A' la Recherche de l'autorité

The essay “A' la recherche de l'autorité” examines the relationship between Le Corbusier and political Authority, the sole power that in his opinion could permit the technician to realise urban plans and architectural works of notable importance. During the early 1930s, while searching for important clients, Le Corbusier looked to Stalin’s Soviet Union, as well as the reformist mayor of Algiers Charles Brunel and the president of the young Catalan Republic, Francesc Maciá. Only Rome and Mussolini were missing. The essay reconstructs the climate and hopes of Le Corbusier while in Rome in June 1934, invited by the Directors of the magazine Quadrante Pietro Maria Bardi and Massimo Bontempelli to hold two lectures and present a small exhibition. Using the architect’s personal notebook, discovered in the archives of the Fondation Le Corbusier, the author speaks of Le Corbusier’s Roman encounters with architects and authors tied to the Regime – including Tommaso Marinetti and Marcello Piacentini – and with the group of young Rationalist architects who welcomed the Master and accompanied him on his visit to the Palatine Hill or to the new cities of the Pontine Marshes. The essay is accompanied by unpublished sketches from Le Corbusier’s notebook, including a drawing of a building in front other Basilica of Maxentius, conceived for the competition to design the so-called Palazzo del Littorio [Headquarters of the Fascist Party] that concluded only a few days later.