le corbusier's hands...

since airforms has largely been about old things found, and the year is coming to an end (and holidays are approaching), i thought i should highlight a few good new things for a change... this week i will intersperse the usual dusty realm with some recently published little books.

the first is le corbusier's hands by andré wogenscky, who was a draftsman for corbusier for 30 years. it's a series of tiny remembrances that reads like a stream of little film stills. it's amazing that this is wogenscky's only book of writings as they are highly poetic, and each short section reminds me a little bit of francis ponge's work. here's one of my favorite pages, relating sound and architect in a somewhat idiosyncratic way, and titled "his step"

"a memory of a sound: the steps on the floor as le corbusier walked down the long hall at 35 rue de sevres, that same hall where, the evening of 1 september 1965, his body rested for a few hours under the blue, white, and and red tapestries. it was the same hall that le corbusier walked every day for half a century with his calm and regular step to do his architectural work.

that slow, regular step was the very rhythm of his personality. a rhythm drawn in space by the structure of his rigorous, slow, calm, regular, and exact buildings. it was the rhythm into which he introduced poetry.

steps that seemed slow but that quickly went forward".

the book was published by MIT press, there's more info here, rather than doing the lazy amazon thing, please see if your small local bookstore has it or can order if for you.