(2015 Essay Excerpts)

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The Voisin Plan of 1925 seeks to replace the densest sections of Paris with crystal skyscrapers and large green spaces, clearing out the old condensed city incapable of supporting future transportation and quality of life. This plan was based on his conceptual “Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants”. Yet, an overlooked component of this plan is Corbusier’s desire to preserve sixteen selected existing buildings which he either built around or dedicated green spaces to them. Even Corbusier could not ignore all the conditions of the existing world in which he designed.

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Corbusier stated in his proposal in “The City of To-morrow”, that he would preserve specific structures that fell within the footprint of the plan. An unusual move for such a grand proposal, he was overcome with a sentimental idea of viewing and occupying these existing monuments in the round, through preservation on open ground or within a courtyard of the new proposed structures. Only five percent of the entire Voisin site plan contained buildings and he was confident in the preservation of these structures. No stranger to Paris, he states, “The Voisin plan shows, still standing among the masses of foliage of the new parks, certain historical monuments, arcades, doorways, carefully preserved because they are pages out of history or works of art.”