
virtualities. "76
But LeCo rbusierd id no t
reject
thefamily
o utright;
heo nly d iscard ed so meo f its
fo rms and custo ms. Infact, likemo st o f
the
gard encity planners,
he
upheld
the
Pro ud ho nnianid eal o f the
family
as the
primary
structural unit and as a mo d el fo r
o therso cial relatio nships.77
Part o f Le
Co rbusier's
argument
fo r stand ard ized
architecture, parad o xically,
was based o n
the
preservatio n
o f this d imensio no f the
status
quo :
his to wn, his street, his ho useo rhis
flat. . . hind erhim[man] fro mfo l-
lo wing
inhis leisuretheo rganic
d evelo pment
o f his existence, which
is to createa
family
and to live, like
every
animal o nthis earthand like
all meno f all
ages,
an
o rganized
family
life. Inthis
way, so ciety
is
helping
fo rward thed estructio no f
the
family,
whileshesees withterro r
that this will beherruin.78
As withLeCo rbusier's
po lemical juxta-
po sitio n
o f thePartheno nand theauto mo -
bile, his d iscussio no f so cial structure
Fig.
9 A
page
fro mL'Almanachd 'architecturemo d erne
(1925),
the
catalo gue
o f the
Esprit
No uveau
pavilio n.
co mbined
pro gressive
and trad itio nal view-
po ints.
Hewas at o ncewilling
to
upro o t
the"firmand
stro ng"
Frenchfamily
trad i-
tio ns while
upho ld ing
thebenevo lent pater-
nalism
lo ng
characteristico f theFrench
ho using-refo rm
mo vement. Thetechno -
lo gically
inno vativeVilleCo ntempo raine
channeled so cial interactio nto fit
patterns
o f so cial
hierarchy
and family
structure.
Any changes
inso cial o rd erresulted pri-
marily
inbenefits fo rthe
pro gressive
cad re
o f mo d ernind ustrual so ciety. Lacking
in
his techno craticwo rld view was any co n-
cept
o f
impro ving
theco nd itio no f the
po o rest
secto rs o f
so ciety per
se.
As in
many
o f theAmericanist visio ns
o f so cial refo rm, thereis inLeCo rbusier's
view a
blurring
o f d istinctio ns between
right
and left. Hed enied theexistenceo f
class
struggle
and simultaneo usly
d e-
mand ed majo r
transfo rmatio ns ininterna-
tio nal
po licy
and
pro perty o wnership.
It
was a
po sitio n
that
purpo rted
to transcend
po litical catego ries; yet,
inco ntrast to the
apo litical
cast o f Beaux-Arts acad emicism
(invo lving
the
passive
end o rsement o f the
status
quo ),
it was
d eeply engaged
inso cial
and
po litical
issues. Fo rLeCo rbusier, as
140 Art Jo urnal
fo rHertz, therewas a d istinctio nbetween
esprit po liticien
and esprit po litique.
The
architect's pro fessio nal
ro lemight exclud e
thefo rmer, but no t thelatter.
Appel aux ind ustriels
LeCo rbusier's effo rts to
implement
his
techno craticvisio nwerenaiveand scattered
at best. Believing pro fo und ly
intheratio -
nality and universality
o f bo thhis architec-
tural and so cial id eas, heassumed that
d emo nstratio no f his
pro gram
wo uld in
itself
generatewid e-scaleacceptance
and
realizatio n. LikeHenry Fo rd , he
might
haved eclared :
I am
quite
certainthat it is thenatural
co d eand I want to d emo nstrateit so
tho ro ughly
that it will be
accepted ,
no t as a new id ea, but as a natural
co d e.79
Mo st o f LeCo rbusier's writings,
theo reti-
cal
pro jects,
and exhibitio ns inthetwenties
wered evo ted to
just
sucha d emo nstratio n,
but unlikeFo rd , hehad at that timeno
facto ry
o rind ustrial
enterprise
to
pro ve
the
eco no mico rtechnical feasibility
o f his
premises.
As the
Esprit
No uveau
pavilio n
so
clearly reveals, his maiso ntypes
were
po lemical statements, no t actual realiza-
tio ns o f
mass-pro d uctio npro ced ures.
The
mo d ularsto rageunits, streamlined bicycle
stair, and facto ry-type
wind o ws wereall
custo mmanufactured .
Perhaps
mo st iro nic
werethe
specially
mad e
co pies
o f
Maples's
leatherclub chairs: themarket mo d els were
to o
large
fo rLeCo rbusier's new "stan-
d ard "d o o rs.80
Beyo nd theParisianartisticmilieu, mo st
o f LeCo rbusier's so cial and pro fessio nal
co ntacts werewithind ustrialists and inno -
vato rs inthebusiness wo rld . Afterthe
co llapse
o f his o wnsho rt-lived ind ustrial
end eavo rs, heenvisio ned himself as a d e-
tached "technical"ad viso r. His
"appel
aux ind ustriels,"the
slo gan
o f L'Almanach
d 'architecturemo d erne(1925) (Fig. 9),
was a mixtureo f flattery, d emand , and
simpleexample.
His letterto theglass-
manufacturing co mpany Saint-Go bain,
afterits failureto realizehis
pro ject
fo r
wo rkers' ho using neartheir
facto ry at
Tho uro tte, is
typical
o f this
presumptuo us
appro ach:
I am
send ing yo ua
co py
o f No . 13 o f
the
magazineL'Esprit No uveau
whichco ntains an
impo rtant
article
o n
mass-pro d uced ho using,
und er
my
pseud o nym,
Le
Co rbusier-Saugnier.
WhenI d id a
pro ject
at yo urrequest,
fo rTho uro tte, I was so rry
that the
pro gram
whichwas givento med id
no t
permit
meto
put fo rward id eas
similarto tho seco ntained inthis arti-
cle. Tho seid eas
appear
subversive
to d ay
and
yet they
will becurrent
practice
to mo rro w.81
In
particular,
LeCo rbusierco urted auto -
mo bilemanufacturers, who mhesaw as
mo st likely
to besympathetic
to stand ard -
izatio nand mass
pro d uctio n.
Henamed
the
pro to type
Citro han-ho use(1920-22)
aftertheauto mo bilemanufacturerAnd re
Citro en,82 and in1925 heho no red Gabriel
Vo isinwiththenameo f his plan
fo rParis,
after
Peugeo t
and Citro enhad rejected
his
requests
fo rfinancial suppo rt.83 Earlier, in
theseco nd issueo f L'Esprit No uveau, he
had
praised
the
prefabricated
"Maiso n
Vo isin"as "light, flexible, and stro ng";
its resid ent as "animated by 'l'esprit
no u-
veau.'
"84
TheVo isinfirmd o nated 25,000
francs to ward s theco nstructio no f the
Esprit
No uveaupavilio n,
and bo thVo isin
and Mo ngemo n,
thed irecto ro f
Aero planes
Vo isin, attend ed theo pening ceremo ny
o f
the
pavilio n.
Eventhead vertisements in
L'Esprit No uveaufo rind ustrial
pro d ucts
-Ingerso ll-Rand
cement guns
o rRo neo
metal d o o rs-o ften d esigned by
LeCo r-
busier,
served as "appels
aux ind ustriels."
Only
o nceinthetwenties, ho wever, was
LeCo rbusierableto
persuad e
anind ustri-
alist to build stand ard ized lo w-inco me
ho using; thesugar
manufacturerHenri
Fruges
co mmissio ned himto
d esign
135
wo rkers' resid ences at Pessac, a small to wn
o utsid eBo rd eaux (Fig. 10). There, Le
Co rbusierwas ableto co nstruct a few o f
his
pro to typed esigns
and useso meo f the
pro d ucts
and
techniques,
if with
o nly
o c-
casio nal success, ad vo cated by L'Esprit
No uveau.85
LeCo rbusier's
appeals
fo rmass
pro d uc-
tio n, reflecting theAmericantend encies o f
the
perio d ,
wered irected pred o minantly
to
privateind ustrialists,
no t
public
o fficials.
Hehad co ntacts withbo thAnato led e
Mo nzie,
Herrio t's Ministero f PublicEd u-
catio nand theArts, and Lo uis Lo ucheur,
who had beco mePo incare's Ministero f
Co mmerceinhis reshuffled cabinet o f
March1924. DeMo nzie
suppo rted
theco n-
structio no f the
Esprit
No uveau
pavilio n,
and his mo therwas o neo f the
o riginal
clients o f thevilla at Garches. Lo ucheurhad
helped
so lveso meo f thelegal pro blems
surro und ing
Pessac. But the
go vernment
hard ly appeared
to LeCo rbusieras a so urce
o f inno vatio n. Heco nsid ered theH.B.M.
(Habitatio ns a bo nmarche) co mplexes,
built o f maso nry co nstructio nwithtrad i-
tio nal
apartment plans,
to be"slums."86
Furthermo re, theChambero f
Deputies
had
no t succeed ed in
passing any majo rho using
legislatio n
until 1928. Inco ntrast, Michelin
et Cie., o neo f thefirst French
co mpanies
to intro d uceScientificManagement,
had
co nstructed by
1925 a large-scale
wo rkers'
ho using co mplex
at Clermo nt-Ferrand ,
using
metho d s o f
Taylo rism
and mass
pro -
d uctio n.87 TheVo isin
plant d evelo ped
the
transpo rtable
Maiso nVo isin, using airplane
techno lo gy,
and Lo uis Renault, tho ugh
mo reco nservativeinhis co nstructio ntech-
niques, spo nso red a co nsid erableamo unt
o f wo rking-class ho using.88
Red ressement
Fran;ais
Oneo f LeCo rbusier's mo st
impo rtant
ind ustrial co ntacts was withErnest Mercier
and his
o rganizatio n
Red ressement
Frangais,
and his
participatio n
withthis
o rganizatio nperhaps
best exemplifies
his
techno craticstanced uring
thenineteen-
twenties. Fo rLeCo rbusier, Mercier, the
managing d irecto ro f France's lead ing util-
ities
co mpany
and later
presid ent
o f the
Co mpagnieFrangais
d es Petro les, was
representative
o f thenew elitethat heenvi-
sio ned lead ing France, a man
"capital
et
general."89
Inthemid st o f thecritical
financial crisis o f 1925, Mercierd ecid ed
to initiatea mo vement fo r
general
refo rm
that wo uld enlist the"d irecting classes"
o f thenatio n. Called theRed ressement
Frangais,
it
so ught
to o verhaul theThird
Republicalo ng
techno craticlines thro ugh
a
d ynamiceco no my premised
o nmass
pro d uctio n
and a go vernment
head ed
by
experts.
Mercierhad
just
visited theUnited
States and was co nvinced that thefutureo f
Franced epend ed
o nfo llo wing theAmeri-
Fig.
10 Le
Co rbusier, Quartiers Mo d emes Fruges, Bo rd eaux-Pessac, 1924. Inthelater
ed itio ns o f Vers unearchitectureLeCo rbusierinclud es thePessac
pro ject
as an
illustratio no f "Mass-Pro d uctio nHo uses."Thefirst ed itio no f thebo o k, LeCo rbusier
claims, inspired
Henri
Fruges
to co mmissio nhimto co nstruct wo rkers' ho using.
Summer1983 141
Fi. 11 and 2 Le Co rbusier, Po urbtir:
stand ard iserettaylo riser Supplement auBulletin d u Red ressement Franais, May 1, 1928.
Figs.
11 and 12 LeCo rbusier, Po ur
baitir: stand ard iseret
taylo riser, Supplement auBulletind uRed ressement
Frangais,
May 1, 1928.
caneco no micmo d el. The
appo intment o f
Ho o veras
Secretary o f Co mmercehad
ad d ed
po tency to that natio n's
imageas the
bearero f stand ard izatio n and theeliminato r
o f waste. Mercierembraced the
Taylo rist
belief in
enlightened ind ustrial
pro d uctio n
as a
weapo nagainst so cial
injusticeand
ind eed
ho ped
fo rthe
victo ry
o f "Fo rd o ver
Marx."TheRed ressement's
slo ganwas
"Eno ughpo litics. Wewant results.
"90
The
o rganizatio nquickly gained a siz-
able
fo llo wing, and in1926 it
beganpub-
lishing a
mo nthly Bulletin. Ontheco ver
was a
symbo l o f natio nal
regeneratio n, a
wo und ed Gaul
rising fro mtheearthto
rejo inthebattle. Insid ewerearticles ana-
lyzing current events and
repo rting
o n
o rganizatio nal news. So me25,000 to
30,000 co pis
o f the
perio d ical wered is-
tributed witho ut
chargeto France's
ruling
elite. TheRed ressement enlisted vario us
"meno f
actio n"-jo urnalists, lecturers,
pro fessio nals-to co ntributeto theBulletin
o rto
participate
inits
stud y co mmittees,
which
pro d uced a series o f
repo rts, the
Cahiers.
Amo ng
its mo st
d istinguished
members wereMarshal Fo ch, Etienne
Clemental, the
synd icalist spo kesman
Hubert
Lagard elle, theexecutiveEd mo nd
Giscard
d 'Estaing, and theCo nseil d 'Etat
member
Raphael Alibert.91
LeCo rbusierwas enlisted to
participate
o nanurban
stud y co mmittee.92 Fro mits
inceptio n
theRed ressement maintained that
ho using was themajo r
pro blemo f the
Parisian
wo rking class. LucienRo mier,
themo vement's
primary spo kesmanand a
patro n
o f C.I.A.M., feared that themiser-
abled welling co nd itio ns mad e
many resi-
d ents
ripe
fo rCo mmunist
pro pagand a. In
thefirst series o f theCahiers, published in
1927, Jean
Levequeand J.-H. Ricard wro te
o n
ho using
and Henri Pro st and Gasto n
Mo nsarrat o nurban
planning.93
LeCo rbusierco ntributed two
pamphlets,
whichwere
published as supplements to
the
February
and
May
1928 Bulletin: Vers
leParis d e
l'iepo que
machinisteand Po ur
bd tir: stand ard iseret taylo riser.94 As their
titles
suggest, these
repo rts were
amo ng
LeCo rbusier's mo st
explicit espo usals o f
techno craticd o ctrine.
Thefirst
repo rt elabo rates theid eas o f
PlanVo isin. Inco ntrast to his earlier
pub-
licatio ns, ho wever, thereareneither
pho to -
graphs no r
d rawings: o nly functio nal and
eco no mic
arguments-withlimited
quan-
titative
suppo rt-fo rthereco nstructio no f
Paris and the
d evelo pment o f
mass-pro -
d uced
ho using
in
gard encities. LeCo rbu-
siercriticizes a recent
pro po sal
fo ra new
transpo rtatio nro ute
extend ing
theGrand
Vo ie
alo ng theaxis o f the
Champs Elysees
becauseit end ed ina cul d esac, theTuiler-
ies Gard en.
Any effectiveso lutio nto mo d -
emtrafficco nd itio ns, he
argues, requires
mo re
significant transfo rmatio n; he
pro -
po ses instead a
majo rnew cro ss
artery
furtherno rth, as in
EugeneHenard 's
schemeo f 1904 and his o wnPlanVo isin.
Hereiterates his
argument fo r
quad rupling
the
d ensity
o f central Paris, while
reserving
85-95
per
cent o f theland fo r
vegetatio n.
Inthis d o cument fo r
technicians, hemakes
no referenceto theaesthetic
po ssibilities
o f thenew business
quarters;
theind ustri-
alizatio no f
co nstructio n, no t classical tra-
d itio no rPlato nic
purity,
beco mes theso le
justificatio nfo raestheticd ecisio ns:
Theco nso lid atio no f blo cks reintro -
d uces an
o rtho go nal system
and
per-
mits the
applicatio n
o f stand ard iza-
tio n, ind ustrializatio n, and
Taylo r-
izatio nto
build ing.95
Thesameto necharacterizes thearchi-
tect's
critique
o f the
picturesquegard en
cities, suchas Suresnes and Stains, that
were
being
built aro und Paris. The
"mys-
tique"surro und ing
"la
petitemaiso n,"he
claims, is a
majo r
inhibitio nto ind ustrial-
izatio n: "theeffect is to establishvehement
o ppo sitio n
to all
attempts
to
change
the
co ncept
o f bo ththeo verall
o rganizatio n
and thed etails o f
gard en
cities and wo rkers'
ho uses."One's mo d el fo remulatio nin-
stead sho uld beErnst
May's 4,000 d well-
ings
inFrankfurt, whichweretheresult o f
a "remarkableind ustrial
pro cess. "96
This
ad vo cacy
o f NeueSachlichkeit is
given
furtherfo rce, and also anauto cratic
slant, by
theinclusio nintheBulletino f
specificlegal reco mmend atio ns.
Amo ng
themwerea law
giving
thestateunre-
stricted eminent d o mainwiththe
pur-
chasing price
fixed at current market value
and a d ictate
establishing
a new "autho r-
ity"
with
po wers surpassing trad itio nal
142 Art Jo urnal
ministerial jurisd ictio n
to
implement
the
urbanpro gram. This
autho rity,
a mo d ern
Co lbert, wo uld stand
apart
fro m
parlia-
mentary po litics
"to wo rk o ut thefuture."
"Thebread tho f his visio nwo uld bethe
greatness
o f the
co untry.'
"97
Intheseco nd
pamphlet
LeCo rbusier
d emo nstrates theresults o f stand ard izatio n
and
Taylo rizatio n
with
pho to graphs and
d rawings
o f his
pro jects
at Stuttgart and
Pessac(Figs. 12 and 13). Withthe
excep-
tio no f the
tempo rary Esprit
No uveau
pavil-
io n, thesetwo
pro jects
werehis o nly exe-
cuted
d esigns
fo r
pro to typical ho using.
This Bulletinsupplement is
again
much
mo re
specific
inits technical d etails than
wereLeCo rbusier's earlierco ntributio ns
to
L'Esprit No uveau. Unlikehis articleo f
1921, "Maiso ns enserie", whichinclud ed
o nly d iagramaticplans and
ro ughperspec-
tivesketches, Po urbatir: stand ard iseret
taylo riserd emo nstrates vario us assem-
blages o f ro o munit
types
and
gives
d imen-
sio ns o f structural
co mpo nents.
It co nclud es
witha d emand fo ractio n:
Ino rd erto BUILD: STANDARD-
IZE to beableto INDUSTRIALIZE
AND TAYLORIZE
.. That is themo st
urgent pro gram
o f to wn
planning.
Onemust
beginat the
beginning!98
At this
po int
LeCo rbusier, likemo st o f
themembers o f Red ressement
Frangais
was
still co nfid ent that this
pro gram
co uld o ccur
withintheframewo rk o f theThird
Repub-
lic. Ind eed , the
victo ry
o f theUnio nNa-
tio nalein
April 1928, to whichtheRe-
d ressement had
stro ngly co ntributed , and
the
passageo f theLo ucheurLaw laterthat
summer
gave,
fo rthemo ment, so me
gro und s
fo rthis
o ptimism.
The
ho using
bill, whichtheRed ressement claimed as
"the
pure
and
simpleapplicatio no f o ur
id eas,"pro vid ed publicaid fo rtheco n-
structio no f 200,000 lo w-priced
and 60,000
med ium-priced d wellings and was suc-
cessful in
instigating
an
unpreced ented
build ing
bo o mall o verFrance.99 LeCo r-
busierhimself
pro bably againsaw anally
inLo ucheur, who as a lead ero f theGauche
Rad icale
party becamethe
parliamentary
flo o r
spo keman
o f theRed ressement. Inan
articlefo rtheRevued es Vivants, August
1928, LeCo rbusier
expressed
his
o ptimism
abo ut thenew law:
This
certainly had to
happen
o ned ay!
TheLo ucheurLaw (whichwas
sug-
gested
fo rthefirst timein1922)
places the
co untry
inthefaceo f a
gigantic, magnificent,
and sensitive
pro blem,
if the
spirit wo uld seizeit,
enlightenit, and stirit to
giveFrance
a histo ricreno wn, intheway that the
wo rks achieved
by
theMid d le
Ages,
by
Lo uis XIV, by Napo leo n, by
Haussmannhavebeco mehisto ric. lo 00
1930, Architectureand Revo lutio n
During thenext two years, ho wever, Le
Co rbusierlo st his faithinthecapacity
o f
theThird
Republic
to
rejuvenateitself.
TheLo ucheur
plan
had no t so lved theso cial
crisis: no ratio nal urban
plan
o rco mmit-
ment to ind ustrialized
pro d uctio n
had
emerged . Rather, as Alexand erWerth, the
Paris
co rrespo nd ent
fo rtheManchester
Guard iano bserved , it "transfo rmed much
o f the
co untry
ro und Paris into a mass-an
inco herent mass-o f
ugly
red -ro o fed sub-
urbanho uses and villas."101 Aftermo re
thana d ecad eo f researchand
pro selytizing,
LeCo rbusierbecameco nvinced that his
earlieranswerto "Architectureo rRevo lu-
tio n"had beeninco rrect. Iro nically, the
reassessment o f his stancewas theresult o f
thesame
pro fessio nal
attitud e:
By
a
strictly pro fessio nal
ro uteI
arriveat
revo lutio nary
co nclusio ns.
SinceI ama pro fessio nal man, I
make
plans acco rd ing
to
my pro fes-
sio nal
co ncepts;
this is where
my
jud gment
is
go o d .
If
everyo ne
d id
thesame
thing
and the
plans
were
co o rd inated
by
an
autho rity
in
charge
o f the
publicinterest, theresult
wo uld , o f co urse, bea Five-Year
Plan, impo ssible
to
implement.
Impo ssible
becauseo f o ur
present
so cial
system!
So no w what?
No w what? Dilemma. The
present
so cial
systempreserves
thestatus
quo , o ppo ses any actio n, eliminates
o r
rejects pro po sals
bo th
pressing
and
necessary
inthe
public
interest....
Let's change
thesystem.
Suchanact wo uld becalled revo -
lutio nary.
Therearetho sewho wo uld
make the wo rd
"revo lutio nary"
mean"d estructive."
Untrue; it is a
co mpletely
co n-
structivepo int
o f view.
102
No w, his
plea
was "Architectureand
Revo lutio n."103 Amo reactivist stance,
o nethat wo uld so o nlead to his
participatio n
inthe
Regio nal Synd icalist mo vement, was
required .
104
This mo vement, emphasizing
regio nal gro upings
and natural hierarchies
based
upo nclimate, to po graphy,
and race,
enco uraged
a mo relimited end o rsement o f
techno lo gy.
Instead o f stand ard izatio nand
unifo rmity,
these
latter-d ay synd icalists
stressed
regio nal d iversity
and lo cal trad i-
tio ns. Likewise, LeCo rbusierinhis o wn
d esigns, particularly
fo rthesmall ho uses
Errazuris, Mand ro t, and Mathes, began
to
emplo y
lo cal
build ing materials and tech-
niques.
Just as theratio nal, geo metric
fo rms o f thetwenties werea manifestatio n
o f his faithin
techno lo gy
and American
systems
o f Scientific
Management,
the
rustic, mo re
primitive
wo rks o f thethirties
werea rejectio n
o f the
supremacy
o f this
selfsame
viewpo int.
TheAmericansto ck market crashwas a
crushing
blo w to LeCo rbusier's techno -
craticid eals. In1931, und era
pho to graph
o f Wall Street he
placed thecaptio n'All is
parad o x, d iso rd er; the
liberty d estro ying
co llective
liberty. Lack o f
d iscipline."
105
Bo thfo rmal
d isarray
and financial d isaster
resulted fro mthelack o f a co llectivesensi-
bility. Theco nd itio ns o f the
Depressio n
had und ermined thefaitho f
many French
intellectuals intheAmericanind ustrial
uto pia.
Fo rd ismand Taylo rismno
lo nger
seemed suchcertainmeans fo r
o bviating
class tensio ns o ncethe
pro spects
o f abun-
d ancewereind o ubt; and withHo o ver, the
Great
Engineer, impo tent
inthefaceo f
natio nal d isaster, the
mystique
o f themana-
gerial elitewas shattered . Thed isillusio n-
ment with
techno cracy had almo st imme-
d iate
repercussio ns
o nFrencheco no mic
and
po litical life. Tard ieu, theSaint-
Simo nianhero , failed to o btaina parlia-
mentary majo rity
fo rhis five-yearpro gram
fo reco no micmo d ernizatio nand techno -
cratic
streamlining, and heso o n
repud iated
his asso ciatio nwiththe"leftist"Re-
d ressement.106 Themo vement itself had
lo st its
d ynamism. WithFrance's o wn
ensuing d epressio n, therenaissanceo f
Saint-Simo ncameto its end .
Incertain
respects
thereactio nto the
crashand the
subsequent d isillusio nment
with
Taylo rismand Fo rd ismreflected the
superficial
ho ld that thetechno craticvisio n
had had o nFrench
so ciety. The
repeated
calls fo r
Taylo rismhad led to little
practical
co mmitment. Herrio t's
pleas
in1919 fo ra
techno lo gically ad vanced "fo urth
repub-
lic"and Clementel's effo rts to fo rmulatea
mo d el fo rind ustrial ad ministratio nina
Fed eratio nd es
Synd icats enco untered re-
sistancefro mpo liticians and businessmen
who wanted to returnto the
security o f
their
prewarpractices.107 Thecall fo ra
techno craticelite
premised
o n
pro d uctio n,
altho ugh
it had a
preced ent inthetwo
Napo leo niceras, was
threatening
to the
trad itio nal
Euro peanclasses-the aristo c-
racy, clergy, army, acad emicians, and even
civil serviceperso nnel-who wereco n-
cerned
o nly with
self-preservatio nand the
maintenanceo f theirfo ssilized institutio ns.
As Gramsci argued inhis essay o n"Amer-
icanism,"ratio nalizatio no f
pro d uctio n
was
essentially irreco ncilablewithEuro -
pean "trad itio n"and "civilizatio n,"
whichhesaw as
intrinsically linked to the
existenceo f a
parasiticclass withessen-
tially
no functio nin
pro d uctio n. Despite
its
pervasiveness, Americanismwas inthe
faceo f France's
lo ng-stand ing histo rical
and artisticstructure"as strid ent and
jarring
as the
make-up o nthefaceo f an
aging
femme
d umo nd e."108
LeCo rbusier's o wnfatewas
sympto -
matico f the
d eep resistanceto theactual
implementatio no f ratio nal
pro d uctive
metho d s. TheFrench
go vernment had
igno red his urban
plans and
pro po sals fo r
land refo rm; privateind ustry failed to d e-
velo p stand ard ized co nstructio n
practices;
Summer1983 143
Pessac, his o ne
mass-ho using pro ject, sto o d
empty fo rfiveyears as lo cal o fficials re-
fused to
grant an
o ccupancy permit; and
finally, the
jury
o f the
League
o f Natio ns
co mpetitio naward ed theco mmissio nto
fo uracad emicarchitects, who enshro ud ed
LeCo rbusier's o wn
pro po sal
in
maso nry
co nstructio nand histo ricist d etails. Leand re
Vaillat's co mments o nthe
Esprit No uveau
pavilio nweretypical
o f the
suspicio n
that
many Frenchmenhad o f LeCo rbusier's
ad vo cacy
o f themass-pro d uced d welling,
the"ho use-to o l":
If this
pavilio n
is intheautho r's in-
tentio na d emo nstratio nto teachthe
public, whichhas
fo rgo ttenit, the
supremacy o f co nstructio no vero rna-
ment, thenI
appro ve
o f it, withthe
reservatio nthat no neo f this is so
new that o newishes it affirmed fo r
us; but if heintend s to
persuad eus,
witha fo rcefulness that has
no thing
persuasiveabo ut it, that a ho useis a
"machinefo r
living,"no . Aho use
is no t a facto ry whereo newo rks and
where, ino rd erto earna little
paper
mo ney, o ne
perfo rms a few mechan-
ical
gestures, always thesame. A
ho use, to besure, must beanswerable
to
lo gic, reaso n, and
go o d sense,
and wefind , thank Go d !
eno ugh
o f
these
qualities
ino urnatio nal and
regio nal trad itio ns, witho ut seeking
theminGerman-Swiss ratio nalism.109
Critics, fo reverawareo f
Germany's
in-
d ustrial
superio rity,
o ftenco nd emned ef-
fo rts to
implement Scientific
Management
as no t French. Ind eed , WalterRathenau,
Germany's Ministero f Reco nstructio nand
o neo f
Euro pe's
mo st
significant
thinkers
o nind ustrial
o rganizatio n, had co ntributed
anarticleinthemid st o f
reparatio ns anxiety
to
L'Esprit
No uveau
"Critique
d e
L'Esprit
Allemand .
"110
The
Figaro writerMau-
clair, elabo rating
o nd e
Senger's argument,
related the
ano nymity
and
regularity
o f Le
Co rbusier's
mass-pro d uced
architectureto
the
o bjectives
o f Bo lshevism. Bo thwanted
to
d estro y man's
spiritual
co re: to red ucethe
Frenchmanto an"animal
g6o metrique.
"
1l
To so meextent, ho wever, LeCo rbu-
sier's failureto attaina
mass-pro d uced
architecturewas his o wn. LikeMercier, he
hard ly
cho sethemo st effectivemeans o f
exerting
his influence. His
ho pe
to influ-
ence
po licy
d ecisio ns while
maintaining
ind epend ence
fro m
po litics
was naive.
Technicians and architects had beeneffec-
tive
functio ning
as o fficials o rad viso rs
withinthe
go vernment-fo rinstance, Ernst
May
inFrankfurt o rHenri SellierinParis
and Suresnes-but LeCo rbusier
naively
believed that heco uld
shapego vernment
po licy simply by o ffering
unso licited ad -
vice. The
lead ership
o f the
Republic,
re-
spo nd ing
to a much
largerco nstituency
and o nethat was o ftenho stileto inno va-
tio n, had littlereaso nto initiateeitherLe
144 Art Jo urnal
Co rbusier's o rtheRed ressement's refo rms.
Mercierad mitted his failure, but attributed
it, in
languagereminiscent o f his
co lleague,
to the
public's insensitivity
to "wisd o m,
mo d eratio n, prud ence, and d isinterested -
ness."As Kuisel
po ints o ut, Albert Thi-
baud et
gaveano thermo re
co nvincing ex-
planatio n
fo rthetechno crats' failureto
achieverefo rm: Neo -Saint-Simo nianism,
heclaimed , had allied itself to o
stro ngly
withthed efenseo f eco no micinterests to
speak
with
autho rity as a bro ad
id eo lo gical
mo vement.
112
Fo rLeCo rbusieras anarchitect, the
d etachment fro m
party
po litics was
perhaps
a
special temptatio n. Visio ns o f ind ustrial
uto pia,
unlikeMarxism, o ffered bo ththe
pro mise
o f so cial
red emptio n
and a means
by whichto co ntinueto
practiceo ne's art.
Altho ughby 1930 LeCo rbusier's faithin
America's mo d el o f ind ustrial pro d uctivity
was shaken, thesearchfo rthis d ual go al
was to
persist. Thenew id eo lo gy
o f
pro -
d uctio nhad
changed thearchitect's co n-
ceptio n
o f his so cial ro le; ho using,
urban
planning, and mo d emco nstructio nmeth-
o d s arein
part
the
legacy o f the
perished
ho pes
o f the1920s.
No tes
I sho uld liketo ackno wled ge my appreciatio n to
theSo cial ScienceResearchCo uncil and the
Alliance
FrangaiseFribo urg Fo und atio n (Ful-
bright-Hayes) fo r
pro vid ing fund ing fo rmy
researchinParis 1976-1977. Also I sho uld like
to thank thestaff o f theFo nd atio n LeCo rbusier
fo rtheirassistance, as well as SusanBall,
Eleano r
Gregh, KennethSilver, Francesco Pas-
santi, and
Antho ny Vid ler, who seco nversatio ns
and
writings havebeen
especially helpful to the
fo rmulatio n o f many o f thearticle's id eas. Alan
Co lquho un, MarcTreib, Ro binEvans, and
Richard Po mmer havemo st genero usly reviewed
and co mmented o n
my d raft.
1
"Beyo nd theMo d emMo vement,"The
Harvard ArchitectureReview no . 1
(Spring
1980) 6; Charles Jencks, TheLanguageo f
Po st-Mo d ernArchitecture, 3rd ed ., New
Yo rk, Rizzo li, 1981, p. 37. Thesecritiques
ared irected at theMo d emMo vement as a
who le.
2
ReynerBanham, Theo ry and Designinthe
First MachineAge, 2nd ed ., New Yo rk,
Praeger Publishers, 1960; Co linRo we, "The
Mathematics o f theId eal Villa,"TheMathe-
matics o f theId eal Villa and OtherEssays,
Cambrid ge, Mass., MIT Press, 1976, pp.
1-27; WilliamCurtis, "Id eas o f Structure
and theStructure o f Id eas: LeCo rbusier's
Pavillo nSuisse, 1930-1931,"Jo urnal o f
theSo ciety o f
Architectural Histo rians 40,
no . 4 (December1981), pp.
295-310.
3 Seein
particular MaximilienGauthier Le
Co rbusiero ul'architectureauserviced e
l'ho mme, Paris, Ed itio ns Deno el, 1944;
StephenGard ner, LeCo rbusier, New Yo rk,
Viking Press, 1974; PeterBlake, TheMaster
Build ers, New Yo rk, Alfred A.
Kno pf,
1960.
Henry-Russell Hitchco ck's Architecture:
Nineteenthand TwentiethCenturies, Balti-
mo re, Penguin, 1971, and Sigfried Gied io n's
Space, Time, and Architecture, Cambrid ge,
Mass., Harvard University Press, 1967,
largely igno rethepo litical implicatio ns o f
LeCo rbusier's wo rk. Charles Jencks's
bio g-
raphy, LeCo rbusierand theTragicView o f
Architecture, Cambrid ge, Mass., Harvard
University Press, 1973, aftera brief
recapit-
ulatio no f LeCo rbusier's co ntrad icto ry po lit-
ical po sitio ns, d ismisses his "quasi-fascism"
o nthe
gro und s
o f artisticpurity. Inrecent
years, ho wever, several scho lars havebegun
to
explo remo reextensively LeCo rbusier's
po litical co nnectio ns. See
especially Ro bert
Fishman, UrbanUto pias intheTwentieth
Century: Ebenezer Ho ward , Frank Llo yd
Wright, and LeCo rbusier, New Yo rk, Basic
Bo o ks, 1977; JeanLo uis Co hen, "LeCo r-
busierand the
Mystique
o f theU.S.S.R.,"
Oppo sitio ns no . 23 (Winter1981), pp. 85-
121; Gio rgio Ciucci, "ARo meco nBo ttai,"
Rassegna 2, no . 3 (July 1980), pp. 66-71;
Thilo Hilpert, DieFunktio nelleStad t Le
Co rbusier's Stad tvisio n-Bed ingungen,
Mo tive, Hintergrund e, Brunswick, Vieweg,
1978.
4 Blake, MasterBuild ers, p.
109.
5 LeCo rbusier, Urbanisme, Paris, Ed itio ns
Cres, 1925; reprinted inParis, Vincent,
Freal, 1966. Translated into Englishby
Fred erick Etchells inLeCo rbusier, TheCity
o f To mo rro w and Its Planning, Lo nd o n,
Jo hnRo d ker, 1929; reprinted inCambrid ge,
Mass., 1971, p. 301.
6 Jud ithA. Merkle, Management and Id eo l-
o gy, Berkeley, University
o f Califo rnia
Press, 1980, pp. 14-15.
7 An
impo rtant so urcefo rthis acco unt o f
Tay-
lo rismand , in
particular, its id eo lo gical im-
plicatio ns in
Euro peis Charles S. Maier's
excellent article, "Between Taylo rismand
Techno cracy: Euro peanId eo lo gies and the
Visio n o f Ind ustrial Pro d uctivity
in the
1920s," Jo urnal o f Co ntempo rary Histo ry
5, no . 2 (1970), pp.
27-61.
8 Henri LeChatelier, Le
Taylo risme,
2nd ed .,
Paris, Duno d , 1934, p. 2.
9 Paul Devinat, ScientificManagement
in
Euro pe, Geneva, Internatio nal Labo rOffice,
1927, pp. 233-37; Richard K. Kuisel, Capi-
talismand theState inMo d ernFrance,
Cambrid ge, Cambrid ge University Press,
1981, pp.
31-35.
10 These statistics, prepared by
the French
Ministry
o f theLiberated
Regio ns,
arefro m
WilliamMacDo nald , Reco nstructio nin
France, New Yo rk, MacMillan, 1922, pp.
24,28,93.
11 Kuisel, Capitalism, pp. 54, 61.
12 Lt. Co l. G.
Espitallier,
Po urrebd tirno s
maiso ns d etruites, Paris, 1917, p. 3, cited
by KennethSilver, "Esprit
d e
Co rps:
The
Great Warand FrenchArt, 1914-1925,"
d issertatio n, YaleUniversity, 1981, pp.
207-8.
13 Charles-Ed o uard Jeanneret and Amed ee
Ozenfant, Apres lecubisme, Paris, Co m-
mentaires, No vember15, 1918, pp. 11,26.
14 Charles Faro ux, "L'exemple
ind ustriel d es
Etats-Unis,"Revued es vivantes 1, no . 9
(Octo ber1927), p. 443.
15 MarcBo urbo nnais, LeNeo -Saint-Simo nian-
ismd ans la vieso ciale
d 'aujo urd -hui,
Paris,
Les Press Universitaires d eFrance, 1923.
16 LeCo rbusiero wned six bo o ks
by Dubreuil,
several o f whichwerewarmly d ed icated to
theautho r. Dubreuil was anad junct secretary
o f theFrenchlabo runio nC.G.T. (Co nfed -
eratio nGeneraled uTravail). His best seller
Stand ard s, Co mment uno uvrierfrancais a
vuletravail americain, Paris, Gro sset, 1929,
d escribes his
largely po sitivereactio ns to
wo rkers' co nd itio ns und er
Taylo rism, mad e
aftera trip
to theUnited States. Fo rDubreuil,
theessential d ifferencebetween
assembly
linewo rk and
o rd inary wo rk was that inthe
fo rmerall the
implements necessary fo rthe
wo rker
lay
at hand at the
right mo ment, and
that d iso rd erasso ciated withcertainmanu-
facturing pro cesses was abo lished .
LeCo rbusieralso had pro fessio nal co ntact
withMarshal
Lyauty and LucienRo mier.
Lyauty attempted to
publicizeScientific
Management intheFrenchco lo nial
army.
In
his Sketchbo o ks, vo l. 1, Cambrid ge, Mass.,
MIT Press, 1981, p. 21, LeCo rbusier
praised
Lyauty's sensitivemo d ernizatio no f Mo ro c-
co . LucienRo mierwas the
primary spo kes-
mano f Red ressement
Frangais,
an
o rgan-
izatio ninwhichLeCo rbusierwas also
invo lved . Seethed iscussio n, laterinthis
article. Le Co rbusier's
library includ ed
Ro mier's wo rk
Esquisse
d es
co nsequences
d u
pro gres, Paris, 1929.
17 HerveLauwick, "Taylo risatio ns,"L'In-
transigeant, April 16, 1923, p. 1; Henry
Fo rd , Ma vieet mo no euvre, Paris, Payo t,
1925.
18
Geo rges Bricard , L'Organisatio nscientifique
d utravail, Paris, Armand Co lin, 1927, p.
201; Merkle, Management and Id eo lo gy, p.
154.
19 SeeDevinat, ScientificManagement; Henri
Fayo l, General and Ind ustrial Management,
trans. Co nstanceSto rrs, New Yo rk, Pitman,
1949.
20 Charles E. Jeanneret to WilliamRitter,
December25, 1917, cited inBrianBrace
Taylo r, "LeCo rbusier's Pro to typeMass
Ho using, 1914-28,"d issertatio n, Harvard
University, 1974, p.
51.
21
L'Esprit No uveau, no . 20.
22 Fo ranexcellent acco unt o f theDo m-ino
pro ject and LeCo rbusier's activities d uring
thewaryears, seeEleano rGregh, "The
Do m-ino Id ea," Oppo sitio ns no . 15/16
(Winter/Spring 1979), pp. 60-87.
23 Charles E. Jeanneret to WilliamRitter, Octo -
ber1917, cited inBrianBrace
Taylo r, Le
Co rbusierat Pessac, Exh. cat., Harvard
University, Cambrid ge,
Mass. (inco llabo -
ratio nwiththeFo nd atio nLeCo rbusier,
Paris), Octo ber-No vember1972, p. 6.
24 Sinceits fo rmatio nin1907, theDeutsche
Werkbund had
enco uraged co llabo ratio n
between
pro gressiveind ustries suchas AEG
and
architects, includ ing HermannMuthe-
sius, PeterBehrens, and Walter
Gro pius.
Themessianic
ho peinind ustrial metho d s is
perhaps
mo st
clearly (and naively) expressed
by Mies vand erRo heinthethird ed itio no f
G (June10, 1924): "I seeinind ustrializatio n
thecentral
pro blem
o f
build ing
ino urtime.
If wesucceed in
carrying o ut this ind ustrial-
izatio n, theso cial, eco no mic, technical, and
also artistic
pro blems will be
read ily
so lved . "
("Ind ustrial Build ing," Pro grams and
Manifesto es o n
Twentieth-Century Archi-
tecture, ed . UlrichCo nrad s, Cambrid ge,
Mass. MIT Press, 1970, p. 81).
25 Banham, Theo ry and DesignintheFirst
MachineAge, pp. 220-46.
26 LeCo rbusier, Vers unearchitecture, Paris,
Ed itio ns Cres, 1923; reprinted
inParis, Ed i-
tio ns Arthaud , 1977. Translated into
English
by Fred erick Etchells inLeCo rbusier,
To ward s a New Architecture, Lo nd o n, Jo hn
Ro d ker, 1927; reprinted inNew Yo rk,
Praeger, 1960, p.
211. Thechapter"Mass-
Pro d uctio nHo uses"was o riginally pub-
lished in
L'Esprit
No uveauno . 13.
Lo ucheur(1872-1931) camefro mno rth-
easternFrance, wherehehad substantial
ho ld ings
intherailro ad s serving themining
regio ns. Immed iately fo llo wing thewar, he
served as Ministero f theLiberated Zo nes
and led reco nstructio neffo rts intheno rth. In
1920, he
pro po sed with
Bo nnevay a law fo r
theco nstructio no f 500,000 units o f lo w-
co st
ho using. Altho ughrejected at thetime,
the
pro po sal laterbecamethebasis o f the
1928 Lo ucheurLaw, whichcreated the
Habitatio ns a
lo yermo d ere(H.L.M.).
27 LeCo rbusier, To ward s, pp. 215-18. I have
includ ed thereferenceto
Taylo rismfro mthe
Frenched itio n
(p. 193), whichEtchells o mits
fro mhis translatio n. Etchells, perhaps given
the
general lack o f
kno wled geabo ut Scien-
tific
Management
inBritain, so metimes
o mits
passages referring to Taylo rism.
28 LeCo rbusier, To ward s, p. 231.
29 LeCo rbusier, City, p. 301.
30 LeCo rbusier, To ward s, p. 247.
31 Ibid ., pp. 268-69.
32 Ibid ., pp. 247,250.
33 In1926,
twenty-fivepercent o f theParisians
lived in
apartments averaging
two resid ents
perro o m; 318,000 peo ple
lived en
garni,
co mpared
to 222,000 in1912; and thetuber-
culo sis
mo rtality
ratevaried fro m83
per
100,000 inthe8earro nd isement to 1,247
per100,000 in
parts
o f the4earro nd isement
(and to 4,263 per100,000 infurnished ho -
tels). During thetwenties, nearly 1,000,000
peo ple
mo ved into thestill semi-rusticsub-
urbs, wheresquattersettlements witho ut
sewage
o rservicefacilities
pro liferated . The
instability o f theho me
mo rtgagemarket and
co nstructio n
ind ustry exacerbated theho us-
ing pro blem. SeeLo uis Lo ucheur, LeCarnet
secret, 1908-1932, Brussels, Brepo ls, 1962,
p. 145; Peggy
A.
Phillips, "New-Co rpo ratist
Praxis in
Paris,"Jo urnal
o f
Urban
Histo ry
(August 1978), pp.
413-14.
34 Lo ucheur, LeCarnet secret; Phillips,
"New
Co rpo ratist
Praxis."
35 Silver, "Esprit
d e
Co rps,"pp.
206-9.
36
Ad o lpheDervaux, "LeBeau, levrai, l'utile
et la
reo rganisatio n
d ela cite,"La Grand
Revue90, no . 584
(April 1916), p.
36.
37 La CiteReco nstituee, May-July 1916, cited
in
Gregh,
"TheDo m-ino Id ea,"p.
83. As
Greghpo ints o ut, theexhibitio n's
emphasis
o n
winning public
favo rfo rind ustrialized
build ing metho d s, ino rd erthat reco nstruc-
tio nco uld
pro ceed rapid ly, eco no mically,
and o na
largescale, is
extremely
similarto
LeCo rbusier's o wn
po sitio n.
38 LeCo rbusier
specifically
attacks the
perva-
sive
"r-e-g-i-o -n-a-l-i-s-m-e!"
inhis
chapter
"Maiso nenSerie,"Vers, pp.
189-92
(again
ina
passage
o mitted
by Etchells). Many
o f
his articles laterreprinted
inL'Art
d eco ratif
d 'aujo urd 'hui, Paris, Ed itio ns Cres, 1925;
reprinted
inParis, Vincent, Freal, 1959, are
also aimed at
co untering
this
pervasive
trend .
Fo ra
general
d iscussio no f
regio nalism,
see
Gerard Mo nnier, "UnReto ura l'o rd re:
architecture,
geo metrie,
so ciete,"inUni-
versited eSaint-Etienne, LeReto ura l'o rd re,
Paris, Spad em, 1975, pp. 45-54.
39 This termis used
by
Maxime
Lero y
inhis
bo o k La
Villefranqaise, Paris, Riviere, 1927,
p. 37.
Lero y, a
university pro fesso rand
fo rmer
synd icalist, gavetheo retical fo rma-
tio nto the
neo -co rpo ratist to wn-planning
mo vement. He
so ught a reestablishment o f
"co mmunity"inFrenchcities, and saw
co rpo ratio ns as thenew
"guild s"o f French
so ciety.
Henri Sellier, a synd icalist-so cialist,
was themo st activemembero f theParisian
ho using-refo rmmo vement. Inthetwenties,
hewas mayo ro f thenew mid d le-class suburb
Suresnes and acted as natio nal secretary o f
theo ffices d 'H.B.M. (Habitatio na bo n
marche). During thePo pularFro nt, heserved
as Ministero f PublicHealth. Geo rges Beno it-
Levy, the
presid ent o f theFrenchGard en
City Asso ciatio n, was o neo f thefirst to
intro d ucetheBritishgard en
city
mo vement
to theFrench. Lo uis Renault, theauto mo bile
manufacturer, was a natio nal trusteeinthe
H.B.M.
pro gramand built a significant
amo unt o f thewo rkers'
ho using und erthis
pro gramand laterund erH.L.M. Hesaw
ho using as ananswerto atheismand co m-
munism. Laterhewas invo lved inthepro -
d uctio no f armaments fo rtheNazis. Pierre
Lhand ewas o neo f thechief spo kesmeno f
so cial Catho licisminFranceand spo nso red
several "Catho lic"gard encities. Heco n-
sid ered these
pro jects to bea way to "co mbat
the
sco urgeo f ho vels"and to "civilizeand
christianize"the
wo rking class.
Phillips's "New-Co rpo ratist Praxis"
gives
a brief acco unt o f eacho f thesefigures and
their
neo -co rpo ratist o rientatio n. Fo ra mo re
extensived iscussio no f Henri Sellierand the
Parisian
public-ho using mo vement, see
GinetteBaty-To mikian, Architectureet
Summer1983 145
So cial Demo cratie: Unpro jet urbainid eal
typique: agglo meratio nparisienne1919-
1939, Paris, Institut d 'Etud es et d eRe-
cherches Architecturales et Urbaines, Min-
istered l'Enviro nment et d uCad red eVie,
C.O.R.D.A., 77 73 028 00 202 7501, n.d .
40 Geo rges Beno it-Levy, La Fo rmatio nd ela
race, Vichy, n.d ., cited inPhillips, "New-
Co rpo ratist Praxis,"p. 406.
41 Beno it-Levy, Paris s'entend u, Nice, So ciete
Generaled 'Imprimerie, 1927, pp. 42-43;
id em, La Cite-jard in, Paris, Jo uve, 1904.
La Cite-jard inpred ates thewid espread in-
tro d uctio no f
Taylo risminFrance, but it
relates d irectly to id eas o f ratio nalizatio no f
pro d uctio n. Beno it-Levy o pened thetext
witha quo tatio nfro mtheLePlay's Saint-
Simo niantext, L'Organisatio nd utravail.
Heargued
fo rtheneed fo r"villemo d eles"
to acco mpany "ateliers mo d els." Fo r
Beno it-Levy's influenceo nLeCo rbusier,
seePaul V. Turner, "TheEd ucatio no f Le
Co rbusier: A
Stud y o f theDevelo pment o f
LeCo rbusier's Tho ught, 1900-1920,"d is-
sertatio n, Harvard University, 1971, pp.
129-33.
42
Fayo l, Management, p. 96. During thewar,
LeCo rbusierstud ied at theBiblio theque
Natio naleAlfred d eFo ville's L'Enquetesur
les co nd itio ns d el'habitatio nenFrance, Les
Maiso ns Types, Paris, 1894. Thebo o k, uti-
lizing Fo ville's researchwiththeSectio nd es
Sciences
Eco no miques
et So ciales d uCo mit6
d es Travaux Histo riques et Scientifiques o f
theMuseeSo cial, is anearly illustratio no f
so cial engineering.
Inco ntrast to earlier
acad emicstud ies suchas Charles Gamier's
L'Habitatio nhumaine, thebo o k pro po ses a
new scientificand statistical appro achto
d esign; implicit
is a no tio no f
po tential so cial
refo rm. SeeGregh, "TheDo m-ino Id ea,"
p. 82; Taylo r, Pessac, p. 1.
43 Devinat, ScientificManagement, p. 78;
Dubreuil, Stand ard s, pp.
10-11.
44 LeCo rbusierpublished
Perret's d rawings
fo ra co ncreteho usein"Maiso nenSerie"
and Gamier's Cit6 Ind ustrielle"in"Tro is
rappels
a MM. les Architectes,"Esprit
No uveauno . 4. Perret's
d rawings, ho wever,
wereo mitted inVers unearchitecture.
45 LeCo rbusier, To ward s, pp.
263-64.
46
L'Esprit No uveau, revue internatio nale
hebd o mad aire
d 'eco no mique
no . 1
(January
1921). This was theo nly
issueo f this review
d ed icated to thed iscussio no f "Eco no mie
po litique,
Eco no mienatio nale, Eco no mie
internatio nale, Scienceet Ind ustrie, Meth-
o d o lo gie."
Fo ra d iscussio no f
L'Esprit
No uveau, seeRo bert Gabetti and Carlo
Olmo , LeCo rbusiere
l'Esprit No uveau,
Turin, Giulio Einaud i, 1975; Frango ise
Will-Levaillant, "No rmeet fo rmea travers
L'Esprit No uveau,"Universit6 d eSaint-
Etienne, Reto ura l'o rd re, pp. 241-76. An
ad equateanalysis
o f theso cial and
po litical
id eas o f thereview remains to bed o ne.
47 N.D.L.R., no teto R. Chenevier, "Wilso n
et l'humanisme
franqais,"L'Esprit
No uveau
no . 11/12, p. 1223.
48 Thepo stwar"call to o rd er"is evid ent in
bo ththepo litical and cultural spheres.
Fo ra
d iscussio no f theco nservativereactio no n
thecultural sphere, seeUniversit6 d eSaint-
Etienne, Reto ura l'o rd re, and especially
Silver's excellent article, "Purism: Straight-
ening Up aftertheGreat War,"Artfo rm15,
no . 7 (March1977), pp. 56-63; also his
d issertatio n, "Esprit d eCo rps."
49 Many
o f thestro ngest ad vo cates o f Euro pean
eco no micintegratio nweread vo cates o f in-
d ustrial mo d ernizatio n. Lo ucheurserved as
presid ent o f theFrenchPan-Euro peco mmit-
tee, and was fo llo wed upo nhis d eathin1931
by Mercier. Bo thwereasso ciates o f LeCo r-
busier, as was theinternatio nalist Paul Otlet,
LeCo rbusier's client fo rtheMund aneam.
ThePan-Euro pemo vement was fo und ed
afterWo rld WarI by Co unt Co ud enho ve-
Kalegi, a Euro peanno blemano f internatio nal
ancestry. SeeRichard F. Kuisel, Ernest
Mercier, FrenchTechno crat, Berkeley,
University
o f Califo rnia Press, 1967, p.
73.
Fo rthebro ad erwo rld visio no f FrenchTay-
lo rists, seeMerkle, Managment and Id eo l-
o gy, p.
137.
50 LeCo rbusier, "No s mo yens,"L'Esprit
No uveauno . 27, inLeCo rbusier, City, p.
140.
51 Ibid ., pp. 147-48,296.
52 CamilleMauclair, L'Architectureva-t-elle
mo urir? La crised u"panbeto nnismeinte-
gral,"Paris, No uvelleRevueCritique, 1933,
p. 38.
53 Theasso ciatio no f fo rms withnatio nal id en-
tity
o r
patrio ticallegiancewas mo st co mmo n
thro ugho ut Wo rld WarI and the1920s.
Ozenfant inhis articleinL'Esprit No uveau
o nVilla Schwo b (1916) ad d ressed this issue:
"evennatio nalismhas beco memixed up
withit and certainfinespirits haved ecreed
that thestraight lineis German(witness the
Pantheo n, theEgyptiantemples, and palaces
o f Gabriel). Thestraight lineis o neo f the
rights o f man."(JulienCaro n[pseud o nym
fo rOzenfant], "UneVilla d eLeCo rbu-
sier,"L'Esprit No uveauno . 6, pp. 679-704;
JulienCaro n, "Villa o f LeCo rbusier,"
trans. Jo anOchman, Oppo sitio ns no . 15/16
[Winter/Spring 1979] p. 187-97.) Later, in
Urbanisme, Le Co rbusieralso d isputes
claims that thestraight lineis German, Le
Co rbusier, City, p.
23. SeeSilver, "Esprit
d e
co rps,"
fo ranextend ed and perceptive
d iscussio no f art and natio nal id entity d uring
this perio d .
54 Erik Satie, "Cahiers d 'unmammifere,"
L'Esprit
No uveauno . 7, p. 833.
55 R. Chenevier, "La Vie
frangaise,"L'Esprit
No uveau, no . 6, pp. 705-14; id em, "Wilso n
et l'humanisme
frangais,"ibid ., no . 11/12,
pp. 1223-30; id em"Oumemela po litique
anti-so vietique,"ibid ., no . 9, pp. 1045-51.
56
L'Esprit No uveau, no .
16, p. 1969; Henri
Hertz, "Lenine,"ibid ., no . 21.
57 L'Esprit No uveau, no . 15, p. 1727. Seealso
Hertz, "Wilso n,"ibid ., no . 22.
58 Alexand erd eSenger,
LeCheval d etro ied u
bo lchevisme, Bienne, Ed itio ns d uChand e-
lier, 1931.
Thebest d iscussio no f d eSenger's text, as
well as o f Mauclair's L'Architectureva-t-
ellemo urir?, is still Gauthier's LeCo rbu-
sier. Seealso Jacques Gubler, Natio nalisme
et internatio nalismed ans l'architecture
mo d emed ela Suisse, Lausanne, L'Age
d 'ho mme, 1975.
59 LeCo rbusier, To ward s, p. 261.
60 Paul Lafitte, "A
pro po s
d ela Grand Crise,"
L'Esprit
No uveauno .
16, p.
1900.
61 Ibid ., p.
1889.
62 Hertz, "Balbutiements d e
l'esprit po litique
III,"L'Esprit No uveauno . 24; Jean
Lurgat,
"LeCartel d es Ind 6pend ants,"
ibid .
63 Hertz, L'Esprit No uveauno . 24.
64 Maier, "BetweenTaylo rism
and Techno c-
racy,"p.
38.
65 LeCo rbusier, To ward s, p.
254.
66 LeCo rbusier, "La Grand Ville,"L'Esprit
No uveauno . 23, inLeCo rbusier, City, p.
102.
67 La Directio n, "Ce
que
no us avo ns fait, ce
que
no us fero ns,"L'Esprit
No uveauno .
11/12, pp. 1212, 1213.
68 L'Esprit
No uveauno . 11/12, p. 1372; ibid .
no . 10, p.
1202.
69 Francis Delaisi, "Faut-il emettre150 mil-
liard s d ebillets d ebanque?"L'Esprit
No u-
veauno . 8, pp. 927-934; seealso n. 43
abo ve. LeCo rbusierwro teinUrbanisme, p.
277, that hehad ho ped
to
give
the
chapter
"Chiffres"to Francis Delaisi to write.
70 LeCo rbusier, City, pp. 251-72, 302.
71 LeCo rbusier, Urbanisme, p.
285. This
phrase
d o es no t
appear
inEtchell's translatio n.
72 LeCo rbusier, La Villerad ieuse, Paris,
L'Architecture
d 'Aujo urd 'hui,
1935. Trans-
lated into Englishby
Pamela Knight,
Eleano r
Levieux, and Derek Co ltman, inLeCo rbu-
sier, TheRad iant City,
New Yo rk, Orio n
Press, 1964, p. 120; id em, City, p.
256.
73 Beno it-Levy, Paris s'entend u, pp. 22-23.
Thetranslatio nis fro mPhillips,
"New-
Co rpo ratist Praxis,"p. 405.
74 Henri Hertz, "Balbutiements d el'esprit
po litique,"L'Esprit No uveauno . 21; "Bal-
butiements II,"ibid . no . 22; "Balbutiements
III,"ibid . no . 24.
Altho ugh
Hertz fo und "impuretes"
inthe
Rad ical
Party,
hebelieved that it was the
o nly ho pe
fo ra renewal o f "I'esprit pub-
lique.
"LaterHertz wro tefo rtheco mmunist
review Euro pe.
75 LeCo rbusier, To ward s, pp. 219, 245.
76 Paul Dermee, "And r6 Gid e,"L'Esprit
No uveauno . 25.
77 The
impo rtance
o f Pro ud ho nto theL'Esprit
No uveaugro up
is
expressed
inR. Chene-
146 ArtJo urnal
vier's article"L'Esthetiqued ePro ud ho n,"
L'Esprit No uveauno . 4, pp.
444 48.
78 LeCo rbusier, To ward s, p. 268.
79
Henry Fo rd , My Lifeand Wo rk, New Yo rk,
Arno
Press, 1973, p.
3.
80 LeCo rbusier, L'Almanachd 'Architecture
Mo d erne, Paris, Les Ed itio ns Cres, 1925, p.
145.
81 Taylo r, Pessac, p. 7.
82 LeCo rbusier, To ward s, p. 222.
83 LeCo rbusier, City, pp. 275-76.
84 L[e] C[o rbusier] S[augnier], "Les Maiso ns
'Vo isin,'" L'Esprit No uveauno . 2, pp.
211-15.
85 Fo ra d etailed acco unt o f thed evelo pment o f
this
pro ject, seeTaylo r, Pessac.
86 LeCo rbusier, Rad iant, p. 13.
87 LeCo rbusiero wned a co py o f a bro chure
published by Michelinet Cie. in1925, co n-
cerning theirsuccessful effo rts to
Taylo rize
theco nstructio no f a co mpany ho using co m-
plex built at Clermo nt-Ferrand . LeCo rbusier
and PierreJeanneret aresaid to havevisited
this
co mplex (Taylo r, Pessac, p. 24).
88 Lo uis Renault, likemany o f theind ustrialists,
d id wo rk in
co njunctio nwiththego vernment.
Mucho f theho using that hespo nso red was
built und ertheH.B.M.
pro gram. But, as
with
many so cial refo rms inthetwenties, the
initiatio ncamefro mtheprivatesecto r.
89 LeCo rbusierto Bruya, Octo ber11, 1932,
Fo nd atio nLeCo rbusier. LeCo rbusierex-
pressed his ad miratio no f Ernest Mercierin
his prefacepageto the1963 publicatio no f
TheRad iant City:
Mo bilizatio no f theland fo rtheco m-
mo n
go o d (theRed ressement Francais
has published this thesis).
ThePresid ent o f theRed ressement
Francais was Ernest Mercier, Presi-
d ent o f Est-Lumiere(1928). He
wanted to facehis co untry witha
crucial d ecisio n: to explo it theland o f
thenatio n.
Thirty-fiveyears have
passed !!!
At theco nclusio no f his wo rk Precisio ns sur
unetat present d el'architectureet d el'ur-
banisme, Paris, Ed itio ns Cres, 1930; reprint
ed . Paris, Vincent Freal, 1960, p. 249. Le
Co rbusier, und erthetitle"UnInstitut d e
Franced e
l'epo quemachiniste,"published
excerpts
o f a letterto LucienRo mier, after
Mercier, themo st
impo rtant figure
inthe
Red ressement. Theletter, writtenin
February
1928, expresses LeCo rbusier's ho peinthis
o rganizatio nco mpo sed o f
"capitaines d 'in-
d ustrie."Fo ro therreferences inPrecisio ns
to theRed ressement, seepp. 144, 176-77,
187, 190.
90 Theacco unt o f Ernest Mercierand theRe-
d ressement
Frangais
is d rawnfro mKuisel's
Ernest Mercier.
91 The
Esprit No uveauco ntributo rFrancis
Delaisi wo rked o no neo f thefirst Cahiers
series, Echanges co mmerciaux.
92 LeCo rbusier, inhis article"R6flexio ns a
pro po s d ela lo i Lo ucheur,"Revued es
Vivantes annee2, no . 8
(August 1928), pp.
239-45, expressed many o f theid eas result-
ing fro mhis wo rk withRed ressement Fran-
gais.
Ina fo o tno te, p. 243, hereferred to the
urbanismstud y co mmitteeand its pro po sal
o f a law o nthe"recuperatio no f
surplus
value."Seealso his interview withCharles
Kunstler, "Po urra-t-o nbiento t se
lo ger?
Une
enquete
surla lo i Lo ucheur,"Septem-
ber27, 1928 (no reference, Fo nd atio nLe
Co rbusier).
93 Bulletin, June19, 1928, cited inKuisel, p.
86; H. Pro st and G. Mo nsarrat, L' Urbanisme,
Paris, Ed itio ns d ela S.A.P.E., n.d .
94 LeCo rbusier, Vers leParis d el'epo que
machiniste, Rappo rt pro viso ire, Supplement
auBulletind uRed ressement Francais, Feb-
ruary 15, 1928, 14
pp., id em, Po urbd tir:
stand ard iseret taylo riser, Supplement d u
Bulletind uRed ressement Francais, May 1,
1928, 8pp.
95 LeCo rbusier, Vers leParis, p. 6.
96 Ibid ., p. 11.
97 Ibid ., p. 14.
98 LeCo rbusier, Po urbd tir, p.
8.
99 Kuisel, Ernest Mercier, p.
86.
100 LeCo rbusier, "R6flexio ns a
pro po s
d ela
lo i Lo ucheur,"p. 239.
101 Alexand erWerth, TheTwilight o f France
1933-1940, ed . D.W.
Bro gan, New Yo rk,
Harperand Bro thers, 1942, p. 4.
102 LeCo rbusier, TheRad iant City, p. 8.
103 LeCo rbusier, "L'Autho rit6 d evant les
taches
co ntempo raines,"L'Architecture
d 'Aujo urd 'hui (September1935), pp. 22-23;
reprinted
inL'Architectured 'Aujo urd 'hui
no . 158 (May 1971), 87.
104 Fo ra d iscussio no f LeCo rbusier's
partici-
patio n
inthis mo vement, seeFishman,
Uto pias, pp. 213-42; Mary McLeo d , "Le
Co rbusierand
Algiers,""Plans: Biblio g-
raphy,"Oppo sitio ns no . 19/20 (Winter/
Spring 1980), pp. 55-85, 185-89.
105 LeCo rbusier, "Descartes est-il ameri-
cain?"Plans no . 7
(July 1931); translated
into
English
inLeCo rbusier, TheRad iant
City, p. 129.
106 Kuisel, Ernest Mercier, p. 87.
107 Maier, "Between
Taylo rism,"p. 38.
108 This
phrase
o f
Luigi Pirand ello (1929) is
quo ted by Anto nio Gramsci inhis
essay
"Americanismand Fo rd ism,"inSelectio ns
fro mthePriso nNo tebo o ks, ed . and trans.
QuintinHo areand
Geo ffrey No well Smith,
New Yo rk, Internatio nal Publishers, 1971,
pp. 279-322. Inthis co ntempo rary analysis,
Gramsci
argued that Americanismand
Fo rd ismin
Euro ped id no t co nstitutethe
beginning
o f a "new histo rical
epo ch"and
that littlehad been
actually changed
inthe
"charctero f the
relatio nships betweenfun-
d amental
gro ups."
109 Leand reVaillat, "La Tend anceinterna-
tio nalea
l'expo sitio n
d es arts d eco ratifs,"
L'Illustratio nno . 4313 (Octo ber31, 1925),
pp.
459.
110 WalterRathenau, "Critique
d e
L'Esprit
Allemand ,"L'Esprit No uveauno . 9, pp.
1093-1106. This issuecameo ut in
July
1921, just fo llo wing
thefirst Wiesbad en
co nferencebetweenLo uis Lo ucheurand
WalterRathenau. Lo ucheurand Rathenau
attempted
to wo rk o ut an
agreement by
whichGermany
wo uld meet its
reparatio n
payments
inGerman
go o d s
and wo rkman-
ship. Twenty-fivetho usand ho uses mad e
in
Germany
wereto beerected inthed evas-
tated regio n. Theplans
called fo ra stan-
d ard ized ho use
plan
withco ncrete
plaster
d o ublewalls, theintervening space
filled
with
co mpressed peat.
Thero o fs, o f slate
o rtile, wereto bemad elo cally;
all o ther
materials wereto be
pro vid ed by Germany.
Altho ughRathenau's essay,
writtenin1918,
makes no referenceto this agreement, the
publicatio n
o f thearticleinthemid st o f a
lively
d iscussio nintheFrench
press
and in
parliament
canbe
interpreted
as anend o rse-
ment
by
Ozenfant and LeCo rbusiero f the
pro po sal. Many feared that payment
in
kind , as o ppo sed to mo ney, was co ntrary to
theVersailles treaty, and that theinflux o f
Germango o d s and wo rkmenwo uld result
ina German"co lo nizatio n"o f a regio n
that theGermanarmies had o nly recently
ravaged (MacDo nald , Reco nstructio nin
France, p. 253).
111 Mauclair, L'Architecture, especially pp.
35-45.
112 Albert Thibaud et, Les Id ees po litiques d e
la France, Paris, Sto ck, Delamainet
Bo utelleau, 1932, pp. 66-68; Bulletind u
Red ressement Francais, July 1932, p. 11,
as cited by Kuisel, Ernest Mercier, p. 38.
Kuisel's critiqueo f Mercierwas a so urce
fo rmy analysis o f LeCo rbusier's
po litical
ineffectiveness inthetwenties.
Mary McLeo d teaches archtectural
histo ry and
d esignat theGrad uateScho o l
o f Architectureand
Planning, Co lumbia
University.
Summer1983 147