Precisions on the Present State of Architecture and City Planning

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of his death (August 27, 2015), one of Le Corbusier’s most significant books becomes available again in English. The “Precisions”, as the book is commonly known, emerged from a spontaneous and exuberant series of 10 lectures Le Corbusier gave in Buenos Aires in 1929, reflecting a new maturity in his thinking. They contain some of his most compelling aphorisms, covering technique as the basis of architecture, the human scale in design, furniture, the private house, apartments and office buildings, the city, the League of Nations competition, teaching architecture.

As he spoke, Le Corbusier improvised colour drawings on large sheets of paper. The drawings and lectures are unique in their eloquent and concise summary of his philosophy of architecture and urban design, stating the principles that informed his work from the 1920s on.

This new edition for the first time features all of Le Corbusier’s drawings in colour. A new essay by British scholar Tim Benton, written for this new edition, contextualises the “Precisions” within Le Corbusier’s oeuvre and comments on their lasting significance.