The Home of Man: A manifesto commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the first edition of le Corbusier and François de Pierrefeu, La Maison d'Hommes.

Accordingly, Le Corbusier in Towards a New Architecture 1922 the question was: “Architecture or revolution” – also stated in, The Home of Man, 1942: “… people live in poor conditions, this is the real, the most profound reason for the battles and upheavals of our time.”
The 19th and 20th century Metropolis encompasses the major social changes towards 21st century liberal capitalism, following the slipstream of people’s migration from rural areas to still bigger urban agglomerations. Currently, this goes on with even bigger pace in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In these emergent regions people still live in poor conditions, while in the US and EU the enhanced living/housing standard throughout the post-war economic growth is deteriorating under the rising inequality of recent crisis.
Today Le Corbusier’s concerns are met by new concerns for the local and global milieu, as a conflict between fulfilling people’s social requirements and their long-term impact on the environment. A conflict, which can only be solved politically addressing said inequality.
That is our century’s challenge obtaining social and natural sustainability, let alone preventing further hazards caused by depletion of resources and liability to climate change.
The manifesto at hand – assuming a relation between the Modern Movement (MM) and sustainable urbanization – obviously has to question the relevance of MM’s urban models, programs and ideas, vis-à-vis the crucial agenda of sustainability and architecture.