J.NEThis Dover edition,first published in 1986,is an unabridged andunaltered republication of the work originally published by JohnRodker,London,in 1931,as translated from the thirteenth Frenchedition and given an English introduction by Frederick Etchells.Manufactured in the United States of AmericaDover Publications,Inc.,31 East 2nd Street,Mineola,N.Y.11501Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataLe Corbusier,1887-1965.Towards a new architecture.Reprint.Originally published:London J.Rodker,1931.1.Architecture.2.Functionalism (Architecture).I.Title.NA2520.L3613198672085-20468ISBN0-486-25023-7興尚蜀素村网Z.Z心 INTRODUCTIONc“Say not thou,Whatis the causethatthe former days werebetter than these?”-Eccles.vii.10.MAN of the eigbteenth century,plunged suddenly into ourcivilization,might well have the impression of something akinto a nightmare.A man of the 'nineties,looking at much of modern Europeanpainting,might well have the impression of something akin to anightmare.A man of to-day,reading this book,may have the impressionof something akin to a nightmare.Many of our most cherishedideas in regard to the "Englishman's castlethe licbened tiledroo，听the gdbled bou,patina ar8 treaitd as7o奶.to be discarded,and we are offered instead buman warrens of sixty storeys,theconcrete bouse bard and clean,fittings as coldly fficient as those ofa ship's cabin or of a motor-car,and the standardized productsof mass production throughout.We need not be unduly alarmed.All the inventions that go tomake up our modern civilization,so far as it has gone,haveawakened the same terrors.The railway,it was prophesied,wouldruin the countryside,the motor-car the roads,and the airplanethe upper air.All these things have happened,and to a largeextent the criticisms were true,and yet man still survives and carrieson,and seems happy or unhappy to much the same degree as1 The first Post-Impressionist show in England horrified most people at the time,yet now the farves of that receding pre-war past are hailed as being in the greattradition,and are used as sticks with which to beat their successors and followers.興尚蜀素村网Z.ZS0.ET INTRODUCTIONbefore.The truth is that man has an uncanny faculty of adaptingbimself to nem conditions.He learns to admit and even,in asneaking sort of way,to like new and strange forms.The newform is at first repugnant,but if it has any real vitalityandjustification it becomes a friend.The merely fantastic soon dies.Now,in modern mechanical engineering,forms seem to be developedmainly in accordance with function.The designer or inventor probablydoes not concern bimself direcily with what the final appearancemay be,and probably does not consciously care.But men are en-dowed in varying degree with an instinct for ordered arrangement,and this can come into operation even when least thought of.Theordinary motor-car engine is a conspicuons example of this.Someare disorderly and "messy"in arrangement others well planed高成wconcrete bridge or dam may be a crude and ungainly affair,or it maypossess its own grave and stark beauty the struchre being equallygood and functional in either case.It is inevitable that the engineer,preoccupied with function andaiming at an immediate response to new demands,should produce newand strange forms,often startling at first,bizarre and disagreeable.Some of these forms are not worth constant repetition and soondisappear into the limbo of forgotten things.Others stand the test ofuse and standardization,become friendly to us and take their place aspart of our general equipment.And these good new forms,soforeign to us and so disturbing at first vien,are seen in the long runto have a curious affinity with those of a similar function in any goodperiod of bistory.興尚蜀素衬网Z.Z心 viiiINTRODUCTIONlive;but if he is able to establish one of those curions compromises bymeans of which he can carry on a lean existence,he is at least free(at times)to project himself on paper or canas without necessaryreference to anything or anybody and to make experiment andresearch for its own sake.This passion,renewed in our own day by,it is true,a comparatively small body of artists,has resulted in thatdisconcerting but formidable body of work which angers unnecessarily somany people.The modern engineer,then,pursues function first and form second,but it is difficult for bim to avoid results that are plastically good.The good modern painter pursues plastic form for its omn sake,andif he has the necessary ability the results are plastically satisfyingThese things are true of the modern engineer and the painter.Arethey true of the arcbitect,who in some ways combines the functions ofboth?L Corbrsier would empbdticaly eli us No"Hisbook is a challenge to the members of his omn profession.He writes,that is to say,as an architect for architects,and as a scholar alwayswith an eye on the work of the great periods;and be writes more insorrow than in anger!He is no fauve,no"revolutionary,"but asober-minded thinker inspired by a fierce austerity.Towards aNew Architecture was written,of course,originally for Frenchreaders,and there are points in it which obviously have not the sameforce applied to conditions in England or America;but the bookis the most valuable thing that has yet appeared,if only because itforces us,architects and laymen alike,to take stock,to try to discoverin what direction we are going,and to realize in some dim way theTaken in conjunction with Le Corbusier's later volumes,Urbanisme and L'ArtDicoratif d'atjourd bui.興尚蜀素村网Z.Z心
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