Journey to the East

This is the legendary travel diary that the 24-year-old Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) kept during his first journey through central and eastern Europe. In a flood of highly personal impressions and visual notations, it records his first contact with the vernacular architecture that would preoccupy him for the rest of his life and with the monuments he most admired, the mosque complexes, the Acropolis, and the Parthenon. "'Very often, I left the Acropolis burdened by a heavy premonition, not daring to imagine that one day I would have to create.' Such words, are moving from any aspiring architect; from Le Corbusier they are an inspiration." -- Progessive Architecture An this centenary year [1987] of his birth, many books are being published about Le Corbusier but none offers more insight into his character than this book from his own hand ... Every designer speculates at one time or another just what attributes other than talent are needed for success. In the case of the young Le Corbusier this travel journal reveals... extraordinary ego, energy, curiosity, and passion." -- Interior Design Ivan Zaknic, the editor and translator, is Associate Professor of Architecture at Lehigh University.