Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: Two Famous Historical Figures Frank Lloyd and Le Corbusier are among the most influential historical architects in the early 20th century.
The two architects were born in different countries, where Wright was born in America while Corbusier was born in Switzerland (Toby, 2008). However, both were born away from urban areas, which they both came to revolutionize in their works. They were both visionary architects as well as urban planners, where they sought to transform the current situation of the modern cities at the time. Despite having the same vision for transforming cities, they their ideas were quite different from each other. Their ideas about urban plans depicted their different values and social theories in architecture. Wright’s urban plan was called Broadacre, while Corbusier’s plan was called the Radiant City.
Both architects changed the world with their exquisite designs and influenced the architectural profession greatly. The two architects managed to make influential accomplishments in their work. Wright was responsible for developing the theory of form and function being one. His early designs for homes inspired an architectural movement, Prairie School of Architecture, which emphasized on accommodation of Midwestern lifestyle as well as the environment. He opened up his home to students for studies with young architects. His most famous buildings include the Guggenheim Museum I New York, Marin County Civic center and the water falling house. In his urban plans, he advocated for decentralization in the rural areas where homesteads would be connected to each other through superhighways (Toby, 2008). On the other hand, Corbusier made such influence as well with his architectural work and ideas.
He came up with the idea that people can live in machines. He got this idea from machines, where he saw a vehicle to result from the engineer’s goal such as comfort, speed and motion, where each part in vehicle played a part in perfecting the vehicle. He sought to bring such ideas into architecture. He believed all people have the same needs and should live in a machine designed by the architecture. Some of his achievements include his writing such as “ Towards an Architecture, his buildings Villa Savoye, government buildings in Chandigarh and United Nations head quarters. In his design for cities, he differed with Wright, where e emphasized in centralization. He advocated for skyscrapers of glass and steel, arranged geometrically (Duvall 126).
Despite their differences, they had several similarities. One of their similarities is the belief in progress and solutions. They believed in attaining a harmony between individual and authority in the society, which they believed to be the industrial society. Both believed that the current cities during their time were not ideal for the new industrial society. Additionally, both believed in the use of technology.
Wright was also influenced by automobile in his urban plan, which was only possible through superhighways for vehicles (Duvall 131). Both Wright and Corbusier had their similarities despite advocating for different architectural ideas. They both had great achievements that continued to influence the whole of twentieth century. They believed that social change was inevitable, and so was architecture, which should fit the social time. They believed that cities at the time had not changed with the social change brought about by industrialization.
Additionally, their architectural designs and ideas about changing cities were enabled by technology in the early 20th century. Work cited Toby. Building Utopia: Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier.
Utopias, February 12, 2008. Web. September 25, 2012. Duvall, N.
John. Productive Postmodernism: Consuming Histories and Cultural Studies. New York, N. Y: SUNY Press. 2002.
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