LE CORBUSIER FORAYS INTO URBANISM

 originally Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965)

 founding father of the modernist movement.

CIAM 1928 ( Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne ).
At the request of a rich patron of architects, Madame Hélène de Mandrot(1867–1948), in 1928, Sigfried
Giedion organized a meeting of leading Modern architects including Berlage , Le Corbusier , El Lissitzky ,
Rietveld , and Stam.

 The organization was hugely influential. It was not only engaged in formalizing the architectural
principles of the Modern Movement, but also saw architecture as an economic and political tool
that could be used to improve the world through the design of buildings and through urban
planning.
 It affirmed that town planning is the organizations of functions of collective life – this applies to
both rural and urban settlements.

FOUR FUNCTIONS OF ANY SETTLEMENT

 dwelling
 work
 recreation
 transportation, which connects the first three with one another.

Le Corbusier organized in CIAM, Assembly of Constructors for an Architectural Renewal (ASCORAL)

which systematically studied the problems of construction, architecture and city planning.
 It resulted in the publication of ‘The Three Human Establishments’. The examination of
working conditions in a mechanistic society led to the recognition of the utility and necessity of
three unit establishments indispensable for human activity :
 The Farming unit – the cooperative village : a unit foragricultural production
 The linear industrial city
 The radio concentric city - same as Radiant city (Ville Radieuse) for the exchange of goods and
services. three with one another.
STUDY -1
BACKGROUND OF VILLE CONTEMPORAINE : PHILOSOPHY OF LE CORBUSIER
 No matter how open and green, cities should be frankly urban,urban surroundings are to be
definitely contrasting with rural surroundings
 Densities are in themselves not a problem. Congestion and slum conditions in the cities are due
to excessive coverage, persistence of old street patterns and unrestricted land speculation.
 Slums exist because of the failure to provide the proper surrounding for high density living
 He protests against strict functionalism : “Human creations that survive are those which
produce emotions, and not those which are only useful”.
LA VILLE CONTEMPORAINE (CONCENTRIC CITY) 1922
City for 3 million people was proposed by Le corbusier in 1922, which was based on four principles :
 Decongestion of the centre of the cities
 Augmentation of the density
 Enlargement of the means of circulation
 Increase in the number of parks and open spaces
 THREE ZONES
 CENTRAL CITY
 PROTECTED GREEN BELT
 FACTORIES & SATELLITE TOWNS

CENTRAL CITY
Rectangle containing two cross axial highways
At its heart was a six-level transport interchange – centre for
motor, rail lines (underground and main-line railways) and roof
of which is air-field.
24 cruciform skyscrapers – 60 storeyed office building with
density 1200 ppa and covers 5%
of the ground
Surrounding skyscrapers was apartment district – 8 storey
buildings arranged in zigzag rows with broad openspaces with
density of 120 ppa.

The buildings in the central area were raised on stilts (pilotis) so as to leave panoramas of unbroken
greenery at ground level .
 The general impression was more of a city in a park than of a parkland in the city.
 The city espoused space, speed, mass production and efficient organisation, but also offered
combination.

CRITICISM
 Class based conception of life – different classes being separately housed.
 Doubts were expressed about the scale and degree of centralization.

STUDY -2
PLAN VOISIN 1925
Le corbusier reworked certain elements of the Ville Contemporaine & applied to a section of paris.

 18 double cruciform 60 – storey skycrapers, placed in anorthogonal street grid and park-like
green space.
 three clusters of luxury apartments.
Street System
 Heavy traffic would proceed at basement level
 lighter traffic at ground level
 fast traffic should flow along limited-access arterial roads that supplied rapid and unobstructed
crosscity movement.
 pedestrianised streets, wholly separate from vehicular traffic and placed at a raised level.
 The number of existing streets would be diminished by two-thirds due to the new
arrangements of housing, leisure facilities and workplaces, with same-level crossing points
eliminated wherever possible.
 Critics attacked its focus on the central city, where land values were highest and dislocations
most difficult.
 the creation of vast empty spaces in placeof close-knit .
LINEAR INDUSTRIAL CITY
 Leaving the ‘evils of the sprawling town’, the new industrial communities are located along
the main arteries of transportation – water, rail and highway connecting the existing cities.
 Factories are placed along the main arteries, separated from the residential section by the
highway and a green strip.
 The residential areas include the ‘horizontal garden town’ of single houses and vertical
apartment buildings with civic center. Sports, entertainments, shopping and office facilities are
distributed in this district and all community facilities are
placed within ample open space.streets with their varied
civic life.
LA VILLE RADIUSE (RADIANT CITY)
 Le corbusier rearranged the key features of the Ville
Contemporaine.
 The basic ideas of free circulation and greenery were still
present, but the juxtaposition of different land-uses had
changed. For example, the central area was now residential
instead of a skyscraper office core.

Elements of Le Corbusier’s Plan

 very high density
 1,200 people per acre in skyscrapers
 overcrowded sectors of Paris & London ranged from 169-213 pers./acre at the time
Manhattan has only 81 pers./acre
 120 people per acre in luxury houses
 6 to 10 times denser than current luxury housing in the U.S.
 multi-level traffic system to manage the intensity of traffic.

Analogy of the city with the abstract image of a man

 The skyscrapers (business area) of the Ville Contemporaine were rearranged away from the city
center at the ‘head’…[The] ‘body’ was made up of acres of housing strips laid out in a stepping plan to
generate semi-courts and harbours of greenery containing tennis courts, playing fields and paths.
 Traffic pattern – an orthogonal system with super imposed diagonals & the civic center is on the
main axis
 Light manufacturing, freight yards and heavy industries at the bottom.
Elements of Le Corbusier’s Plan
between 48% and 95% of the surface area is reserved for greenspace
gardens
squares
sports fields
restaurants
theaters
with no sprawl, access to the “protected zone” (greenbelt/open space) is quick and easy.
The logic of increasing urban density
 “The more dense the population of a city is the less are the distances that have to be covered.”
 traffic is increased by:
 the number of people in a city
 the degree to which private transportation is more appealing (clean, fast, convenient,
cheap) than public transportation
 the average distance people travel per trip
 the number of trips people must make each week
 “The moral, therefore, is that we must increase the density of the centres of our cities,
where business affairs are carried on.”

PATRICK GEDDES
Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer,
philanthropist and pioneering town planner.
 He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology.
 He introduced the concept of "region" to architecture and planning and coined the term
"conurbation".
 Geddes was the founder of the College des Ecossaise (Scots College) an international teaching
establishment in Montpellier, France.
 He studied at the Royal College of Mines in London under Thomas Henry Huxley between 1874
and 1878, and lectured in Zoology at Edinburgh University from 1880 to 1888.

His principles for town planning in Bombay demonstrate his views on the relationship between
social processes and spatial form, and the intimate and causal connections between the social
development of the individual and the cultural and physical environment.
They included: ( Bombay Town Planning Act of 1915")
 Preservation of human life and energy, rather than superficial beautification.
 Conformity to an orderly development plan carried out in stages.
 Purchasing land suitable for building.
 Promoting trade and commerce.
 Preserving historic buildings and buildings of religious significance.
 Developing a city worthy of civic pride, not an imitation of European cities.
 Promoting the happiness, health and comfort of all residents, rather than focusing on roads
and parks available only to the rich.
 Control over future growth with adequate provision for future requirements.

CONCEPTS.
Patrick Geddes explained an organism‟s relationship to its environment as follows:
 “The environment acts, through function, upon the organism and conversely the organism acts,
through function, upon the environment.“ (Cities in Evolution, 1915) .
 In human terms this can be understood as a place acting through
climatic and geographic processes upon people and thus shaping them. At
the same time people act, through economic processes such as farming and
construction, on a place and thus shape it. Thus both place and folk are
linked and through work are in constant transition.
GEDDIAN TRIO REPRESENTATION
Patrick Geddes was influenced by social theorists such as Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and French
theorist Frederic Le Play (1806–1882) and expanded upon earlier theoretical developments that lead to
the concept of regional planning.
 He adopted Spencer's theory that the concept of biological evolution could be applied to explain
the evolution of society, and drew on Le Play's analysis of the key units of society as constituting "Lieu,
Travail, Famille" ("Place, Work, Family"), but changing the last from "family" to "folk". In this theory, the
family is viewed as the central "biological unit of human society "from which all else develops.
 According to Geddes, it is from "stable, healthy homes" providing the necessary conditions for
mental and moral development that come beautiful and healthy children who are able "to fully
participate in life"

GEDDES AND THE VALLEY SECTION

 Geddes first published his idea of the valley section in 1909 to illustrate his idea of the
'region-city'.
 The region is expressed in the city and the city spreads influence of the highest level into the
region.
 To put it another way, Geddes said that "it takes a whole region to make the city”.
 The valley section illustrated the application of Geddes's trilogy of 'folk/work/place' to
analysis of the region.
 The valley section is a complex model, which combines physical condition- geology and
geomorphology and
their biological associations - with
so-called natural or basic
occupations such as miner,
hunter, shepherd or fisher,
and with the human settlements
that arise from them.
 Geddes illustrated the
section using the locally available
landscapes of Edinburgh and its
hinterland.
TEL-AVIV (ISRAEL)
The Geddes Plan for Tel Aviv was the first master city plan for Tel Aviv. It was designed in 1925-1929 by
the Scottish city planner Sir Patrick Geddes. This program designed the centre of Tel Aviv and the area
now known as "Old North". In 1925 Patrick Geddes was commissioned to design a master plan for the
city of Tel Aviv. The plan he produced was accepted in 1929. Tel Aviv turned out to be the only example
of one of Geddes‟ plans being built largely as he envisaged and is a good example of an early planned
city.

The area of Tel Aviv originally planned by Geddes makes up approximately 7.5% of the current day
municipality of Tel Aviv and is now known as Tel Aviv‟s “Old North”.
 It was designed to be an extension of the much older neighbouring Arabic port town Jaffa to the
south and a home for the increasing population of Jews emigrating from other parts of the world
(predominantly Eastern Europe).
 Geddes, originally as biologist and sociologist was engaged to design a plan for the new city of Tel Aviv
to be built adjacent to the ancient port town of Jaffa.
 The principles he employed for the city were strikingly similar to what we now know as New Urbanism
ideas of planning - an emphasis was placed on pedestrians as opposed to motor car traffic, a sense of
community and civic life was encouraged through the use of town squares and abundant planting of
greenery provided significant focus on a minimal environmental footprint.
 Private automobile traffic was minimised and the city was envisaged on a pedestrian-scale. This
neighbourhood identity has been crucial in the success of Tel Aviv as a city.