A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.
Le CorbusierRead
Belgrade is the ugliest city in the world in the most beautiful place in the world.
Interpretation
The quote contrasts external appearance with the intrinsic beauty of a location.
Le Corbusier's quote highlights the paradox of Belgrade's perceived ugliness despite its stunning geographical setting. This reflects a deeper philosophical commentary on how aesthetics can be subjective, as the true value of a place may lie beyond its visual appeal, hinting at the complexities of urban environments and their capabilities for cultural richness irrespective of flaws in surface beauty.
In practice
During a city tour, one might use this quote to provoke thoughts about urban development.
A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.
Our world, like a charnel-house, is strewn with the detritus of dead epochs.
The history of architecture is the history of the struggle for light.
Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.
The purpose of construction is TO MAKE THINGS HOLD TOGETHER; of architecture TO MOVE US.
Light creates ambience and feel of a place, as well as the expression of a structure.
I am unable to think of any critical, complex human activity that could be safely reduced to a simple summary equation.
The roulette table pays nobody except him that keeps it. Nevertheless a passion for gaming is common, though a passion for keeping roulette tables is unknown.
We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to work; we are being worked. All the time, we find that. And this comes into every detail of our life.
We fall from womb to tomb, from one blackness and toward another, remembering little of the one and knowing nothing of the other ... except through faith.
My misfortune is doubly painful to me because it will result in my being misunderstood. For me there can be no recreation in the company of others, no intelligent conversation, no exchange of information with peers; only the most pressing needs can make me venture into society. I am obliged to live like an outcast.
Every funeral may justly be considered as a summons to prepare for that state into which it shows us that we must some time enter; and the summons is more loud and piercing as the event of which it warns us is at less distance. To neglect at any time preparation for death is to sleep on our post at a siege; but to omit it in old age is to sleep at an attack.
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