unmakings

the modern city ‘lives by the straight line, inevitably, for the construction of buildings, sewers and tunnels, highways, pavements. The circulation of traffic demands the straight line: it is the proper thing for the heart of a city. The curve is ruinous, difficult and dangerous: it is a paralysing thing. The straight line enters into all human history, into all human aim, into every human act... We must have the courage to view the rectilinear cities of America with admiration... The winding road is the result of happy-go-lucky heedlessness, of looseness, lack of concentration and animality. The straight road is a reaction, an action, a positive deed, the result of self-mastery. It is sane and noble...’ {Le Corbusier, The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning (1987)}