Selected Bibliography Architecture - Form Space and Order | Page 422

C ON C L US I ON

“You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you
build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work.
But suddenly, you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and
I say: ‘This is beautiful.’ That is architecture. Art enters in.
My house is practical. I thank you, as I might thank Railway engineers,
or the Telephone service. You have not touched my heart.
But suppose that walls rise toward heaven in such a way that I am
moved. I perceive your intentions. Your mood has been gentle, brutal,
charming, or noble. The stones you have erected tell me so. You fix me to
the place and my eyes regard it. They behold something which expresses
a thought. A thought which reveals itself without wood or sound, but
solely by means of shapes which stand in a certain relationship to one
another. These shapes are such that they are clearly revealed in light.
The relationships between them have not necessarily any reference
to what is practical or descriptive. They are a mathematical creation
of our mind. They are the language of Architecture. By the use of raw
materials and starting from conditions more or less utilitarian, you have
established certain relationships which have aroused my emotions. This
is Architecture.”
Le Corbusier
Towards a New Architecture
1927

CONCLUSION / 4 0 7