The Problem of the House
"The problem of the house has not yet been stated…" — Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture
In Le Corbusier's comparative study of how architectural design varies from industrial design, he praises the process used in the development of the automobile, airplane, and ocean liner. At the resolution of his praise of the engineer's approach to design, he emphasizes that "the airplane shows us that a problem well stated finds its solution."1
He then goes on to state the problem of the house as a functional issue of requiring shelter, light, and comfortable places to sit and to work. In this chapter he lays out parameters by which he specifically judges housing designs. He defines questions that the designs must answer. In The Manual of the Dwelling2 he spells out these terms explicitly; I have redefined his parameters for success as pseudo-code, with each element and its conditional statements for success specified.
//
define bath
a bath is adjacent to a dressing room and a bedroom.
a bath is one of the largest rooms in the house. (weighted)
a bath should have one wall with large glazed openings.
a bath should have a balcony outside for sunbathing (weighted on sun)
a bath should be on the southern face (in Northern hemisphere)
define dressing room
one should not dress in their bedroom
define bedroom
a bedroom should be adjacent to dressing room and bedroom
define living room
large room, open floor plan with minimal partitions
define kitchen
distant from highly occupied portions of house to 'avoid smells'
define garage
separated from the main house
define roof
roof should be excluded. weight-0
define lighting
lighting must be recessed.
define proportions
regulating lines generate overall proportion and guide proportion of sub-elements.
define total area
total area is 'one size' smaller than previous generation's home.
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What Corbusier is doing, and what many architects have done before and since, is applying constraints to a problem in order for design to take place more easily. This is a method of problem solving that is common in engineering as a formal process: problem decomposition. Corbusier's emphasis of engineering techniques and discredit of architectural traditions and education is primary to his philosophy and body of work; a search for an "objective and critical" method of designing architecture, exemplified by the problem of the mass-produced house.
We must create the mass-production spirit. The spirit of constructing mass-production houses. The spirit of living in mass-production houses. The spirit of conceiving mass-production houses.3
The maniacal praise for mass-produced housing is justified in that "economic law" shall govern the acts and thoughts of the architect. Corbusier suggests housing as the perfect design problem to be solved with analysis and experiment through industry. Like the airplane, a house provides a method of rigorous selection to guide the development of a building typology. The spirit of living in and constructing mass-production houses has indeed become reality, and Corbusier's call to action here seems prophetic.
Now, we live in a world that is thoroughly saturated with the "New Architecture." The technocratic industrialized model of building has oscillated in and out of popularity in academics but has remained par for the course in mainstream construction since the international style emerged. Despite the unbelievable success of his theories, Corbusier never fully synthesized the realm of the architect and the engineer; his projects are notorious for being thermally uncomfortable and contextually insensitive.
Corbusier's manifesto corresponds to a pivotal point in human history where the commercial engine of war injected an enormous amount of capital into a growing middle class and developing global infrastructure. His success is owed at least in part to his decisive manifesto, which spread virally through the growing European architectural scene. Corbusier had a vision for a new society that utilized his innovative construction methods in reinforced concrete and the pilotis frame. He provided an instructional dialogue in Towards a New Architecture which allowed his potential clients and other architects to engage with a new paradigm of practice. The machine aesthetic espoused by Corbusier seduces a society that is captivated by the wonders of an industrial society.
Our present state is a society that is reactionary against a totalized industrial system; we fetishize production systems that are small scale. Corbusier had generalized the problem in a way that removed all specificity. People are not airplanes; we do not follow strict laws of aerodynamics, physics, or economics. The use of mass production is justified by suggesting that workers "no longer have dwellings adapted to their needs." This is ironic, as the conception of mass-produced houses and their guidance by architects has been all but forgotten. In 2010, an estimated 500,000 houses were mass-produced with no involvement by architects (72% of total houses). The developer, or the client, still owns architecture as it is experienced by the general public.
Corbusier's rigid system was appropriate and effective at its time. In order to progress towards the next architecture, we might take a cue from the text that was not highly emphasized: the house is an organism, similar to any living creature. Situating the problem with a level of complexity familiar to natural systems is the only way that we can begin to remedy the brutal errors of high modernism.