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.
Fiction shows the external effects of internal conditions. Be aware of the tension between internal and external movement.
Power was my weakness and my temptation.
Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
Life will show you masks that are worth all your carnivals
We have the same soul at 60 that we had at 40, and the same soul at 25 that we had when we were 5.
If there is one thing clear about the centuries dominated by the factory and the wheel, it is that although the machine can make everything from a spoon to a landing-craft, a natural joy in earthly living is something it never has and never will be able to manufacture.
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