Le Corbusier quotes

Le Corbusier was a Swiss-French architect, urban planner, and designer, highly influential in modern architecture. His pioneering ideas emphasized functionalism, open spaces, and the use of new materials such as concrete and glass. He transformed the way cities and buildings are conceived in the modern era. Here are 22 of his quotes:

Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep. (Le Corbusier)
I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies. View quote
Le Corbusier
Vehicular traffic is completely forbidden in the green strips, where tranquility shall reign and the curse of noise shall not penetrate. View quote
Le Corbusier
A house is a machine for living in. View quote
Le Corbusier
A hundred times I have thought: New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: it is a beautiful catastrophe. View quote
Le Corbusier
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." View quote
Le Corbusier
Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and the city. View quote
Le Corbusier
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. View quote
Le Corbusier
The "styles" are a lie. View quote
Le Corbusier
It is a question of building which is at the root of the social unrest of today: architecture or revolution. View quote
Le Corbusier
The object of this edict is to enlighten the present and future citizens of Chandigarh about the basic concepts of planning of the city so that they become its guardians and save it from whims of individuals. (Le Corbusier)
You know, it is life that is right and the architect who is wrong. View quote
Le Corbusier
Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light. View quote
Le Corbusier
The home should be the treasure chest of living. View quote
Le Corbusier
To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects. View quote
Le Corbusier
The truthfulness of materials of constructions, concrete, bricks and stone, shall be maintained in all buildings constructed or to be constructed. The seed of Chandigarh is well sown. It is for the citizens to see that the tree flourishes. View quote
Le Corbusier
My own duty and my aim is to try and raise people out of their misery, away from catastrophe; to provide them with happiness, with a contented existence, with harmony. My own goal is to establish or re-establish harmony between people and their environment. View quote
Le Corbusier
The materials of city planning are: sky, space, trees, steel and cement; in that order and that hierarchy. View quote
Le Corbusier
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; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image of these is distinct and tangible within us without ambiguity. It is for this reason that these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms. Everybody is agreed to that, the child, the savage and the metaphysician. View quote
Le Corbusier
The history of architecture is the history of the struggle for light. View quote
Le Corbusier
The age of personal statues is gone. (Le Corbusier)
Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. View quote
Le Corbusier