T
LE CORBUSIER
✅ THE - CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1957.
HE BUILDS HIS DREAMS AND
DREAMS IN CONCRETE
·by- Les Armour
comprising
is cheap. Reinforced, it strong. And it is easy to handle.
#3
He bellevas in fresh, clean iner; lines for men with taste for the mathematical mechanisation which dominates rightly or wrongly-the age.
But there is more to it thon that.
The row which has brought dozen similar him back to the headlines is a units, with wide open spaces good example. for parits
and playgrounds, The Church
Interspersed with low-built
theatres, churches and shops London.
was neither the beginning nor the end of his work.
HE white-haired man with the piercing eyes behind thick glasses leans back in his chair and nays softly: "I am
a'con-
In the little French village of Ronchamp (population: 1,000), In Buenos Alg, Stockholm, the chapel of Notre-Dame-du- Antwerp, Nemours, Algiers, Haunt lay in
consulted timpteenth time. Bogota he has been on a great many
projects sometimes la advice has been
sultant engineer for modern taken, sometimes thrown over, civilisation."
a model of a He pojuts to stark concrete elly an
"Without modesty,
magnificent."
Without modesty,
he built the model, elly
zenelimen taken in part.
But one city he is building, Mills. It in Chandigarh, capital of East and LA Cobusler Kayla Punjab;
planned it from start to finish, After all, And he is building it from start
And the to finish.
not Courbuler is modesi man. He thinks of him-
nolf, frankly, as a genius. chocs
nat try lu
htt
11e
tricks
his
In birth
The Town
Le Corbusier, more than any other man alive, has changed the face of modm urban developinnt.
He may be an egoist. He is
thoughts. The
name aloor is an dication.
On certificate he is plain Charles ni a joke. Edouard Jeanneret. Long ng
_christian name.
only There
he needs ausilier namw. That is nel to say
epe
cily
ruins for the Perched atop a hill, it has a military value that few attacking or defending genereis linve overlooked.
The villagers decided to try And they decided ngala from scratch,
something new. would They
approach Corbusier,
At first he refused. Then
on
Lo
he appears one day with his sketch book,
What has emerged is £10,000 worth of new concrete and old brick which looks erally- like nothing on earth.
It has one vasi, curved wall, for higher than the rest of the Luilding, a tower ike a cross between λ silo and a ship'a funnel, and a omelette with edge.
roof ilke
an
อด upturned
there
itia argument Ja simple: have expanded he changed it—officially- Le Modern cities
has further and faster than anyone Corbusier,
Standing baldly alop the hill, ever dreamed of until the
it takes the breath away. of the Le middle
industript
are ex- Functionally
15,000 Corbullyr He does not think revolution when it was too late planallons. Sometimes,
to stop and there was luo Hitle
ilme tum up at pligrims at
The that the time to think.
Notre-Dame-du- Haunt. When he says that London, sweeping "main rest of the world hn't though Parks and the rest of the great sounding
wail" is a board for outdoor Now every- of plenty for him.
catches 11
every one thinks he is a genius. Not metropolis of the modern world services.
intilly designed were
for sound, and performs the mirgele everyone thinks that his
poutalions under 50,000 he is re
required: it gives an outdoor on stilts is magnifier.st.
right,
sound and feeling service the When he says that if whole of a service in a vast Cathedral, countries are 110 to be over- The great tunnel provides run until they are one vast light without disturbing suburb, that men must learn to interior which is designed, as
well-in big "a
instrument to musical lve-and Ilve
la saying something register and sell every sound. units, he that on one can derry.
The omelette roof pleks, up that When he says
this the wind, shakes off the rain- revolution In
tones out the and produces organ requires a
man's
concept ordinary
of of the howling hill-top winds, making a
Beyond functionalism, there architecture, he is mild under-statement.
something else.
The City
The French Society for Preservation of
Aesthetics brought 41
The
Central 420.000 his
law ull against 11 19:
built
city on stilts,
stands,
17 storeys high, just Marseilles. outside
It nouses 1,500 people. bas shops into Rs central floor, hospital of its own, and a whole roof full of recreation grounds.
was
The Society clulmed it unhygienic, dangerous in case of fire, and a work of "brutal realism"
Significantly,
won.
Significantly,
Project-he
Lo
the
He believes in air. Hla pro- The sweep of the great wall slits enlches the eye and sweeps it jeet at Marseilles is on because he believes that modern up to the clouds which almost mon must live where there is scem to touch its curved peak.
concrete Tho not skyscrap- space-high up,
snooth, while has a clean, pure effect which He
ron will last in the sootless country materials. Most of air. The curves of the roof And the men who came forth
have stayed to cheer.
Corbusier in belleves in using
but high up.
the Marseilles temporeves in concrete. And give a dream-like, ethereal air.
calls it the Unite all he d'Habitation, says it is
Ville beginning of a
the he believes in it for three good Concrele Radluse and simple reasons.
to jeer
TIME: WAITS FOR NO
MAN
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Come to Come to
Australia-
NADA!
"ANYWHERE! Anywhere I don't have to see
a daily bulletin about Grace Kelly's baby.'
GET BOWING, Mrs. ELLIS!
JAPAN
FREDERICK ELLIS, a British Financial Correspondent visits for the
first time the astonishing land of the rising sun and the bowing women.
a
Osaka. fool (literally)
shift on man's
– each paradise. They BOSS system
shift bowing with a capital B. Women are floor tovel knees, rear serfs-self-effacing, the devoted Woman - Fridays, cognising
superiority whose job it is to
the male. their masters.
Reach
serve
on rc- the
tor
I went to dinner Japanese elmarelies and a style that is, sitting eross lght springs to legged at a 15-inch-high table, a maiden's hand. When thimble- excruciating local sized sake rice wine-cups are caling often dishes like rice wrapped with empty, a maiden hastily refills,
chop-slicking green seaweed, heathen fashion.
Women here know their place. The party was a mixed com- They chatter when chaltered to. pany of British executives, plus Never Interrupt, never disagree Japanese staff
a with men. seniors, at
to keep Lasic La Their sole Men swell Osaka restaurant, coly. Japanese wives, unless men happy. They must be not Westernised, never go out to only decorative but entertain- dinner.
ing.
Six men had serving
girls, Wearing exolle timonos, they semi-geisha, walling hand and played us Jupanese string music,
sang like angry Siamese cats round a dustbin. with 2
further wench duncing
slinky sensual nts, warding of male boredom.
Then
movemen
越
beck to attend- ing the master's
zeeds as a now course arrives.
Oh, for service of this mag- nllude in Britain, where women (unhappily) equal ment
For men
I called at a Japanese exreu- tive's home. The wife, bowing deeply, rushed Scotch for two, waited in the background for the realling.
paring much-favoured green tea --for two, of course,
Women, with no part in social ilfe, are only half out of the cocoon stage In Japan.
go
גזם
They are Westernising slowly. Many wear Westernised clothes and hair styles, but many more traditional wearing clothes and trimmings. it emancipation regrettably, unstoppable in for behind European standards.
Jap men's
1t
Reaction
will take years to catch up with from Mrs Ellis
swift and sharp
British High-streeters.
When I return to Wimbledon
A
came
I intend orientalising the wife. after the impact at her I shall expect Japanese service home in Wimbledon of these In future.
So get bowing, Mrs Ellis. For views on "serf-like" Japan-
stuff ese wives. Japanese -boy!--this makes you feel good.
But as a safety precaution, i
A brisk order from husband intend throwing in my bowler sent her daintily tripping pre- hot frst....
How to be a smuggler
in comfort
T
RODERICK MANN
Tangier. brook Pegic-who
called him
THE Arab taxi-driver "an absentee war correspondent
braked fiercely and with a yellow streak."
Now Reynolds is in Tangler shot me out in front writing a book. Now he can
afford to write a book.
of Tangier's white Internn- tional Court.
Sald "Who they
got in today?" he demand- ed.
"An Australian," I said with
a touch of Empire pride. "They
say he stole a cheque
£120,000. Big stuff."
for
яд bo
everyday
Reynalds, looking around the deserted courti "In the States this would be front-page News, Here It
"They're delightful people," SACHS to
Miss Hutton told a friend offenar."
We had just settled down recently. "On my last visit there rsked me to sign the to the bearing when " They
Such a cute photographer trying to get a visitors' book.
myTM of the picture
man gesture considering it's in the dock-was spied by the house,"
who tarbooshed court usher, made frantic gestures to him,
The Arab spat and took my good
money.
"Small stuff," he said. "Any thing under a quarter of a million is small stuff. There'll be no one thero."
Incredibly, he was right
"There
"They're used for high-speed. smuggling," sold, my host.
We walked on along the front, "Tell me," said my host "what do you feel like doing
now?"
"Nothing" I said. "Nothing
He looked at me for a moment, in his Moorish must warn you," he said;
on
Over to you Mrs Ellis
Just wait until Freddie comes home! I have been his wife for 17 years and have always had to recognise the "superiority
Ellis male,
of the male tho
Women "know their place," Indeed, I know mine-tip-toeing round the flat the morning after he has been out on a party with other "superior malen"
The lord and master lets.mo know he is awake by reaching from under the bedcovers... to jerk the receiver on the bed- side telephone up and down.
That rings the extension near the kitchen and lets the "serf know he is ready for his tea, biscuits, orange juice, and the morning papers.
And heaven help the serf if everything is not to his liking! I can't see the difference between being a Japanese wife or married to a journalist,.
The Japanese wife never gots out to dinner with her husband
and neither do I.
wife who walls
But at least the Japanese
ou her hus band has the pleasure of SEE- ING him. I hardly do,, except at the west is to;
Freddio
have
at
Said Colonel Waller Stirling at all", At last it seemed we wore in the one-time Chief of Staff to of Arabla-who for some fun. He was sure to Lawrence be flung out.
But no. Instead, received me the usher led him up beside the house on my first night here:- "that in Tangier that is looked enjoyed sitting cross-legged
no place with a as highly suspicious ja 10in.-high table and eating In the panelled court-room judges to get a better pleture.
rice wrapped in seaweed. Growled Reynolds: "Brother shred of Tangler's fascination, occupation..... was the accused man, 33-year-
happen in Though you must be a pirate at old William Lindsay Pearson this could only
IF YOUR TASTES don't Well, I have got a table After the
Has anyon, heart to enjoy it 031. arrested six weeks ago after a Tangier...."
run to hashish and skel- like that. Ilfe I've led and I've been shot
think flerce tussic with three ammed
got some seaweed? # Afoors in Tongler bank. Apart
alx times I find It rather duggery and, you stimulating And I enjoy the Yashmak: Is something for from him, three judges, two
rainy dayTangier still has counsel, and
cating a
tact that here hardly trything
plenty to offer a-beautiful sandwich, there were only a That goes for mest things is illegal."
beach, fine hotels, and interest. handful of people in the
room. happening in this cauldron clly
Spanish That's trug enough. The other ing cafes, Prices are generally at on a bench beside a perched on the tip of
night, after dining in the lower than on the Continent doesn't wrap it round familiar figure-Amerlean Morocco,
inan
Scotch-14s.
Better watch she
correspondent Quentin Reynolds, Hero watches and cameros Medina - the Moorish part of Cheapest return air fare (nisht) {your neck, Freddie.... Remember Reynolds and his are still the cheapest in the Tangler-I was sipping mint bra. -£41, disdainful "Derr Mr Schickelgru world. Here Scotch whisky can "Did you enjoy the meal?" bor broadcasts during the war? all be bought for 14s a bottle. asked my host.
Two years ago he was Here amuggling is still Hated
130
"Very much." I said. "As a awarded £00,000 libel damages under the heading of "Occupa matter of fret I feel particularly against another columnist West- tions."
So
million- elated." enraptured was alress Barbara Hutton with the ancient Kasbah that planked down 275,000 for a almost house in that could certainly have been bought for £10,000.
pomaTho lighter aldeana
By ARTIE
EGYPTIAN CANAL CO.
PILOTS WANTED:
Hashish too
"That's not surprising" said my host. "At this cafe they mix hashish in with the food." timo
"How does it usually affect people?";
Does she 'spend there? No. The house she rambling white affair in the main alley, lead- ing up to the Baltan's Palace turned out to be too much of #tourist attraction, and
In it this week I found Englishman-Reginald Hopwood and his wife Ruth. Together with eight sorvants,
“Delightful'
an
Barbara Hutton moved Hop- wood and his wito in to look after the place while she is Away.
**IL
zoma men
***Free
Coal!
Tons of coal "for free" have started a housewives' rush at the alte of Manchester Corporation's now reservoir at Woodgate Hill,, Bury, Lancashire.?
Pushing prams to an outcrop found during excavations for the reservoir, women and children use their handa to tip the soft coal from exposed seams. much coal has been removed that engineers say there Is a danger of the site of the excavation falling in. "If any more coal is taken we will have to put up barbed wire fences to stop the women. They ara trapassing on the site," said an official, amplasa
makes romantic" said my host. "But olkers have been known to take So a meat axe to their woman."
(Yolande Donian who har. been here, often enough to call herself
4 Tangering told me before I teft: "I tried hashish, but it did nothing for me so i went back to brandy I can It, only reportoith one hand on the meat, are that it plenty for makeup in the harbour à dosen wartime patrol boats „Þeutherl
did
vere
is not the first time outcrop cool hes been found in the area. Geologists have known about it for years. The coal is soft and will not burn alorie continuously, Housewives use it to supplement the ration by mixing it
Tewith: better-quality coal,