That he survived WWII in an intellectual sense is unfortunate. His buildings, like Albert Speer's, are a concrete rendering of the idea of 20th century dictator

That he survived WWII in an intellectual sense is unfortunate. His buildings, like Albert Speer's, are a concrete rendering of the idea of 20th century dictatorship. Thankfully there was already resistance to his ideas -- even his friend Salvador Dali loathed his architecture. But it took a long time before intellectuals such as Jane Jacobs developed a complete framework that explained why modernist buildings are so damaging (beyond prudence and horse sense). His aesthetic offers a great lesson, and the lesson can be applied to any field: large-scale changes, applied top-down, incur a risk of inflicting deep social damage. This is why user feedback is so important. This is why going with your gut or channeling a theoretical framework must be strongly tempered by empiricism.