Modernism and the 'living machine'

Every day, Princeton University is graced by a multitude of visiting lecturers, from politicians to poets, musicians to mathematicians. They leave in their wake a tide of fresh ideas, infecting the minds of students and faculty for an afternoon — then like one drop of paint on a vibrant canvas, they melt into the busy background.

But Le Corbusier, the Swiss modernist architect who visited Princeton from Nov. 14-16 in 1935, left more tangible evidence of his three-lecture series about architecture and urbanism. As he was wont to do on his first American tour, Le Corbusier (born Charles Edouard Jeanneret, 1887–1965) illustrated his ideas with brightly colored chalk on long paper scrolls. These 'frescoes' comprise the main part of the exhibit currently showing at the Art Museum, entitled "Le Corbusier at Princeton: 14-16 November 1935."

The exhibit is a collaborative effort of the Art Museum and the Architecture Department, featuring the installation design of Professor Jesse Reiser. Susan Taylor, director of The Art Museum, organized the exhibit, and Calvin Brown, preparator, served as project manager and exhibition coordinator. Aside from the lecture scrolls, the exhibit also includes miniature models of Le Corbusier's work, designed and executed by architecture students and a reading area with chairs designed by Le Corbusier and books about his work.

Le Corbusier is famous for streamlined, garden-filled visions of cities with buildings supported on columns and fewer intersections and is most frequently quoted as saying "the house is a living machine."

His sketches communicate his ideas in fluid, fast lines of orange, red, blue, green, yellow, brown and black that are true to the geometric forms he initially draws as a reminder to the audience.

In the Princeton scrolls, Le Corbusier goes beyond restructuring the city to propose new plans for our daily use of time. He uses a pie chart to break down the 24 hours of a day, emphasizing the time we waste in commuting; then draws a new chart of life without traffic congestion, allowing a whopping 11 hours of leisure per day. His diagrams of houses include space for "les joies essential" of living: facilities for "sport" and glass walls to let in the sun.

As in his other University lectures, Le Corbusier explains sketches of the Villa Savoye and the Maison aux Mathes but focuses also on the Villa Radieuse, a subject unique to the Princeton lecture.

The exhibit captures Le Corbusier's spirit in a flood of light and color in a pristinely beautiful arrangement. Along one wall slides of his quotations literally project into the open space, and like his buildings, the lecture scrolls are encased in glass and supported by metal columns. Visitors can sit in black leather chairs designed by Le Corbusier and watch a video or read his books.

"Schools end their training with diplomas, soporifics, when they should end with a stiff kick in the pants which would force young people to jump into the water, to open their eyes and minds and to undertake their own spiritual creation," one of the slides quotes Le Corbusier as saying.

While the exhibit is not exactly a kick in the pants, neither is it soporific, pedantic or 'dusty' as Le Corbusier categorized "The School". Like the man himself, the show provides a fresh perspective on architecture and is certainly an eye-opening experience.

"Le Corbusier at Princeton" will run from Feb. 7 through June 17. It is part of a program about the architect that includes lectures. The next lecture "Modernism and Its Reception: Le Corbusier at Princeton," by Mardges Bacon, professor of Art and Architecture at Northeastern University, will be held April 10 at 4:30 p.m. in McCormick 101.