Villa Dall' Ava _ An Analytical Review on Dutch Architecture by MennaTallah Hamdy

REM KOOLHAAS

Born on the 17th of November, 1944 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Koolhaas who now is considered to be one of the most renowned architects in the fields of architectural design and theoretical writings started his career as a screenwriter and journalist before changing his focus to architecture where he packed up and went to London to study architecture at “The Architectural Association” from 1968 to 1972 and at “The Cornell University” in Ithaca, New York from 1972 to 1975. In 1975, he co-founded “The Office for Metropolitan Architecture”, also known as “OMA” along with Elia and Zoe Zenghelts and Madelon Vriesendorp; his wife, with offices in Rotterdam and London. When he is not working on a project at the OMA, he is busy in its research-oriented counterpart AMO based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.In 2005, he co-founded Volume Magazine together with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Volume Magazine is a quarterly international magazine published in Amsterdam . Its goal was to act like an experimental think tank devoted to voice architecture and not only as a magazine but also as a school and studio. The71-year-old architect/ theorist has been causing trouble in the world of architecture since his student days in London in the early 1970s. He has remained a first-rate provocateur who, even in our conservative times, in our conventional time, still refuses to back down from his bold vision of architecture. His “China Central Television headquarters” building (opened in 2012), was described by some critics as a cynical work of propaganda and by others as a masterpiece. Earlier projects have alternately amazed and infuriated those who have followed his career. Some of his best known projects, Villa Dall’ Ava (Paris, France, 1991), Byzantium (Amsterdam, Netherlands 1995), CCTV HQ (Beijing, China, 2004–2009), Patio Villa (Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1988), Dutch House (Netherlands, 1995). Some of his written contributions are: “OMA” and “ S,M,L,XL” in which he displayed his concepts and projects. He also wrote “Delirious New York” and “The City in the CityBerlin: A Green Archipelago” in which he presents the first concepts and intellectual models for the shrinking city. It is interesting to know that a sketch that Koolhaas made in “Delirious New York” is the reason behind choosing him for the project “Villa Dall’ Ava”! [1] Koolhaas has earned a lot of rewards during his fruitful career, some of which are: Pritzker Prize (2000), Chevalier de Légion d'honneur (2001), Praemium Imperiale (2003), Royal Gold Medal (2004), Doctor honoris causa by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2007) and Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale of Architecture for lifetime achievement (2010). In 2008, Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. [2] 2

Introduction to the Project:

Villa Dall’ Ava is a clear example of what Rem Koolhaas perceives architecture to be: It is a controversial rework of some of the principles of the modern movement in architecture. The Boudet family had bought a 650 m2 garden in St. Cloud; a traditional neighborhood in Paris. The couple was interested in architecture and they were searching for an architect who could bring their vision to reality; that is when Rem Koolhaas came to mind. Koolhaas, at that time, had already published his masterpiece "Delirious New York" in which he had sketched a swimming pool. It is that sketch, for some reason, that made them decide to write to Koolhaas inviting him to take on their challenging project. Contradiction was evident from the start: the couple wanted the architect to abide by the urban rules that forced a small footprint, but they also wanted the house to be spacious, the wife wanted a swimming pool on the roof, the husband wanted a glass house, and they both wanted a masterpiece. They actually asked for their own updated Villa Savoye. In addition, the family wanted two separate apartments, one for the parents and the other for the daughter.[4] The Villa is situated on a hill which slopes steeply towards the Seine, the Bois De Boulogne and opens up to the city of Paris. It has an axial view of the Eiffel Tower from the pool. It is located in Saint Cloud neighborhood which is characterized by its 19th century traditional houses that are built in a classical “Monet” Landscape. Koolhaas’s vision was consciously pushing against its traditional neighborhood context of much older homes whether by its layout or the materials chosen for construction. Once the residents of St. Cloud knew what was going on, lawsuits were filed as they were used to this plot being a garden and they were not very forgiving about Koolhaas’s radical design. “The site is like like a big room with boundary made of greenery, garden walls and slopes.”[5] The site is composed of three main parts: A sloping garden, the main volume of the villa and the street level garage with access in a cavity. The main volume of the villa itself is divided into two parallel apartments; one for the parents and one for the daughter, that are connected by a main concrete structure upon which the rooftop pool rests. Each of the two apartments is shifted in an opposite direction opening it to the view. This shifting is an interesting technique by which the architect worked around the small footprint forced upon him by the Zoning Regulations. [6] The main concrete structure in the interior of the residence is responsible for the load carrying and distribution, thus allowing an optimum free use of the glass in the facade. The way of placing these concrete columns inside the house made it possible to have both a glass house; which is light and fragile, and a rooftop pool; which would weigh almost 300 tons. 4

Relathionship The 1st determinant of form is the relationship of the building to its surroundings. House foot print 1:1000 House as a Room

“The site is like a big room with boundary made of greenery, garden walls and slopes.”[7]

Plot extent 1:1000 Site as a Room La Defense

Seine River

Bois de Boulogne

Eiffel Tower

City as a Room Boundaries Radius of scale

Figure1: Relationship to plot and city

Villa dall’ Ava

Even though on a neighborhood scale, one might say that Villa Dall’ Ava is disregarding its traditional houses context, on a larger scale, the design and orientation of the house have taken into consideration the urban city context in which it exists. “Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”[8]

Eliel Saarinen on contextual design

Body And Space

Using Things That are There This project introduced a way of incorporating the house in its environment as the architect said while describing this project: â&#x20AC;&#x153;..The house as a frame to describe its environment. It is not an object.â&#x20AC;?[10] The challenging small footprint set by the zoning regulations was adapted as a basement while the sloping site was adapted in the design using a ramp as a means of vertical access from the basement to the public part of the house on the ground floor level. The area required for the two separate apartments was intelligently provided by cantilevering them over the site and using slim pilots as a means of fixation and equilibrium. The clients wanted a glass house which is characterized by openness while maintaining their privacy. The problem was that the already small plot was surrounded by neighboring houses. The garden, designed by Yves Brunier, and the expert use of sandblasted and green glass solved the problem of privacy where the clear glass was only used in the main parts of circulation and public spaces of the living area.

Figure4: An Axonometric of the residence

Materiality

Figure5: The house as a collage of materials

The bold use of construction and cladding materials throughout the villa make it look like a collage of industrial materials. The materials used can be generally described as rough, giving the building a sense of unfinished temporality. Also, the architect used this unique mix of materials to show and differentiate between different parts of the building. These materials are: - Concrete; the general building material. - Steel columns balancing the cantilevered apartment. - Corrugated aluminum lacquered with copper and aluminum as cladding. - Glass: clear, green and sandblasted; used expertly according to the type of privacy of the inner space.[11] 9

Proportional Language

Due to the small plot relative to the size of the house, the design is longitudinal/linear , which is emphasized by the placement of the ramp and its relationship to the set of columns in both the basement and ground floor level. This building's ratio of width to length is roughly 2:5 so the structure is about 4 times as long as it is wide for the first two floors. Then coming to the first floor, the shifted apartments are not of such an extreme proportion but a more relaxed proportion of 2:4 and there internal division; bedrooms and bathrooms, help make the proportions closer to normal. This was achievable thanks to the way the two apartments are hanging on pilotis over the site and shifted in two opposite directions, allowing not only relaxed proportions, but also opening up the view to the city. However the pool still maintained the extremity in proportions having a narrow design similar to that of the first two floor plans.[12]

Ramp

Support Columns

Visual field

Ground Floor plan 1:500

First floor plan 1:500

Circulation

Figure7 Basement Floor Plan 1:500 Garage Father’s Private Space

Ground Floor Plan 1:500

Two options to ascend the building: - Spiral Stair: Giving a sense of majesty. - Ramp: A more friendly way to go up.

Figure8

Living Area Completely open to the garden. Dining Area Kitchen

Main Entrance Hall

Figure9 First Floor Plan 1:500 Parents’ Room

Daughter’s Room

Rooftop Floor Plan 1:500 Rooftop Pool

Two separate apartments according to the clients’ requirements.

Pool Walkway

Figure10

Elevations

Figure11 Main Facade (East)

Figure12 Rear Garden Facade (West)

Plot extent 1:1000

Figure13 North Elevation

Figure14 South Elevation

Sections

Cross-section through East staircase Figure15

Cross-section through the ramp Figure16

Plot extent 1:1000 Cross-section through the daughterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s room Figure17

Cross-section through the parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; bedroom Figure18

Cross-section through the pool Figure19

Villa Dallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ava

Picture1: Rem Koolhaas, Architect of Villa Dallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ava

Villa Savoye

Picture2: Le Corbusier, Architect of Savoye

When seeing Villa Dall'Ava, your first impression will probably be that there is a resemblance between it and Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye. Here, Koolhaas tried to apply Le Corbusier's 5 Rules of Modern Architecture in his design; the Pilotis, the Roof Terrace, the Fenetre en Longueur (long strips of ribbon windows), the Free Facade and the Plan Libre (Free Plan), however giving these rules his own twist to represent his ideas and concept. In this part, we are discussing the means of resemblance and differences between the two buildings.

FROM SAVOYE TO DALL’ AVA

Source: Villa Savoye

Delete

Invert

Skew

Stretch

Hollow

Delete

Product: Villa Dall’ Ava

Figure20: From Savoye to Dall’ Ava

The started program was that the wife wanted a swimming pool on the roof, the husband wanted a glass house and they both wanted a masterpiece. In addition, the family needed two separate apartments, one for the parents and one for the daughter. [13]

"Even while sharing exactly their programme, the Villa dall'Ava seeks to antagonize its neighbors (and the classic Modernist design alternatives to 19thC villadom - Villa Savoye), reproducing, but at the same time parodying the comfortable, domestic middleclassness they represent." [14]

Multiply

I- The Pilotis and Structural Grid: In Savoye: Le Corbusier lifts the building on pilotis, not bearing walls, to create his famous “PlanLibre”. Their width is in beautiful proportional relation with their height, which is something that the architect was fond of. Also, he distorted the location of them to accommodate the required spatial layout. [15] In Dall'Ava: The daughter's apartment is cantilevered by these pilotis, only instead of proportions they are slim and not straight up but tilted at an angle. Similar grid distortion is found here to accommodate the dominant topography. Also, adding a dramatic feature to the main entrance of the villa along a curving path from the street, giving a false sense of boundary thus orienting the visitors to the door instead of wandering into the garden.

Figure21: Structural grid of Villa Savoye

Figure22: Structural grid of Villa Dall’Ava

II-Plan Libre: In Savoye: Le Corbusier believed using columns and slabs, instead of thick bearing walls, to create free spaces that are unrestrained in the internal usage. In Dall'Ava: Using such technique allowed to create such inviting spaces inside the house even though the relatively small footprint. It also, enabled him to build a heavy rooftop pool on top of a what looks like a glass pavilion, thus solving the contradiction in the clients’ request.

Picture3: Openness in spaces due to the use of columns

Picture4: Sense of openness despite the small footprint

III- Free Facade and Horizontal Windows: In Savoye: By separating the exterior of the building from its structural function, the facade becomes free allowing to open large openings in the facades. Horizontal windows are cut along the entire length of the wall to allow rooms to be equally lit. In Dall' Ava: The free facade resulted in that most parts of the facade is entirely glass with alternation between clear, green and sand blasted glass according to the degree of privacy of the space. Also, here the horizontal windows are actually utilized in a way to differentiate between the parents' and the daughter's apartments; Parents â&#x2020;&#x2019; Long horizontal, daughter â&#x2020;&#x2019; Rectangular screen, which can be seen in the northern elevation.

Picture5: Horizontal windows for equal lighting

Picture6: Free facade from the structural function

IV- Ramp and Spiral Stairs: In Savoye: The sequence of movement through the architecture begins at the door and rises upwards via the central ramp as the main route to access the upper level.

Picture7: Spiral stairs and ramp for vertical access

In Dall' Ava: The ramp is not just rising above the ground but actually tracking the slop of the site taking the visitor to the upper glass pavilion unraveling the landscape. This horizontal ascendance create moments of contraction and expansion similar to the opening and closing of the view in Savoye's ramp. Picture8: Spiral stairs and ramp for vertical access

V- The Rooftop: In Savoye: The roof is utilized as a roof garden. It is concluded with a designed architecture of concrete curves.

Picture9: Roof garden

In Dall'Ava: The pool is replacing the roof garden utilizing the panoramic view of the city. It is concluded with rudimentary plastic fencing that is the same as the one found on building construction sites.

Picture10: Rooftop pool

VI- Materials: In Savoye: Well finished white walls where everything looks finished and sophisticated. In Villa Dall Ava: Rudimentary rough materials are used all over the villa giving a sense of unfinished temporality.

Picture11: A subtle entrance

VII- Entrance: In both Villas, the entrance is not pronounced but remain subtle and further emphasize the larger significance of the composed masses within each building.

Picture12: A subtle entrance with pilotis as guidance

A Sense of Individuality

Looking at the plans of the house thoroughly with a critical eye, it is interesting to notice that there is no true central core to the residence. It would be more accurate to describe it as a series of personalized spaces at various levels. This seems to not only reflect the wishes of the clients but also reflect the breaking down of the traditional concept of families in general and the growth of the culture of the individual. The closest thing to a common public space is the area past the kitchen that is presumably for dining, watching television and entertaining, but not for sitting and socializing. there is not a home fire which is a constant presence in such places, also it is the area most widely opened to the garden and thus to the outside world so there is no true sense of sheltering the family life.

Picture13: A sequence of personalized spaces

Picture14: A sequence of personalized spaces

Picture15: A sequence of personalized spaces

Physical Model

End-Notes [1]

Copans, 2013.

[2]

Lyco, 2008.

[3]

Quirk, 2012.

[4]

OMA official site’s commentary on the project.

[5]

OMA official site’s commentary on the project.

[6]

Klingmann, A (2007) Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy. Mit Press. Citing some of Rem Koolhaas’s personal notes on the project.

[7]

OMA Official Website’s commentary on the project.

[8]

Quotes on Design, 2008.

[9]

Rem Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL (New York: Monacelli Prss, 1955) 179.Koolhaas' notes and reflections indicate his concerns about the visual effect.

[10] Trinidad, n.d. [11] OMA official site’s commentary on the project. [12] Morse, 4-5. [13] The clients’ requests as mentioned by Rem Koolhaas in his book S,M,L,XL. [14] Trinidad, n.d [15] Analysing Architecture,139. 20

Table of Figures

Table of Pictures Page 1

Rem Koolhaas, Architect of Villa Dallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ava

Le Corbusier, Architect of Villa Savoye

Openness in spaces due to the use of columns

Sense of openness despite the small footprint

Horizontal windows for equal lighting

Free facade from the structural function

Spiral stairs and ramp for vertical access

Roof garden

Rooftop pool

A subtle entrance

A subtle entrance with pilotis as guidance

1315

A sequence of personalized spaces

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