4. the Villa Savoye

4. the Villa Savoye.

“the Villa Savoye stands unique… its totally innovative architecture can be perceived as a flagship, a masterly, slightly surrealistic montage, uniting classicism and modernity in a tripartite composition”21 .

Widely commended as neither a country house nor luxury residence but a transformative ‘machine

for the living’ which sits perched on-top of a hill looking downwards to Paris. The house was born

and fashioned from Le Corbusier’s theoretical position discussed in ‘towards a new architecture’ which embodied 5 major principles of design,22 Figure 1 & 2.

1. Pilots, ground level columns to elevate the building above ground. (Black)

2. Functional roof. (Red)

3. Floor plan to be free of load-bearing walls. (Green)

4. Long horizontal windows. (Blue)

5. Freely designed facades, free of the constraints of load-bearing walls (Blue + Green)

The villa has been discussed exhaustively as possibly one of the most documented buildings to date,

many renown theorists such as Kenneth Frampton comment on Corbusier relationship between

classicism and modernism in which the Villa correlates. A likeness to the ‘Palladian villa’, in shape

and use of ramps but paradoxical- the ‘free façade’ comprised of concrete masonry is non-

loadbearing as a synonymous with vernacular architecture only to be plastered over to form uniform, uninterrupted planes and contain the ‘purity’ of spaces23. The building acts as a

promenade; shaping and morphing the viewer on a journey of atmospheric experience, winding up

each floor using stairs and ramps to crescendo in an open terrace looking over the landscape.

However, Le Corbusier would receive some of the most criticism of any architect over the past

century, the numerous technical problems caught up with him for many of clients to demand constant improvement to the unhabitable homes, just like the Villa Savoye24. The controversial

iconic status is undoubtable to continue just as it has for the past 100 years.

21 Jacques Sbriglio, “Le Corbusier: The Villa Savoye”, (Basel: Birkhauser, 2008) 6,7 22 (Corbusier 1986) 23 Kenneth Frampton, “Le Corbusier”, (London, Thames & Hudson, 2015) 77 - 79 24 (Calder 2021) 346