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Le Corbusier is one of the three most influential architects of the 20th century, along with Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. His buildings and urban plans influenced countless architects and planners worldwide. He in turn was influenced by Burnham's Chicago plan which viewed the City as a totality, as a machine. Le Corbusier harmonized and lent credence to the idea of space as a set of destinations which mankind moved between.

Le Corbusier was heavily influenced by problems he saw in industrial cities at the turn of the 20th century. He felt industrial housing techniques led to crowding, dirtiness, and a lack of a moral landscape. He was a leader of the modernist movement to create better living conditions and a better society through housing concepts. Throughout his life, he remained resolutein his belief that architecture, planning, and design could improve human life.

Following are some favorite Le Corbusier quotes:

Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.



To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.



Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.



I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.



To be modern is not a fashion, it is a state. It is necessary to understand history, and he who understands history knows how to find continuity between that which was, that which is, and that which will be.



You employ stone, wood and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good, I am happy and I say: This is beautiful. That is Architecture. Art enters in.



Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.



Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.



Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light: light and shade reveal these forms.



The materials of city planning are: sky, space, trees, steel and cement; in that order and that hierarchy. Light creates ambience and feel of a place, as well as the expression of a structure.



The purpose of construction is TO MAKE THINGS HOLD TOGETHER; of architecture TO MOVE US.



Life never stops. The torment of men will be eternal, unless the function of creating and acting and changing, living intensely through each day, be considered an eternal joy.



The history of architecture is the history of the struggle for light.



Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and the city.



To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.



For Ledoux it was simple – no pipes.



You don't start a revolution by fighting the state but by presenting the solutions.



A house is a machine for living in.



You know, it is life that is right and the architect who is wrong.



The city of Chandigarh is planned to human scale. It puts us in touch with the infinite cosmos and nature. It provides us with places and buildings for all human activities by which the citizens can live a full and harmonious life. Here the radiance of nature and heart are within our reach.



Genius is personal, decided by fate, but it expresses itself by means of system. There is no work of art without system.



The home should be the treasure chest of living.



The present moment is creative, creating with an unheard-of intensity.



~ Le Corbusier