Pricing the Factory-Built House

Dwarfed by massive images of automobiles plastered over a neoclassical frieze, a man studiesan intricate, sectioned motor of a modern automobile. Far above his head an image oftwo searching auto headlights, pronounces: “Ford … Ford.” This vivid scene, with its boldjuxtapositions, stands above the laconic title of Le Corbusier’s visionary essay: Maisons enSérie (Mass-Production Houses). It recounts a dream—as yet unfulfilled in 1923—to conceive,develop, produce, and live in factory-built houses. “A great epoch has begun,” Le Corbusierdeclared, “Industry … has furnished us with new tools adapted to this new epoch.”1 Althoughit seemed that the technical challenges of producing houses in factories had been nearlyresolved, the huge effort of convincing people to step into this new epoch had barely begun.“The right state of mind does not exist,” Le Corbusier announced; Architecture must bringabout “revision of values,” a “mass-production spirit” consistent with “economic law.”2

Volume Editors
Robert Corser & Sharon Haar

ISBN
978-1-944214-03-6