Around 1924, Le Corbusier designed the Maison Dominó, a house known for its structural system completely independent from the functions of the house. The project consisted of the construction of concrete structure house series that could be quickly built and were elevated on “pilotis” that allow free use of the façade without load-bearing walls. Here appeared for the first time the rationality and total functionality concepts: the Dom-Ino a key aspect in the called “machine of live”.
The Villa Savoye is the last of the four compositions that, until 1929, Le Corbusier was developing: the first is the Maison La Roche, a purist version of the Neogothic ground plant in L shape, a rather easy, picturesque and mobile sort; the second one is the Villa in Garcher, which is an ideal prism for Le Corbusier; the third one is the Weissenhotsiedlung in Stuttgart, an alternative design to harmonize the first and the second; and he culminated with the Villa Savoye, an approach of the first one but circumscribed in a circle.
The first imprint of Villa Savoye is that the main volume rests on piles in the middle of a big grass extent: an object of contemplation. Le Corbusier was more interested in getting a visual and aesthetic order, associated with the reason and the geometric that had their genesis in the Purism theory.
A distinguishing aspect between the two facades is that the structure stands out in projection in the front and back of the building, while the laterals are at pile level. That not only makes the laterals larger but also the setback of the piles highlights the superior level.
Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier's machine of inhabit. Photography by Montse Zamorano.
The ground floor is set back with regard to the main level. The curvature, made of a glass wall, follows the trajectory of the car allowing access to the villa. The movement of the cars was a motive that Le Corbusier loved and was the reason for the building's conception. On this floor were the service rooms and the garage. As gaining admission we find stairs and a ramp that lead us to the upper rooms. To Le Corbusier the staircase is what “separates” and the ramp that “joins” all the storeys: it leads us to heaven from the ground floor.
On the second floor, Le Corbusier organized the house in L shape ground plan depending on the uses, dividing in an unequivocal way the common and public areas and the rooms. The joint axis between the two spaces was the window that went over all the facades of the villa. The living room could be considered as part of the roof because two-thirds of it is an opened patio that occupies the west face and has the best views. The rooms have access through corridors that separate the main bathroom and walking closet. This room and attached room distribution remind the Parisian palaces of the XVIII Century. The bathroom received zenithal light.
The villa could not exist without the use of reinforced concrete. Le Corbusier had spent a lot of time studying the building construction possibilities with supports and slabs that resulted in the “five points”. The plates between storeys are built in reinforced concrete, with plasters in the walls, iron in the handrail and steel for the profiles and the window edges. The toilet and service zones are covered by glazed tiles of different tones depending on the area.
In the Villa Savoye, the walls of the roof ramp transmitted its load in an irregular manner, through a forge to some support pillars that were not directly placed under and in the garage, a support pillar that was eliminated. It made it possible that the support pillars near the ramp were not lined up with the other ones. A comparison of the different project phases showed that Le Corbusier broke more and more the formal strictness of the support grid, although this order was shown in each façade.
The coetaneous architects should be impressed by the extraordinary contrast among the three levels of the Villa Savoye: the support grid, the stairs and the ramp.
Architects such as Edwin Lutyens, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hans Scharoun and Erich Mendelsohn understood that the villa had a big plot that gave the opportunity to generate a beautiful garden and allowed dialectics between the interior and the exterior; but, Le Corbusier did the entire contrary, he placed the villa in the middle of the building site, surrounded by a glass layer (which should be always pruned) and, although the user could contemplate the exterior through the large windows, the social life was made in the interior of the villa.
Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier's machine of inhabit. Photography by Montse Zamorano.
History
In 1928, Le Corbusier was elected by Pierre Savoye and his wife to build the weekend family house. Le Corbusier proposed a project based on a “box on piles”, following this way the five points of the new architecture and his design were accepted by the owners. The Villa Savoye is the pure image of these five points that Le Corbusier had planned in 1926 and is the best example of a free-ground plan of his work. The works in Villa Savoye started this same year.
Le Corbusier found in Villa Savoye some important advantages because the program was not very demanding, the budget was large and the project was not limited by a building site, a matter that has been coerced before. Then located the Villa forgetting the environment, which gave way to the later references based on an octagonal mesh of concrete piles 4,75 metres far from each other.
The Villa Savoye was not very used but it could be used to celebrate summer parties in which the guests did not stay overnight. During the main part of its life, it has been an empty monument, restored a few times and a place of architectonic pilgrimage where we could find its author. This panorama contrasts remarkably with the fantastic life of the photographs, the printed pages and the fame that this magnificent building has enjoyed over the years.
The building was occupied by the Germans and then by the Allies during the Second World War from 1940 to 1945 and had a badly damaged ending.
In 1958 the integrity of the Villa Savoye was in danger because the building of a school in the same plot as this house was approved. But in 1962, the city gave the Villa Savoye an “Adoption Condition” to protect it. The next year, in 1963, the general refurbishment was started, by the architect Jean Dubuisson and in 1965 it was the first Le Corbusier catalogued monument. The refurbishment work was continued by Jean-Louis Véret between 1985 and 1992, and it opened in 19997 to the public.
Le Corbusier died in August 1965, before the beginning of the refurbishment designed by him, that if it was carried out, the villa should be considerably modified. Paradoxically the villa seems today extremely modern, despite being a representative of a whole epoch.
The Villa Savoye is the last of the four compositions that, until 1929, Le Corbusier was developing: the first is the Maison La Roche, a purist version of the Neogothic ground plant in L shape, a rather easy, picturesque and mobile sort; the second one is the Villa in Garcher, which is an ideal prism for Le Corbusier; the third one is the Weissenhotsiedlung in Stuttgart, an alternative design to harmonize the first and the second; and he culminated with the Villa Savoye, an approach of the first one but circumscribed in a circle.
The first imprint of Villa Savoye is that the main volume rests on piles in the middle of a big grass extent: an object of contemplation. Le Corbusier was more interested in getting a visual and aesthetic order, associated with the reason and the geometric that had their genesis in the Purism theory.
A distinguishing aspect between the two facades is that the structure stands out in projection in the front and back of the building, while the laterals are at pile level. That not only makes the laterals larger but also the setback of the piles highlights the superior level.
Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier's machine of inhabit. Photography by Montse Zamorano.
The ground floor is set back with regard to the main level. The curvature, made of a glass wall, follows the trajectory of the car allowing access to the villa. The movement of the cars was a motive that Le Corbusier loved and was the reason for the building's conception. On this floor were the service rooms and the garage. As gaining admission we find stairs and a ramp that lead us to the upper rooms. To Le Corbusier the staircase is what “separates” and the ramp that “joins” all the storeys: it leads us to heaven from the ground floor.
On the second floor, Le Corbusier organized the house in L shape ground plan depending on the uses, dividing in an unequivocal way the common and public areas and the rooms. The joint axis between the two spaces was the window that went over all the facades of the villa. The living room could be considered as part of the roof because two-thirds of it is an opened patio that occupies the west face and has the best views. The rooms have access through corridors that separate the main bathroom and walking closet. This room and attached room distribution remind the Parisian palaces of the XVIII Century. The bathroom received zenithal light.
The villa could not exist without the use of reinforced concrete. Le Corbusier had spent a lot of time studying the building construction possibilities with supports and slabs that resulted in the “five points”. The plates between storeys are built in reinforced concrete, with plasters in the walls, iron in the handrail and steel for the profiles and the window edges. The toilet and service zones are covered by glazed tiles of different tones depending on the area.
In the Villa Savoye, the walls of the roof ramp transmitted its load in an irregular manner, through a forge to some support pillars that were not directly placed under and in the garage, a support pillar that was eliminated. It made it possible that the support pillars near the ramp were not lined up with the other ones. A comparison of the different project phases showed that Le Corbusier broke more and more the formal strictness of the support grid, although this order was shown in each façade.
The coetaneous architects should be impressed by the extraordinary contrast among the three levels of the Villa Savoye: the support grid, the stairs and the ramp.
Architects such as Edwin Lutyens, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hans Scharoun and Erich Mendelsohn understood that the villa had a big plot that gave the opportunity to generate a beautiful garden and allowed dialectics between the interior and the exterior; but, Le Corbusier did the entire contrary, he placed the villa in the middle of the building site, surrounded by a glass layer (which should be always pruned) and, although the user could contemplate the exterior through the large windows, the social life was made in the interior of the villa.
Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier's machine of inhabit. Photography by Montse Zamorano.
History
In 1928, Le Corbusier was elected by Pierre Savoye and his wife to build the weekend family house. Le Corbusier proposed a project based on a “box on piles”, following this way the five points of the new architecture and his design were accepted by the owners. The Villa Savoye is the pure image of these five points that Le Corbusier had planned in 1926 and is the best example of a free-ground plan of his work. The works in Villa Savoye started this same year.
Le Corbusier found in Villa Savoye some important advantages because the program was not very demanding, the budget was large and the project was not limited by a building site, a matter that has been coerced before. Then located the Villa forgetting the environment, which gave way to the later references based on an octagonal mesh of concrete piles 4,75 metres far from each other.
The Villa Savoye was not very used but it could be used to celebrate summer parties in which the guests did not stay overnight. During the main part of its life, it has been an empty monument, restored a few times and a place of architectonic pilgrimage where we could find its author. This panorama contrasts remarkably with the fantastic life of the photographs, the printed pages and the fame that this magnificent building has enjoyed over the years.
The building was occupied by the Germans and then by the Allies during the Second World War from 1940 to 1945 and had a badly damaged ending.
In 1958 the integrity of the Villa Savoye was in danger because the building of a school in the same plot as this house was approved. But in 1962, the city gave the Villa Savoye an “Adoption Condition” to protect it. The next year, in 1963, the general refurbishment was started, by the architect Jean Dubuisson and in 1965 it was the first Le Corbusier catalogued monument. The refurbishment work was continued by Jean-Louis Véret between 1985 and 1992, and it opened in 19997 to the public.
Le Corbusier died in August 1965, before the beginning of the refurbishment designed by him, that if it was carried out, the villa should be considerably modified. Paradoxically the villa seems today extremely modern, despite being a representative of a whole epoch.
