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Pills A collection designed and directed by Francesco Trovato Scientific Committee Francesco Cacciatore Fabrizio Foti Paolo Giardiello Marta Magagnini
ISBN 978-88-6242-347-2 First italian edition: November 2009 First english edition in Italian: February 2019 © 2019, LetteraVentidue Edizioni © 2019, Fabrizio Foti All rights reserved Any reproduction, even partially, is prohibited. It is the hope of the author and the publisher that, by having kept the cost of this book at its minimum, the readers shall be encouraged to purchase a copy of the book rather than spend an almost analogous sum in running photocopies. In addition, the collection’s pocket size format is an invitation to always carry with you something to read, as you move during the day. This is rather inconvenient if you think of a bunch of photocopies. Should any errors or omissions have been made regarding copyrights of the illustrations, we will be glad to correct them in the forthcoming reprint. Graphic design: Francesco Trovato Illustrations: Fabrizio Foti LetteraVentidue Edizioni S.r.l. Via Luigi Spagna 50 P 96100 Siracusa, Italy www.letteraventidue.com
Fabrizio Foti
The Landscape within the House A reflection on the relationship between landscape and architecture
To Livia
Contents 9 11 23 27 31 39 45 75 79
Author’s note on the new edition  Dwelling (in a place) is extraordinary Chinese boxes Landscape and architecture Architecture to gaze at The actions of the architecture-landscape dialogue Modern and contemporary experiences compared Conclusions Bibliography
Dwelling (in a place) is extraordinary
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“This is the key: to look ... To look / to observe / to see / to imagine / to invent / to create »1 . In 1936 the Brazilian Minister of Education and Public Health, Gustavo Capanema, invites Le Corbusier to partake as a consultant for the New Ministry Building Project in Rio. The idea of bringing in Le Corbusier originated in an adamant request by Lucio Costa, on behalf of the Committee of Architects in charge of the building project. Oscar Niemeyer makes part of this committee, amongst others. About the choice of the ground, Le Corbusier claims thus – speaking in third person: “The area had been poorly chosen; L-C is in search of another area. Upon leaving, the minister says: “Political reasons will prevent me from having this new land. What shall I do in this case?” L-C answered thus: “Cut the offices block in two or three vertical sections, then overlap them onto each other. The arrangement of the ground floor will remain the same. Use pink granite from Rio on the whole ground floor and the building’s master walls, etc...”. This it was done by the group of architects. One day the minister said to L-C:
1. Le Corbusier, Carnet T70, n.1038, August the 15th, 1963.
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On Le Corbusier’s project for the Brazilian Ministry of Health and Public Education (pen sketch, 2009)
“But your building’s orientation is unacceptable: one of the facades looks to the north!” (on the southern hemisphere, the North facade is exposed to the Sun.) - “It does not matter,” L-C, stated - “I’ll install sunblinds!” »2 The second lot, chosen by Le Corbusier, is right in front of the sea, in a position that allows to govern the targeted layout of building and interior spaces with extreme precision. The horizon of the sea and the profiles of the mountains are the essential sights of the city3. From the hypothesis on this lot chosen by Le Corbusier, he produces some sketches and perspective views alongside Niemeyer4. Both the views and the sketches show Le Corbusier’s main concern about focusing on the landscape-oriented views. Unfortunately, he had to fall back on the uneven terrain mentioned in the quote above. The program was thus distorted, thereby similarly impacting the strategy of orientation of the visual axes. In fact, despite the limits imposed by the position of the lot – and in an attempt to reconquer the sea view to the north, as well as the flexible geographical silhouette of the city with Pão de Açúcar hill to the south, Le Corbusier suggested the re-proposition of a solution he 2. Le Corbusier, My Work, The Architectural Press, Pennsylvania State University, 1960. 3. Please see images from: Le Corbusier - Oeuvre Complete , Volume 2, pp. 170-173. 4. Please see images from: Le Corbusier Oeuvre Complete, Volume 3 p.78-81.
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The landscape and architecture
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house is the instrument of physical mediation with the place and a “machine� for projection and representation of reality. The house expresses the will of celebration of reality, which becomes landscape through the architecture of the house.
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The actions of the architecturelandscape dialogue
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“The south wall was nevertheless pierced with a square aperture which opens up part of the view and provide shade and coolness. Suddenly the wall comes to an end and the spectacle is revealed: light, space, the lake and the mounains. The trick has been played!”1 Arranging a layout for observation: The location of an architectural object involves multiple implications. Layout, orientation, specification of the axes and the wings, the site’s morphological characteristics, the desired and undesired effects of the sun, water and wind; the scenarios for which the site is characterized. With regard to this latter implication, architecture is organized and arranged to produce targeted visuals. “The Parthenon appears (because it is outside the axis!) ... and the Propylaea let us see on one side the whole panorama of the sea and the Peloponnese”2. Delimiting in order to isolate: Physical delimitation, in addition to responding to the primary requirement of protecting from the outside – as expected of a shelter – corresponds to the will to close the horizons. Closing the horizons is necessary in order not to disperse the gaze, and to contain the views within precise and targeted frames. 1. Le Corbusier, Une petite maison, Birkhäuser Publishers for Architecture, Basel-Boston-Berlin, 2001. 2. See pictures and quote in: Le Corbusier, My Work, op. cit.
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Choisy L. C., views from the Acropolis onto the horizons of Attica (pencil sketch, 2012)
Isolating to capture: Closing horizons, in order to stay within several significant openings, corresponds to the action appropriating the landscape’s characteristic image. Arranging openings conscious forms and dimensions is not just a design-related requirement that responds solely to lighting and healthiness requirements, nor project design composition. Instead, opening means establishing a mediation between inside and outside. In this vein, the project responds a will of search for the contents of the outside-inside dialogue. Capturing to Celebrate: Appropriation of the evocative and characteristic image triggers the dialogue between the observer and the object of his gaze (an empathic reaction of the observer in front of the image). This means vesting internal spatiality with meaning. The project finds its theme through this conquest of the landscape, and so does the work find its Raison d’être. Establishing a mutual relationship for re-signification: This interrelationship between landscape and observer through architecture, renders the latter a tool to create dialogues, in the same way as a theater or a film making machine do, or a TV screen and a lens. Architecture becomes the creator of scenarios and images. Through this series of actions akin to the man-architecture-landscape relationship, the project transcends from mere functional reasons and contingencies and
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Modern and contemporary experiences compared
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Villa Savoye and Petite Maison: from “machine to live in” to “machine to look at” We arrive at the entrance of the Villa Savoye in Poissy. We enter from the south side, in the garden, after a quick glance towards the caretaker and gardener’s house. In order to get to the villa, it is necessary to go on an unpaved pathway, and a small grove lets the viewer gradually discover the Villa’s white volume. The access main is located on the opposite side, looking to the north, so it is necessary to go around the house. This semicircular path allows us to observe the house in a centrifugal movement – and to understand with our look its artistic dynamics in space-time. Not only that: we realize that the green quadrilateral shape of the property is completely surrounded by arboreal wings which become very high over the years, thus protecting the house from unwanted external contacts. “The plan is tried out on the site and fits it like a glove”1, the lot resembles a “green house” wherein another home is inserted, like a Chinese box. This enclosure contains the house, and the look of the dweller, within a dimension that is intimately domestic and introspective. How does one go about looking at the world beyond these walls of nature? 1. Le Corbusier, Une petite maison, op. cit., p. 4.
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Upon arriving at the main entrance, we realize that an unusual daylight window opens in the protective wall of the solarium, on the crowning of the home
Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye in Poissy (pencil sketch, 2009)
Intrigued by this enigmatic episode, we enter by passing the pilotis colonnade and the iron entrance door. The promenade inside the house – facing the entrance – runs through the house and leads us into the living room, the patio in front of the living room, and finally onto the roof. Once reaching the roof, we find the strange opening we saw previously. Through this spiral path that has taken us from the entrance to the property,
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through the lot and the house up to the roof-garden, we finally realize the meaning of all this. And here is where the “temple-machine” – a purist manifesto of modern living – reveals another one of its reasons: the promenade architecturale. This route allows us to perceive the succession of landscapes, interior and exterior spaces and shapes under the light, and the crowning of the villa, all as we move. The tour also includes the still life of objetstype made into architecture, and make up a composition thought of for the conquest of the landscape and the vast horizons. As we reach the roof garden – a solarium that covers the living room, we discover that beyond the limits there opens a frame onto the landscape. This view allows us to look above the green curtain that surrounds the villa; this is most certainly a theme that establishes otherness – a reason that goes above and beyond the very program, thus freeing the project from mere function. The theme is analogous to a previous design experience authored Le Corbusier: the Petite Maison on lake Léman, made for Le Corbiser’s parents, wherein “an unparalleled view, wich cannot be spoilt by building, of one of the finest horizons in the world”2. This is yet another instance wherein Le Corbusier closes the horizons, revealing them in strategic points through limit breaks. 2. Ibidem, p. 4.
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