Villa Savoye

Le Corbusier: The Villa Savoye located in Paris, France was designed by two Swedish architects: Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret during the years 1928 and 1931. Le Corbusier was not only an architect but also an author of architectural works. His book Vers une Architecture advocates and explores modern architecture and is quoted as being "beyond that of any other architectural work published in this [20th] century to date", and that unparalleled influence has continued, unabated, into the 21st century (1). The Villas built by Le Corbusier in the early 1920’s shared the trait of what he termed as the “precision” of architecture”, meaning every feature of the design needed to be justified by design and urban terms. Site: Situated just outside of the small village of Poissy in a meadow surrounded by mature trees (The intention was to cause as little disturbance as possible to the existing natural surroundings) with a landscape view to the northwest that corresponds with the entrance to the site from the road. Design: The Villa Savoye is Le Corbusier’s most widely known building from the 1950’s. It had enormous influence on international modernism, which is characterized by 3 principles: the expression of volume rather than mass, the emphasis on balance rather than preconceived symmetry, and the elimination of applied ornament. The Villa Savoye itself comprises of 5 principles that were the most basic points of Corbusier’s architectural aesthetic style: • Support of ground-level pilotis, elevating the building from the earth (allowing an extended continuity of the garden beneath.) • Functional roof, serving as a garden and terrace, reclaiming for nature the land occupied by the building. • Free floor plan, relieved of load-bearing walls, allowing partitions to be placed freely and only where aesthetically or functionally needed. • Long horizontal windows, providing illumination and ventilation. • Freely-designed facades, serving only as a skin of the wall and windows and unconstrained by load-bearing considerations. Unlike the other Villas, the Villa Savoye’s four sides were designed in response to the view and orientation to the sun. On the ground floor Le Corbusier placed the main entrance hall, ramp and stairs, garage, chauffeur and maids rooms. The first floor holds the dining room, living room, master bedroom, the son's bedroom, guest bedroom, kitchen, salon and external terraces. The second floor (the roof) is flat and on it there is a small garden with a series of sculpted spaces that form a solarium .The Plan was proportionated using the ratios of the “Golden section”, which divides the rectangle into 16 equal subdivisions. The approach and initial experiences were of great importance, arriving by vehicle at the site would be integrated into the experience of the house. Because the villa was only meant as a second residence and was situated on the outskirts of Paris, the car was a most integral part of the building. The approach and initial experiences were of great importance, arriving by vehicle at the site would be integrated into the experience of the house (2). This is seen when Le Corbusier designed the garage curve off the turning radius of the 1927 Citroen. The entrance to the house was by car past the caretakers lodge and eventually under the building itself. Once the passengers left the car it was driven along the curve and parked in the garage. Once one enters the house there are four columns that direct the occupant up the ramp. This ramp can be seen from almost anywhere in the house and connects all the floors to each other. Le Corbusier used this ramp to create links and the spiral staircase to create partitions. 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 positioning. At the Villa Savoye the act of cleansing is represented both by the sink in the entrance hall and the celebration of the health-giving properties of the sun in the solarium on the roof which is given significance by being the culmination of ascending the ramp. Legacy: The Villa Savoye was a very influential building of the 1930s and there are many imitations of it (e.g. the west wing of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra designed by Ashton Raggatt McDougall, a near exact replica of the Villa Savoye, except in black). Corbusier’s 5 principles govern the house as opposed to the requirements of its occupants, and is the last example of a house that completely was planned in this way. The Villa Savoye is also the last of a series of buildings to be painted in white. Thoughts: The aesthetic beauty of the Villa Savoye is hard to appreciate as it looks like a box suspended in midair. However there is another beauty to embrace, namely functionalism and rationalism built using methods that made use of construction & technological advances of the time, all in order to improve the lives of its inhabitants. Works Cited 1: Architectural historian Reyner Banham 2: "The Villa Savoye: A Modern Master's Manifesto Realised." Untapped Paris. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.

Experiencing the house or the house experiencing the site.1st Floor/Pillotis: Upon entering the site, the house appears to be floating above the forested picturesque background supported by slender pilotis that seem to dissolve among the tree line. Thus a connection is made with the first floor and the site, elevating the building from the earth (allowing an extended continuity of the garden beneath) 2nd Floor ribbon windows View: Even after one makes it to the 2nd floor and is slowly moving away from the ground/nature, horizontal windows are used in the kitchen in such excess that one feels as if your cooking in the middle of the forest this is further felt because of the sunlight created by the floor to ceiling sliding doors. 3rd Floor Rooftop Garden: Even though we are on the top floor, Corbusier does not stop and feels he must make amends for the amount of displaced nature our building has caused.

PGA Prairie Hopper

The PGA Prairie Hopper is the source of inspiration for my pavilion. Like the Hopper i wanted to work with a rectangular almost hallway type of space. The point was that the rectangle itself

Architectural System/Pavilion

In this architectural system I dealt with sliding. The top center square and bottom center square (resembling puzzle pieces) between the two hallways of the pavilion can be slid into different places in order to change the physical makeup of the floors. The walls are sliding panels that can be slid in/out of the entire structure or just shifted to change the freedom of the structure(resembling a Chinese dojo). The two staircases can slide across their floor changing the point of circulation between both hallways of the pavilion or be slid and attached to its own floor to limit circulation to just that side, of the structure.