La Ferme radieuse and the cooperative centre (unpublished manuscript)

Description

La Ferme radieuse et le centre coopératif (unpublished manuscript) Le Corbusier and Norbert Bézard

An unpublished manuscript, La Ferme radieuse et le centre coopératif (The Radiant Farm and the Cooperative Centre) describes the rural development project imagined in the 1930s by Le Corbusier and Norbert Bézard.

The manuscript by Le Corbusier and Norbert Bézard entitled La Ferme radieuse et le centre coopératif ("The Radiant Farm and the Cooperative Centre") was shelved and was due to be published in 1941 by Editions Fernand Sorlot ("Cahiers de politique nationale" collection, "Préludes" series). It describes the rural development project imagined by the two men in the 1930s. In an autobiographical tone, Le Corbusier explains how he became interested in the countryside, and then describes the construction of the Ferme Radieuse and the Centre Coopératif. Norbert Bézard presents a summary of his project for the "reconstruction of the French countryside".

"One day in Paris, at one of the meetings of the Prélude group, I met Norbert Bézard, a farm worker. - Corbusier', he told me, 'you have a duty to build 'La Ferme Radieuse', the right and necessary counterpart to the 'Ville Radieuse'. You're not a farmer; we'll show you what we're like. You don't know the work of the land; you'll learn what it's made of. It was a daunting but magnificent task.
Le Corbusier