Le Corbusier's influence on the world of architecture is so profound that it is impossible to discuss modern architecture without mentioning him.
Le Corbusier's masterpiece, which opened the curtain on modern architecture, is a book that contains his reformist ideas in a passionate voice.


"Towards an Architecture" is a book published in 1923 that contains articles that were published in the magazine "Esprit Nouveau," which Le Corbusier founded in 1920 with the painter Amédée Ozenfant and the poet Paul Dermet.
This book, which fully captures the enterprising and reformist thinking of Le Corbusier, who is revered as the greatest master of modern architecture, in his younger days, is still considered a must-read for architects today.


This book, which begins by addressing the aesthetics of engineering, argues that architects, who have been biased toward stylistics, should now positively embrace the technology that has achieved harmony in the machine age.
Next, he recommends that architects look at the three major elements that make up architecture (volume, surface, and plane) and discusses the adjustment lines necessary to avoid disorder and create order.


Le Corbusier's vision is directed towards the past.
By reading the lessons from Rome, we point out the blind spots of traditional drawings.
But what he wanted to say in this book was, above all, that architecture is a 'pure creation of the spirit' without falsehood.
The changed world was accepted as a kind of revolution, and by identifying revolution with architecture, it was believed that the world could be changed through architecture.

Architecture is the art of skillfully, precisely and majestically assembling volumes under light.
Our eyes are made to see shapes in light.
Shadow and light reveal shapes.
Cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders, and pyramids are great basic shapes that are well revealed by light.
The image they give us is one of simplicity and clarity without ambiguity.
Because of this, these basic forms are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms.
Everyone agrees on this, from children to savages to metaphysicians.
This is the very condition of plastic art.

Egyptian, Greek or Roman architecture is prism, cube, cylinder, pyramid or sphere shaped.
These include the Pyramids, the Luxor Temple, the Parthenon, the Colosseum, and Villa Adriana.

--- p.49