Product Code Database
Villa Savoye () is a modernist villa and gatelodge in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris, France. It was designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, and built between 1928 and 1931 using reinforced concrete. Villa Savoye à Poissy: Tourism Industry . Centre des monuments nationaux. Retrieved on January 19, 2011. (French)Courland, Robert. Concrete Planet. Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY. (2012) page 326.
As an exemplar of Le Corbusier's "five points" for new constructions, the villa is representative of the origins of modern architecture and is one of the most easily recognizable and renowned examples of the International style.
The house was originally built as a country retreat for the Savoye family. After being purchased by the neighbouring school, it became the property of the French state in 1958. Due to many different problems it was rarely inhabited. After surviving several proposals to demolish it, it was designated as an official French historical monument in 1965 (a rare event, as Le Corbusier was still alive). It was thoroughly renovated between 1985 and 1997, and the refurbished house is now open to visitors year round under the care of the Centre des monuments nationaux. Travel review of a visit to Villa Savoye .
In July 2016, the house and 16 other buildings by Le Corbusier, spread over seven countries, were inscribed as The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The villas designed by Le Corbusier in the early 1920s demonstrated what he termed the "precision" of architecture, where each feature of the design needed to be justified in design and urban terms. His work in the later part of the decade, including his urban designs for Algiers, began to be more free-form.Benton (1987), p. 192
Unlike with his earlier town villas, Le Corbusier was able to carefully design all four sides of the Villa Savoye so that they took the view and the orientation of the sun into account. On the ground floor he placed the main entrance hall, ramp and stairs, garage, and the rooms of the chauffeur and maid. The first floor contained the master bedroom, the son's bedroom, guest bedroom, kitchen, salon and external terraces. The salon was oriented to the south east whilst the terrace faced the east. The son's bedroom faced the north west, and the kitchen and service terrace faced south-west. On the second-floor level was a series of sculpted spaces that formed a solarium.Benton (1987), pp. 194 & 195
The plan was set out using the principal ratios of the Golden section: in this case a square divided into sixteen equal parts, extended on two sides to incorporate the projecting façades, and then further divided so as to fix the position of the ramp and the entrance.Gast (2000), pp. 74–77
In his book Vers une Architecture, Corbusier exclaimed "The motor car is an object with a simple function (to travel) and complicated aims (comfort, resistance, appearance)...".Le Corbusier (1997), p. 137 The house, designed as a second residence and located outside Paris, was designed with the car in mind. The sense of mobility that the car conferred was translated into a feeling of movement that is integral to the building. The approach to the house was by car, past the caretaker's lodge, and eventually under the building itself. Even the curved arc of the industrial glazing of the ground floor entrance was determined by the turning circle of a car. After its principal occupants had been dropped off by the chauffeur, the car proceeded around the curve to park in the garage. Meanwhile, the arrivals entered the house transversely into the main hall through a portico of flanking columns.Curtis (2006), pp. 95 & 96
The four columns in the entrance hall seemingly direct the visitor up the ramp. This ramp, which can be seen from almost everywhere in the house, continues up to the first-floor living area and salon before continuing externally from the first-floor roof terrace up to the second-floor solarium. Throughout his career, Le Corbusier was interested in bringing a feeling of sacredness into the act of dwelling, and acts such as washing and eating were given significance by their locations.Samuel (2007), p. 169 At the Villa Savoye, the act of cleansing is represented both by the sink in the entrance hallSamuel (2007), p. 185 and the celebration of the health-giving properties of the sun in the solarium on the roof, which is given significance by being the terminal upper point of the ramp.Samuel (2007), p. 186
Le Corbusier's piloti perform a number of functions around the house, both inside and out. On the two longer elevations they are flush with the face of the façade and imply heaviness and support, but on the shorter sides they are set back, giving a floating effect that emphasises the horizontal dimension of the house. The wide strip window of the first-floor terrace has two baby piloti to support and stiffen the wall above. Although these piloti are in a similar plane to the larger columns below, a false perspective when viewed from outside the house gives the impression that they are located deeper within the house than they actually are.Curtis (2006), pp. 97 & 98
The Villa Savoye uses the horizontal ribbon windows found in his earlier villas. Unlike his contemporaries, Le Corbusier often chose to use timber windows rather than metal ones. It has been suggested that this is because he was interested in glass for its planar properties, and that the set-back position of the glass in the timber frame allowed the façade to be seen as a series of parallel planes.Samuel (2007), pp. 76–78
The villa was expropriated by the town of Poissy in 1958, which first used it as a public youth centre and later considered demolishing it to make way for a schoolhouse complex. Protests from architects who felt the house should be saved, and the intervention of Le Corbusier himself, spared the house from demolition. A first attempt at restoration was begun in 1963 by architect Jean Debuisson, despite opposition from Le Corbusier. The villa was added to the French register of historical monuments in 1965, becoming France's first modernist building to be designated as a historical monument, and also the first to be the object of restoration while its architect was still living. In 1985, a thorough state-funded restoration process led by architect Jean-Louis Véret was undertaken. It was completed in 1997. The restoration included structural and surface repairs to the façades and terraces because of the deterioration of the concrete; the installation of lighting and security cameras; and the reinstatement of some of the original fixtures and fittings.
The freedom given to Le Corbusier by the Savoyes resulted in a house that was governed more by his five principles than by any requirements of the occupants. Nevertheless, it was the last time these five principles were expressed so fully, and the house marked the end of one phase of his design approach, as well as being the last in a series of buildings dominated by the colour white.
Some general criticisms have been made with regard to Le Corbusier's five points of architecture, and these apply specifically to the Villa Savoye in terms of:Gast (2000), p. 71
After the Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier's experimentation with Surrealism informed his design for the Beistegui apartments, but his next villa design, for Mademoiselle Mandrot near Toulon, embodied a regionalist agenda and relied on local stone for its finish.Curtis (2006), pp. 108–112
The west wing of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra, designed by Ashton Raggatt McDougall, is a nearly exact replica of the Villa Savoye, except that it is black. Macarthur, John: Australian Baroque , in Architecture Australia, March/April 2001 According to Howard Raggat, this antipodean architectural quotation is "a kind of inversion, a reflection, but also a kind of shadow".
|
|
