A TOWERING CITY OF GLASS

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 8

A TOWERING CITY OF GLASS

London of the Future

JF the dreams of M. Le Corbusier

come true, the London of the future will be a towering city of glass, built on sturdy legs so that most of the earth may be green, writes a correspondent in the London Observer. It would be an immense park, reduced four or five times in size by rectangular planning and the use of height, in which traffic would roar along elevated motor roads: and this most revolutionary of the world’s architects would set out at once on his mission of light and air.

M. Le Corbusier—his real name is Jeanneret—is the father of the “new” movement in architecture, which under the banner of the Congres Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne is now world-wide. Buildings in Paris, Moscow, Switzerland, and Spain bespeak his renown as architect and engineer; he flew from an exhibition of his paintings at Zurich to be with his British disciples of the Mars group at their opening exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries. A vital Frenchman of typically spare build, middle-aged, with heav-ily-rimmed glasses, he talked with the greater conviction for his quiet earnestness of the “ville verte” or the “ville en pare.” He was a little perturbed about the interpretation of some of his remarks at the Mars dinner the other night.

“I said that British traditions in architecture are so strong that we are obliged to make all the greater efforts to overcome them; that if modern architecture succeeds in England it will succeed anywhere. Now 1 am accused of calling the English barbarians. Au contraire.”

M. Le Corbusier thinks London is an extraordinary city, remarkable for the tranquillity of its great buildings, yet stretched over so many miles as to be a “gigantic village.” “It is madness,” he said; but he finds the main obstacle before the new movement to be the force of British and French traditions.

density.”

After paying a tribute to the Mars exhibition, the most sensible he had seen, he buckled to the revolution. London has a very low population den-

cussion foi Algiers.

sity of 300 to the hectare (2.47 acres). Against the advantage of having small gardens, people have to travel long distances to their work. By his scheme of building in height distances would be diminished four or five-fold.

and density raised to 1,000 inhabitant# per hectare, but only 12 per cent, of this surface would be built on. leaving the rest for gardens and sport# grounds.

This was made possible by the transformation of methods of construction by steel and concrete. Through the interior support they provide there need be no more walls, but exteriors completely made of glass. M. Le Corbusier’s residential buildings would be 150 ft. high, served by a system of lifts, with business houses 750 ft. high—not skyscrapers, an “irrational”

method of construction, “too small, too high, with no space below.” Moreover, by supporting the buildings on 15ft. pillars the ground level would be left free, thus giving more air and allowing traffic to pass under the houses. “There would be no more

streets as we know them now”; pedestrians and motor traffic could be separated. “You can replace your garden city by a garden city in height, leaving 88 per cent, of the soil free.” Wide autostrade would pass in the air at the level of the first floor, with

spacious motor parks at the entrances; fiat roofs of concrete would provide space for gardens and protection from air raids —and since poison gas sink# to the ground, people would seek safety on the roofs instead of in the cellars. General staffs had agreed with him that this type of town was the only one that could resist modern aerial

warfare. People would live nearer their work; industries would be planned in new places. “Planning” for

every requirement, indeed, is the predominant word in M. Le Corbusier’#

‘ln a city like London, with its tra-

dition of green parks, it should be easy to impose the new tradition of

the ‘ville verte,’ with a high population

Lest it be thought that these are nothing more than dreams, the first

part of his work in Paris is now being

carried out in the slums; Barcelona adopted a similar scheme before the revolution; and a scheme is under dis-

London, said M. Le Corbusier, is extending in length, but there is a marked tendency to build in height. “We are in a revolutionary period.” he concluded. “This is the great work of our civilisation.”