Owen Hatherley's _Militant Modernism_ is a good overview of what modernism (Le Corbusier's side) was supposed to be about, what went wrong, and some ideas for the future. I helped Owen translate some documents for the research behind the book, but I don't agree with him on many of the conclusions in the book.
Where I think Alexander's work comes in is where the Modernism movement started - rationalism in architecture. _A Pattern Language_ is essentially a set of inductive inferences about what works in urban planning and what doesn't. A lot of what went wrong with modernist projects stem from ignoring reality.
I think project cities like Germany's Vauban (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.htm...) embody this spirit. Soleri's Arcosanti is also built with very much the same intentions. I think Soleri's work can actually be a good example of "Corbusier meets Alexander," but most people seem to only remember him for the arcologies in Blade Runner...
Where I think Alexander's work comes in is where the Modernism movement started - rationalism in architecture. _A Pattern Language_ is essentially a set of inductive inferences about what works in urban planning and what doesn't. A lot of what went wrong with modernist projects stem from ignoring reality.
I think project cities like Germany's Vauban (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.htm...) embody this spirit. Soleri's Arcosanti is also built with very much the same intentions. I think Soleri's work can actually be a good example of "Corbusier meets Alexander," but most people seem to only remember him for the arcologies in Blade Runner...