Le Corbusier or how to become a megalomaniac architect
I went to see the exhibition at the Barbican about the life and work of Le Corbusier who is perhaps one of the genius of the 20th century. Far beyond architecture he was planning for the modern society from furniture to entire cities, all that with a copious amount of concrete for good measure. Some of his drawings are genuinely breathtaking like his ideas for Rio do Janeiro or Algiers, yet horrifically inhumane. L'unite d'habitation has been copied ad infinitam in the swarm of social housing from the 60s/70s throughout Europe. Genial and soulless.
What interested me in particular was the video Le Corbusier shot in the thirties in Arcachon, which is a seaside resort close to Bordeaux where I used to go every year as a child. You can see the ocean beaches on the Atlantic coast, you can spot the beach by the Jetee d'Eyrac and finally the Aiguillon quarter with its oysters racks, nets and all.
