rory olcayto

Comment on: It's time to question the classic Corb backstory

rory olcayto's comment 12-Mar-2013 5:58 pm

thanks Michael. However you may want to think of the wider reasons why corb 'goes on' about the parthenon so much in Vers. By the time of its publication, geopolitics had shifted considerably, interest in Ottoman culture was dead, as was the role of Islam in the succssor state of Turkey. There was a firm belief in Turkey, and Western Europe, that there was nothing to learn from Islam anymore and the Turks themselves, under Ataturk, embraced European modernism wholeheartedly. Furthermore, Corb knew that making a link between ancient greece and european modernism was simply a more shrewd - and on message - PR skew. None of this however changes the fact that it was in Istanbul that Corb's theories first began to crystallise. HIs own quote regarding his observations ofmosques as essentially geometric machines ordering space and human movement is the proof. This should be part of what every first year student lears (if indeed we are to continue to shape young architects' minds by introducing them to the subject via Corb and co) Sadly, Euro-centric historians, like Curtis, brilliant though he is, refuse to fully engage with this, as evidenced by his lack of knowledge regarding Sinan (which he cheerfully confesses to) and his descriptions of Corb's tour in reverse, and you could argue, even referring to Turkey as Asia Minor. These may seem like minor (ahem) points, but if we're going to turn away from the overly simplistic architectural histories the trickle into books and lectures from Curtis's more thorough (although still euro-biased) texts, we have to begin to acknowledge them.