An unpublished collection of letters from the vast correspondence between Le Corbusier and his teacher Auguste Perret spanning the period from 1908 to 1954
This long relationship via letters reveals the strong tie between Le Corbusier and Auguste Perret that existed from the younger architect’s formative years to the height of his career. The volume follows the various stages in Le Corbusier’s formation: the period of learning, of assimilating Perret’s thought in all its profundity; the time when he perceived the limits of his teacher’s ideas and decided to go beyond them; and, lastly, the time when he broke away and started anew. During his training, which he claimed lasted about twenty years – from the age of fifteen to over thirty – Le Corbusier worked under four “teachers”: Charles L’Eplattenier, Auguste Perret, William Ritter and Amedée Ozenfant. This book contains over fifty of the letters that Le Corbusier wrote to the master architect Auguste Perret. These letters, from the most impassioned to the most indolent, the most technical to the most lyrical, not only provide new insight into the formation and ideas of the man who revolutionized modern architecture, but also food for thought concerning the teaching of architecture today.