First Principles and Blind Spots: Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier reimagined architecture from the ground up. His vision was extraordinary, his influence incalculable, and his failures instructive.

His Five Points of Architecture — pilotis, the free plan, the free facade, ribbon windows, and the roof garden — remain among the most influential ideas in the history of building. They liberated architecture from load-bearing walls and opened up possibilities that designers are still exploring.

But Corbusier's legacy is complicated. His urban planning, particularly the Radiant City concept, has been justly criticised for its disregard of human scale and community. The social housing projects inspired by his ideas often produced environments of isolation rather than liberation.