cover image Walking Through Le Corbusier: A Tour of His Masterworks

Walking Through Le Corbusier: A Tour of His Masterworks

Jose Baltanas. Thames & Hudson, $45 (191pp) ISBN 978-0-500-51233-3

Le Corbusier's architectural legacy is systematically revealed in this overview of a dozen ""masterworks,"" as selected by Baltanas, a professor of architecture at Ramon Llull and Pompeu Fabra Universities. Moving chronologically, Baltanas offers clear introductions, followed by upwards of 30 original photographs per site. Each image simulates the perspective of a self-guided visitor. Long captions, detailed diagrams and a liberal sprinkling of quotes and drawings from Le Corbusier's journals and published works further illuminate each building. The overall effect pays homage to ""the languages of drawing, photography, and writing"" that intersect in ""Le Corbusier's creative and instinctive world."" But problems arise in the choice of ""masterworks."" For example, the first four selections-Villa Fallet, Villas Stotzer and Jaquemet, Villa Jeanneret-Perret, and Villa Schwob-represent, in a matter of speaking, the pre-history of Le Corbusier. They are provincial, domestic designs by Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (he only took the name Le Corbusier when he was 33), not maverick conceptions by Le Corbusier, the cosmopolitan master and inventor of the ""The Five Points of a New Architecture,"" a transformation not addressed by Baltanas. The result is a strange combination: the book ""makes it possible to follow Le Corbusier's creative evolution over the course of his professional life,"" however, readers are left to generate their own conclusions from Baltanas' cut and paste job of the facts. Those already familiar with the major themes of 20th-century architecture should expect a clean overview of a key figure. The uninitiated should expect a challenge.