Published in 1935, Le Corbusier, the visionary, rejoices in the totally new vision of the world afforded those who flew and flew in aircraft. The verdict, as seen from the air, was not good. 'The airplane is an indictment', he writes. 'It indicts the city. It indicts those who control the city.' Later he writes: 'The airplane reveals this fact: that men have built cities for men, not in order to give them pleasure, to content them, to make them happy, but to make money!' The latter accusation will resonate with anyone living in London, seeing what is built in the name of 'development'.
Le Corbusier The Destroyer: 'Cities, with their misery, must be torn down. They must be largely destroyed and fresh cities built.' Military aircraft would do their best to achieve that in the Second World War. Le Corbusier's devotion to the beauty of the machine echoes that of the Futurists a decade earlier, of course. In his way, he would be equally nihilistic in the name of making everything New.
Le Corbusier's first love was Art and Aircraft is, naturally, beautifully laid out with an eye for double page combinations and the seductive curves of the machines. I couldn't help but think of Eduardo Paolozzi's books and the Pop/Science aesthetic of British Art's progressive movement in the 50s, namely, The Independent Group. Paolozzi must have seen Aircraft, although I've not seen any mention of it in connection with him. There is one definite connection, though, aside from Paolozzi's love of aircraft and scientific imagery; Le Corbusier met and worked with Amédée Ozenfant in the 20s (they collaborated on paintings). He would create the book, Art, in 1927, later published in English as Foundations of Modern Art, which influenced Paolozzi.
Aircraft, meanwhile, is both a treat for the eye and as an architectural manifesto, food for thought.
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