Thanks for the shout out veen. I hadn't really appreciated Corbs influence on Constructivism until now. And I never new that bolshoi meant big. Makes for a potentially interesting connection to SMLXL's idea of bigness that I'll have to look into sometime - given what I know of Rem's interest in Russian architecture of that time.

As for the Ville Contemporaine. I've always found an incredible tension between Corbs architecture (buildings) and his masterplannning. One being quite beautiful and even profound, and the other being absolutely terrifying. What's compelling to me is that they both, as ideas, seem to come from similar places. His early embrace of the automobile, his interest in the promenade, and his wanting to connect to green space are all present at both urban and building scale projects, but seem to have very different effects. For example, Villa Savoye's pilotis, which allow the vehicle to enter underneath , letting the user ascend into the house and make a switchback to the rooftop garden - with compressed and expanded views of walls, windows, and landscapes seems very similar to that of the Ville Contemporaine, with public life happening above the traffic, and rooms in the clouds peering down over our accomplishments - and out to the paysage beyond.

I must say that I've always been dubious of master planning, simply because the order of city should not be so determined years in advance of it's own settling. Then again, New York seems to be working out just fine.