Rem Koolhaas: Le Corbusier through the Looking-Glass

Abstract

[EN] The present work aims to recover the part of Le Corbusier´s theoretical production that can be defined as Manifesto to analyze it since its comparison with the analogue written by Rem Koolhaas. Due to the brevity of the present paper it will be focus on the analogies between two main Manifestoes: Towards an Architecture (Le Corbusier, 1923) and Delirious New York (Rem Koolhaas, 1978). The dialectic between these two Manifestoes is summarized in four main points: the intention of the text -rasion d´être-, its structure, the tone they used for the correspondent Manifesto and the relationship with the architectonic work of the authors. As we will see, theoretical and audiovisual strategies are duplicated from the master to the pupil who, on top of that, is able to reinterpret and manipulate them in a way that makes possible for his Manifesto to be considered even more efficient than Le Corbusier´s, at least, in its intention to involve the largest number of people. This is possible thanks to the knowledge that Koolhaas has over media, cinema and latests technologies that allows him to express what could be identified with Le Corbusier´s original ideas but in a contemporary way, so they seem to be brand new and much more understandable for today´s society. In this way, Koolhaas could be understood also as a kind of Le Corbusier living in the world Through the Looking-Glass organized as Lewis Carroll did in his famous book Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There