WHAT IS: Le Corbusier

Swiss born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965) was 29 when he went to Paris. Soon after his arrival he adopted his maternal grandfather’s name, Le Corbusier, as a pseudonym. He changed his persona from Jeanneret the small-town architect to Le Corbusier the world’s next visionary artist. He expressed a view that architecture had lost its way. He was convinced the bold new industrial age dawning required an audacious style of architecture. Who better to design it than himself. “We must start again from zero,” he proclaimed.

Tiptoe Through The Tulips

“Come tulip come and take color from my cheek” said Eastern Philosopher Mevlana in the thirteenth century when shrubs, bulbs and flowers were flooding into Europe from the near East. They went wild for them, especially Holland, who would make the tulip that grew wild in Anatolia in western Turkey an integral part of both its culture and economy

Finding Paradise on Earth

From the earliest times gardens were associated with shade, running water; fragrance and fresh produce and therefore represented peace and prosperity. Each visit to a garden is a unique experience because its plants, ornaments, views and garden buildings appear in a sequence that can never exactly be repeated ever again. Another quality, not possessed by [...]

Destiny, Fate and the Lady and Unicorn Tapestries

In the late medieval period of the fifteenth century the now famous millefleurs tapestries first appear characterized by their backgrounds made of hundreds of tiny flowers. The most well known in this style are known as La Dame á la Licorne, or the Lady & the Unicorn. A group of six tapestries they are woven from a combination of woolen, silk and gold thread and have exercised an almost universal fascination on all those who have encountered them for hundreds of years.

Châteaux in the Garden of France

In France the châteaux of the Loire are mostly connected in many people’s minds with royalty. This is because the men who built them were scarcely less wealthy than the king, often richer and usually heavily involved with him. The fine limestone the châteaux of the Loire were built from occurred naturally in a vast retaining wall that runs all along the right bank of the Loire Valley from Blois to Tours, where it is mingled with sandstone, millstone grit and potter’s clay.

The Harmony of Courtly Love

From the 11th to the 13th century in England and Europe expressing personal feelings in relation to the beauty and bountiful joys of women became the province of troubadours, who were both composers and performers of lyrical poetry set to romantic music. They roved about the countryside visiting castles and their communities to deliver the latest ditties going about in song. The themes they favoured the most were those of chivalry and courtly love.

Sherlock – Moriarty and More – The Game Continues

The Producers have announced that the modern update of Sherlock Holmes we reported on a few weeks ago will return to the BBC following the end of its initial three-episode run. It seems that the famous detective, who first appeared in print in 1887, seems to be in the public eye more now than ever before.

Creation, Civilisation & Culture

All cultures on earth, just like individuals, have distinct modes of existence. Creation stories are something they all have in common in a logical attempt to rationalize the presence of humans on earth.

Rome, Precinct of Power & Glory

During the reign of Augustus (31BC – 14ACE) Rome emerged as an economically successful city with a population approaching one million. To become a free citizen of Rome was considered a great honour.

Whoever you were if you were born within the boundaries of the Roman Empire you had the right to hold the highest office in the State. Under Augustus the concept of an eternal Rome emerged, revealing its link to the legendary past and its promise of a new era.

At the Beginnings of Art

Greek sculpture was the first, the only ancient art to break free from conceptual conventions, for that of representing men and animals. Artisans wanted to explore consciously how art might imitate nature, or even improve upon it. There was no conscious striving towards realism at first, especially until it was understood to be a possible and desirable goal. This began six centuries before the Christ event.