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Le Corbusier Algiers Plans
edited by Marco Venturi
The involvement of Le Corbusier with Algiers begins in 1931, when
he is invited to a conference about the future of the city. He then
travelled around, absorbing a lot of suggestions, which will strongly
influence his future activity. One and a half year later he presents,
without having a client, the first of a series of projects, the
"Obus", probably the most influential scheme of the modern town
planning history. In the following years he produces many proposals,
B&C in ´33-´34, D&E in 1939, progressively reducing the scale of
the intervention and concentrating on the architectural solutions
for the business district centre. All the projects were rejected.
The war marks a turning point. In the month of October 1940 Le Corbusier
leaves his office in Paris and, while Pierre Jeanneret and other
collaborators join the resistence, he looks for the possibility
of realising some projects, working with the Petain government.
In January 1941 he gets a temporary appointment a registration as
an architect, even without Beaux Arts degrees. In his capacity of
influential member of the Comite´d´études de l´Habitation et de
la Construction Immobiliere, he proposes a building policy centred
on seven exemplary works, first of the list a plan for Algiers.
In June 1941 he flew to Algeria, where, with the local knowledges
of Emery and Miquel, he begins the redaction of a new scheme, finished
a month later in Vichy.
This plan differs from the previous ones for the translation of
the centre from the Quartier de la Marine to the Bastion XV, in
the french quarters. The new centre is a civic institution more
than an administrative one, and foresees the creation of a centre
for the Muslims. Satellite towns and a natural reserve park have
to be created outside of the city limits of 4 km., for heavy industry
and recreation. Y-shaped housing units, no more connected each other,
are doted with brise-soleil as equivalent to the local loggia. The
huge viaduct is replaced by highways embracing the city.
The plan was presented the 23rd of April 1942 as Plan Directeur,
suite a´la séance du 16 juin 1941- and consisted of three plans
at the scale 1:20.000 for different stages of development, 1942-1955
and 1980 (this final one), a general 1:12.600 and a report. The
drawings were thought lost in the indipendence war, but were just
misdirected in the local archives.
On the 12th June 1942 the plan was rejected unanimously by the local
council "en tant que projet essentiellement communal il n´est pas
souhaitable de tenter une expérience aussi aléatoire sur un périmètre
aussi considérable. Décide en conséquence de rejeter le projet presente´par
monsieur Le Corbusier. Adopte´a´l´unanimite´".
Le Corbusier asked till November 1942 the Petain government to bypass
the municipality's Decisions, but left Vichy for Paris already in
July 1942
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