Le Corbusier's first book (a compilation of essays from his magazine L'Esprit Nouveau) lays out many of the ideas that have persevered both in terms of his oeuvre and modernism as a whole, particularly the inspiration found in industrial buildings (grain elevators) and machines (cars, airplanes, ships). The book is required reading in most early-level architecture classes, so most architects have read it and are familiar with his "unvarnished opinions and innovative theories."

From my blog post on Le Corbusier: https://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/06/so-you-want-to-learn-about-le-corbusier.h... ( )

This translation of Towards a New Architecture, originally written in 1923, is prophetic in many ways. Le Corbusier writes of the “machine age” much like someone now might write of the “information age”. But he is somewhat poetic, repetitive and I would not be surprised if Tom Peters (ex-Harvard innovation guru) adopted something of Le Corbusier's style. While many of the architect's ideas were controversial, and may not have functioned as desired, he foresaw many of the things that are happening today in terms of construction materials. Although I do not doubt that the way these materials have been used meet the "cheapness" but not necessarily the "good work" he envisaged (p. 284). My favourite quote: "There is no such thing as primitive man. There are primitive resources. The idea is constant, strong from the start" (p. 70). ( )

Passionate writing. The rhetoric of the last chapter made me think of Mon Oncle as a reaction. Corbusier does lay it on thickly. As a rural Midwesterner, his appreciation of grain elevators gladdened me. There are lots of ideas for contemplation buried inside. ( )

This is a must read for any architect. It explains all of modernism and also gives you a window into its problems. It is also concise which is strange for most architects’ writings. ( )