Corbusier: Venice Hospital SYNOPSIS
This volume explores an unbuilt yet iconic project by Le Corbusier and its
visual representation. The Venice Hospital is the uncontested epitome of
the "mat," or carpet, building type-a low sprawling structure developed in
the late fifties and sixties that is making a strong comeback in
contemporary architecture.
Planned in 1965 for the arsenal area at the edge of the city, the hospital
was designed to extend the city's roads and canal networks, while
simultaneously turning in on itself to create flexible, quasi-urban interior
environments in the form of endlessly repeating courtyards. Upon Le
Corbusier's death in 1965, Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente was commissioned
to complete the building. However, due to changes in city government, the
project was eventually abandoned.
This book reinvestigates this canonic example of Le Corbusier's late work
and includes an account of de la Fuente's involvement in the project,
previously unpublished drawings from his archive, and a reprint of Alison
Smithson's seminal essay on "mat" buildings.
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