The Discussion with the architecture students of Le Corbusier was first published in 1943, amidst war, as a result of the great architect and thinker’s desire to speak directly to architecture students, having previously rejected repeated proposals to teach at the university (“Teach what? The philosophy of life?”).
At the suggestion of Professor Dimitris Fatouros, another great figure of Greek architecture, Souzana Antonakaki translated this classic text, which was published in Greek during the dictatorship in 1971. Antonakaki's translation is now being reissued by the University Press of Crete, and this new edition faithfully follows the aesthetic of the original French edition designed by Jean Petit at the Minuit publishing house.
The introductory text by D. Fatouros that accompanied the 1971 edition has been preserved, and a new preface by Dimitris Antonakakis has been added. This brief text is in some way a spiritual legacy of Le Corbusier. The significance of the architect's and urban planner's consciousness and ethical stance, the weight of his education, his responsibility towards "our brother man", architecture as a social mission that requires dedication and commitment from its servants, the architectural creation as a living production, the dwelling as the shell of life and the refuge of man, the harmonization of the architectural creation with its environment, the Law of the Sun, topography, and scale, the poetic dimension of the work, are some of the ideas that are exalted with charged language in this unique "manifesto", which maintains its classic character and relevance intact.
