278 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
278 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
motoring
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news
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8467283
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-----
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# The forgotten people's car
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## Swiss architect Le Corbusier had a vision of the urban landscape and his
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Voiture Minimum fitted it perfectly.
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![The forgotten people?s car][1]
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Image 1 of 2
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This urban car, designed by the visionary architect Le Corbusier, was a
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contemporary of the VW Beetle
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![The forgotten people?s car][2]
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Image 1 of 2
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Swiss-born Charles-douard Jeanneret (1887-1965) Photo: ALAMY
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By Farah Alkhalisi 3:00PM BST 26 Apr 2011
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[Comments][3]
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The visionary architect Le Corbusier, real name Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, was
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a car enthusiast, often posing his own Voisin in photographs and plans of his
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buildings as a symbol of modernity.
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"In the Twenties and Thirties Le Corbusier was totally obsessed with
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automobiles," says architect/academic Antonio Amado, author of a new book on
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Le Corbusier.
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"He knew all the new models perfectly, visited car exhibitions regularly, read
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car magazines and knew all the vanguard trends and revolutionary concepts
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being applied to cars, such as aerodynamics."
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In 1935, France's Societe des Ingenieurs de l'Automobile (SIA) announced a
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competition to stimulate the country's industry, calling for proposals for a
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small, practical and economical car to cost no more than 8,000 francs. Le
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Corbusier and his cousin and business partner Pierre Jeanneret answered the
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challenge, and in 1936 submitted drawings for the vehicle they called Voiture
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Minimum.
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Although largely dismissed at the time as an architect's dabbling, this has
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since been hailed as the forgotten people's car, a key influence on the
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Volkswagen Beetle, Citroen 2CV and suchlike.
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The SIA's brief was indeed similar to that given by Adolf Hitler to Ferdinand
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Porsche, resulting in the Beetle, and Le Corbusier often insinuated that
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Citroen (among others) had copied his curved-back concept, which he claimed he
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had first designed in 1928.
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Measuring 3.75m in length, Voiture Minimum was also relatively wide at 1.8m,
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allowing three-abreast front seating. Its Beetle-style, rear-mounted engine
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enabled a short nose, with room over the power plant for a fourth rear seat,
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two spare tyres, a luggage compartment and the chance to fold the seats into a
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camp-bed. Headlights and bumpers were flush with the body and it had a clever
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sliding roof panel.
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Italian car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro wrote in 1987 that "it is so full of
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inventive touches that even nowadays they are among the most advanced
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proposals", pointing out that it was "following the principles of aerodynamics
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that were sensed long before prototypes were placed in wind tunnels".
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Crash safety was of little concern at the time, but Amado says, "If some brand
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had really wanted to build it, they would have perfected it before launching
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it to market.
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"The Voiture Minimum we know is only a crude and undeveloped prototype, a body
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design without mechanical considerations."
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Yet it did not progress beyond drawings, despite Le Corbusier's best efforts.
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Fiat's Giovanni Agnelli rebuffed him by referring to the Dante Giacosa-
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designed Topolino (launched in France as the Simca Cinq, 1936); Hans Ledwinka
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had created small, aerodynamic rear-engined cars for Tatra; and it did not
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meet the SIA's criteria, either.
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"In 1936, Voiture Minimum offered nothing new compared with cars already being
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manufactured," says Amado, whose painstaking detective work in Le Corbusier's
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archives has yielded no evidence to suggest that its design dates back to
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1928, when it really would have been considered revolutionary.
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Amado explains that the myth around the Minimum is based on it predating the
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Beetle and 2CV. He says: "A lot of people quoted other people who quoted Le
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Corbusier when he said that he had designed his prototype in 1928.
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"It is possible that he drew some ambiguous sketches at that time, but I am
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sure that the Voiture Minimum - as sent to the SIA - was really developed in
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1936."
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Too late, then - but Voiture Minimum was innovative none the less if viewed in
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the overall context of Le Corbusier's work.
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"Considering the automobile as a part of living in cities was totally
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revolutionary at the time," Amado says. "Other urbanists didn't take into
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account the use of cars when designing their towns."
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Voiture Minimum was the ideal car for the urban future Le Corbusier envisaged
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- and its aspirations are ever more relevant today.
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**Corbu's creations **
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Swiss-born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (1887-1965) published ambitious utopian
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proposals for the cities of the future under the pseudonym "Le Corbusier".
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While his Paris Plan - involving demolition of historic central districts to
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build skyscrapers and freeways - thankfully never came to fruition, he has
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(arguably unfairly) been held responsible for influencing many a soulless
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development.
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"Corbu" believed that modernist design would enable decent living conditions
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for all, and the most efficient functioning of society.
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Effective transport infrastructure was crucial to his cities and he
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anticipated modern issues such as traffic congestion and parking problems, as
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well as increased population density.
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He created airy, light-filled buildings with a minimalist aesthetic and a
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simplicity of construction; an early exponent of mass-production and modular
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techniques, he suggested that houses should be prefabricated on a production
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line like Henry Ford's.
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He was also a talented painter and furniture designer, with a number of his
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tubular steel-framed chairs and classic chaise longues still in production.
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_Voiture Minimum: Le Corbusier and the Automobile by Antonio Amado is
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published by **[MIT Press][10]** (£36.95)_
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[X][11] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][12]
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* Share: [Share][11] [ ][13] [ ][14]
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[Tweet][15]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8467283/The-forgotten-peoples-
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car.html
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Telegraph
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## [Motoring News][16]
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* ### [Motoring »][17]
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Related Partners
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* [Search the market for car insurance][18]
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In motoring
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][22]
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### [Light Graffiti Cars][22]
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[![For the past 11 years Herman Zapp 42 and his wife Candelaria 40, from North
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vintage car][25] ][26]
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### [The ultimate road trip][26]
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[What are these?][12]
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Share:
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* [ ][13]
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* [ ][14]
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* [Tweet][15]
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* Advertisement
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![][29]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][30] [blog
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