Le Corbusier thought sofas and armchairs were a terrible thing — the softer and cuddlier, the worse.
“What [modern man] wants is a monk’s cell, well lit and heated, with a corner from which he can look at the stars,” he wrote.
He designed what he called “machines for living,” buildings that served all of the functions that a human putatively required.
They were a beautifully austere, scientific vision.
They were hated, and abandoned.
People don’t want to live in scientific certainties.
Sofas are what people want.
And “machines for living” don’t honor the messiness that a human life represents.