Le Corbusier on Turkish Architecture

I purchased a book in Istanbul, Turkish Architecture and Urbanism Through the Eyes of L.C. In it Le Corbusier makes poignant remarks about Turkish architecture and how his experience in the city of Istanbul influenced his notion of design and the city. The city left an undeniable mark on the influential designer. Here are a few of his notes and comments during his visit.


In his book, Towards a New Architecture, Le Corbusier explains his development of a building plan. "The plan proceeds from within to without; the exterior is the result of an interior. the elements of architecture are light and shade, walls and space."


He supports this theory when describing the Green Mosque:
"A building is like a soap bubble. This bubble is perfect and harmonious if the breath has been evenly distributed and regulated from the inside. The exterior is a result of an interior. In Broussa in Asia Minor, at the Green Mosque, you enter by a little doorway of normal human height; a quite small vestibule produces in you the necessary change of scale so that you may appreciate, as against the dimensions of the street and the spot you came from, the dimensions with which it is intended to impress you. Then you can feel the noble size of the Mosque and your eyes can take its measure. You are in a great white marble space filled with light. Beyond you can see a second similar space of the same dimensions, but it half-light and raised on several steps (repetition in a minor key); on each side a still smaller space in subdued light--turning round, you have two very small spaces in shade. From full light o shade, a rhythm. Tiny doors and enormous bays. You are captured, you have lost the common scale. You are enthralled by a sensorial rhythm (light and volume) and by an able use of scale and measure, into a world of its own which tells you what it set out to tell you. What emotion, what faith! There you have motive and intention, The cluster of ideas, this is the means that has been used." (43)


The Morphological Structure of the City
"In regards to the main functions of the city he states: "It is the city's business to make itself permanent, and this depends on considerations other than those of calculation. It is only Architecture which can give all things which go beyond calculation." Le Corbusier observed two different building types in the structure of a city. He explains that through the example of Istanbul: "In Stamboul every dwelling is of wood, every roof is of the same pitch, and covered with the same kind of tile. All the great buildings, mosques, temples, caravansarais, are of stone. The basis of all this is the existence of a standard. But the spreading red roofs of Stamboul are like a sea from which the mosques rise up serenely in their sculptural whiteness. Stamboul is a closely knit agglomeration; every mortal's dwelling is of wood, and every dwelling of Allah is of stone. Here there are only two types of architecture: the big flattened roofs covered with worn tiles and the bulbs of the mosques with minarets shooting up." The first type of buildings are in majority in cities. They mostly resemble each other on their scales and materials. They are neutral, anonymous buildings like dwellings, office buildings and etc. But the second type of buildings are found rarely in the cit texture and are different from the first type in terms of scale, structure and material. they are significant original buildings. The first type of buildings constitute the main part of the city. They form a background to the second type of building."" (102)


"They have symbolic values and with their original and sculptural forms, they are in contrast to the other neutral background buildings of the city. This fact is clearly seen in the urban structure of Istanbul. With their different  scales, materials, structures and sculptural values, a Suleymaniye, a St Sophia can easily be distinguished from their surroundings."(103)


"After the Istanbul example, Le Corbusier gives us the examples of Rome, Venice and Sienna and strengthens his thesis. His observation in relation to Rome are as follows: "Against a background of houses, that is to say, of elements of the same kind, Rome raises high its palaces and its temples. They stand out from the rest. Architecture disengaging itself from the urban confusion." (103)