Product versus Process by ryan Mcloughlin

ARCHITECTURE AS PRODUCT

ARCHITECTURE AS PROCESS

RYAN MCLOUGHLIN DRU SUBMISSION

23 MARCH 2009

The Villa Savoye

On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time

The Villa Ottolenghi

Villa Ottolenghi: Carlo Scarpa

THE VILLA SAVOYE BY LE CORBUSIER

THE VILLA OTTOLENGHI BY CARLO SCARPA

STATEMENT

STATEMENT:

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE BUILDING AS A FINISHED PRODUCT WHICH STANDS AGAINST TIME AND THE ELEMENTS - STEADFAST AGAINST THE CHANGING OF THE SEASONS - A SYMBOL OF HEALTH AND PURITY

AN EXPLORATION IN TO BUILT WORK AS A DYNAMIC PROCESS OF AGE AND DECAY - CONSTANTLY BEING WORN DOWN BY USE AND THE ACTIONS OF NATURE

To explore the continuous one must explore the static; there is a beauty to it. The Villa Savoye stands as a marker in time. While the earth around it changes the villa stands seemingly unaffected by the elements. This is brought about through constant preservation. The outcome is like a diamond on an aging hand never losing its sparkle; both the wrinkled hand and the diamond become more beautiful as the contrast sets a context for each.

I think that humans have a taste for things that not only show that they have been through a process of evolution but which also show they are still a part of one. They are not dead yet. 3

THE ARCHITECT Le Corbusier (pseudonym of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) is a Swiss-French architect born in La Chaux de Fonds Switzerland in 1887 1 The early years of his architectural career 1914 - 1930 are recognized as his most innovative, the Maison Domino (1914-1915), his 5 points of Architecture and the Villa Savoye come from this period. He then went on to compile his architectural ideas in Vers une Architecture which was a selection of articles which he published in Le’Esprit Nouveau (1920-1923) 2 His affect on modern architecture has been one of revolution. He died in 1965 while bathing on the Mediterranean Sea, at the age of 77.

THE ARCHITECT Carlo Scarpa was born on June 2nd 1902, in Venice. His enthusiasm for drawing and creating led him to study at the in Venice at the Academy of fine arts. Enrolling first as an artist and painter he soon developed a passion that would see him studying Architecture. Scarpa was continually involved in new projects, including restoration, interiors and installations; unrealized designs were, however, far more numerous than actual buildings 4 Scarpa’s career as an Architect ended with his death on November 28th, 1978, at the age of 76, in which time he had established a reputation for being one of Italy’s greatest Architects. His notable works include his restoration of Castelvecchio in Verona, the Olivetti show room, the Brion Tomb (where he was buried) and the Villa Ottolenghi.

Dom-Ino Skeleton

Le Corbusier: Architect of the Century

Brion Tomb

flickr

SOCIAL CONTEXT

At the turn of the last century there was a fundamental shift in Architectural thought especially in Europe, where there was a new age of industrial evolution in architecture. This manifests itself with August Perret building the Rue Franklin Apartments in Paris. This concrete frame building liberated the organization of space by not needing load bearing masonry walls as support. It also set a new aesthetic by freeing the façade and which allowed much larger openings.

Living in the city of Venice had a major influence on Scarpa. Venice, being a canalled city, is surrounded by water. The Venetians are constantly made aware of its presence through frequent flooding. Scarpa was constantly surrounded by a city in an “accelerated state of decay” 10 . The erosive powers of the water which lapped against the building meant that they were in constant need of repair. As Richard Murphy notes:

The role of the craftsmen was to change as quick progress meant that traditional crafts were not at the cutting edge of the building industry.5 This is the age of the engineered aesthetic which rejected decoration, and allowed new freedom to the arrangement of space. “This age of enlightenment held innovation, honesty and equality in high regard”. 6 Looking to the automobile and cruise liners for inspiration the pioneers of this architecture sought out similar ways of building by using mass produced parts. Their efforts can be directly linked to a majority of today’s building techniques as standardized components and offsite assembly become more and more common place. A house will no longer be a formidable structure flaunting its age, a sign of wealth; it will be a tool just as the automobile is becoming a tool 7

Each building therefore displays a continual cycle of alternate layering and decay; façades represent a visual dialogue between man’s hand and nature’s response. 11 It was the need for Venice to constantly be repaired meant Scarpa received a lot of commissions for restoration work. Carlo Scarpa studied the work of Frank Lloyd Wright who has been noted for his “principles of tectonic truth” 12 . Frank Lloyd Wright at Fallingwater(1935) had used many techniques which were later employed by Scarpa – “grouping of the living areas around a unifying space” 13 being the most note worthy.

The historical events that preceded Le Corbusier’s “Period of invention” 8 provide us with the best clues to a better understanding of the origins of his style; for the chaos and disorder resulting in World War I made him “painfully aware of the need to create a new order based on a more stable world” 9

View from grounds

Pencil sketch

aerial view

pencil sketch

PHYSICAL CONTEXT

In 1928 Le Corbusier received the commission to design and build the Villa Savoye from Monsieur and Madam Savoye (part of the elite French Bourgeois).

At the height of Carlo Scarpa’s lengthy career the Ottolenghi Family, in 1974, commissioned him to build for them a villa on Lake Garda. The 7600sqm site which sloped down toward Lake Garda was “heavily covered by vines and a few Olive trees”. 15 Scarpa, intent on keeping the vines, placed the villa on the far corner of the site. Positioning the villa here meant that it turned its back on the access road which marked out the rear boundary. This left space in front of the villa from which he formed a south facing suntrap.

Situated on the outskirts of Paris in Poissy the Villa Savoye sits in the centre of a “slightly convex” 14 grass lawn. The lawn is bordered by mature trees which encircle the villa and provide a visual barrier between the villa and the outside world. The surrounding organic lines of the pine trees frame the sharp lines of the building. The approach to the villa is marked by the gate house. The gravel path then sweeps through a clearing in the dense trees and draws one up to the villa.

mass raised on pilotis

pencil sketch

sunk into earth

flickr

RELATIONSHIP TO THE GROUND

The curved plain of the grounds seem to sweep beneath the bulk of the villa. The first floor is held aloft on slender columns. Pilotis elevating the mass off the ground is the first point of Le Corbusier’s 5 points of Architecture which he formulated 2 years before the receiving the commission for the villa. Raising the villa off the ground frees the ground for vehicular movement and service spaces. 16 The slender columns, painted white, in contrast to the dark painted ground floor (which is deeply recessed from the building line) provides a visual separation between the stark white box of the first floor and the grounds.

Frances Dal Co writes of the Villa Ottolenghi that it is a “Formless growth emerging from the silhouette of the terrain” 18

It is no longer that of the old masonry architecture, which implies a certain optical relation to the ground. 17

The Building Regulations stipulated that the villa could only be of a single story. This limitation prompted Scarpa to locate the bedrooms in a volume below ground level. This act anchored the villa to the hillside. This decision to place accommodation below ground meant that Scarpa had to find a solution of how to naturally light and ventilate these rooms. He did so by making deep incisions in to the ground. He called these “callette” taken from the name Venetians have for their winding streets. These cuts in the landscape create an invisible rear elevation. A series of hidden stairs connected these calletta with the surface. Where the retaining wall was pulled away forming niches “concentrating the lighting affects that transformed the calletta into a curious and unique promenade” 19 . Through detailed studies of the exterior staircase Carlo Scarpa extensively explored the connection between the calletta, the ground level and the roof terrace “one of the freshest and most successful inventions of the entire construction”. 20 An ambiguous boundary between building and landscape exists, this is emphasized by the creeper which is allowed envelope the façade. Where the concrete meets the ground the grass grows up against it which gives the appearance of rock protruding from the earth.. The way Scarpa stitches building with context can be seen on many of his restoration projects where old and new sit seamlessly. A good example of this is at the Querini Stampalia Foundation, where Scarpa uses complementary materials and craft techniques but in a fresh modern way.

ground floor plan

flickr

ground floor plan

Villa Ottolenghi: Carlo Scarpa

PLAN

The second of Le Corbusier’s 5 points of Architecture is that of the free plan, achieved through the separation of the load-bearing columns from the walls which subdivide the space. Le Corbusier on one hand restrains the plan and creates an order by using a rigid grid of columns but these columns liberate the space between them by discarding the need for load bearing walls.

In the villa Scarpa uses 9 exaggeratedly large concrete columns (880mm diameter), as regulators for his spatial planning, from which the spaces between flow. The serving spaces to the rear are rectilinear and ordered whilst the social spaces at the front are liberated and seem organic - as Frances Dal Co notes: “He adopts a free plan dictated by the terrain” 22

INSIDE TO OUTSIDE

There are almost no studies of the Villa Ottolenghi in section. Carlo Scarpa predominantly explored the design in plan. There are numerous versions of these plans, which he worked and re worked. Scarpa’s distinct way of layering measured drawings with sketches at different scales meant he never had a complete set of drawings for this project.

Le Corbusier writes of the Villa Savoye: It is impossible to have good views when standing on the grass. Besides grass is unhealthy damp etc (…); consequently, the real garden of the dwelling shall not be on the ground but raised 3.5m above it 21 The horizontal ribbon windows, the fourth of Le Corbusier’s Le Corbusier’s 5 points of Architecture, frame the surrounding trees. Le Corbusier employs’ details previously specific to shop frontage, minimizing the threshold between outside and inside, paring away at visual elements which clutter the eye. On the first floor he plays on the theme of the juxtaposition of internal and external space. The Ribbon windows of the Living room continue unglazed to the hanging gardens and the living room’s sliding glass walls open freely on to the hanging gardens which are contained by boundary walls.

These drawings had a strong influence on the language of his architecture. He considered the whole and the detail in the same instant. The working and reworking over and over again, translated in to a designs which was slow to craft and behind schedule. INSIDE TO OUTSIDE The continuity of water in the villa contradicts the sharp separation between interior and exterior and reveals Scarpa’s intention to transform the living room into an extension of the garden- and vice versa 23 As the villa’s retaining walls bleed in to the landscape (and become over run by climbing plants) they appear to drawing the outside in. Where external walls entre the building, frameless, glazed areas highlight the seamless transition. As well as allowing the ground plain to flow up and on to the roof Scarpa brings the ground level up the (grass) steps under the entrance pavilion to the front door.

brilliant white render contrasts black handrail

flickr

concrete and dash render

Villa Ottolenghi: Carlo Scarpa

MATERIALITY

The surfaces of the new building were to be not only “white” but also unified, planar, smooth, and “flat,” 24

In the time after construction, buildings take on the qualities of the palace wherein they are sited, their colors and surface textures modified by and in turn modifying those of the surrounding landscape 26

There is a distinct visual unity to the villa. The exterior of the thin concrete shell is rendered and painted brilliant white. The vertical pilotis are painted white. The internal spaces are painted and tiled white save for a select few walls which are painted pastel shades. This white is accentuated by the painting the handrails, the window and door frames and other such element black. The white render, which Le Corbusier argues in his article When the Cathedrals were White 25 , sets the building in space, it has a location in the trees and an element in the landscape. The render forms part of the statement of intent by Le Corbusier, white is pure, the colour which represents virginity. A white wall can only be white as once it is marked or scuffed it is in disrepair and needs to be painted. And once it is painted it then looks as if it was never marked or scuffed. It is essentially a new skin covering up stains of the past. This constant restoration highlights the purity of the idea. It is like a white card model an expression of a concept.

Techniques employed by Scarpa when detailing the Villa show us his interests in a robust approach, contrasting the weighty concrete with the light steel frame which sits in it. Robust and almost course detailing of the concrete defines the Villas sense of weight, its immovable immortality, slowly worn down by the mechanics of nature. Timber shuttering has left its print on the course concrete exterior. Where the concrete is exposed a staining occurs in the cracks and joins from the build of organic deposits, this adds a depth to the material which is not present when the concrete is poured. Even the stucco dash exterior takes on a deeper texture. Scarpa employs contrasting textures highlighting external against the internal.

derelict after WW11

overgrown

flickr

Villa Ottolenghi: Carlo Scarpa

WEATHERING

The Fact of weathering as deterioration has often been associated with modern Architecture. The House the “machine for living” Le Corbusier emblem of a new spirit of equality between classes, was to be achieved through mass production and because of this was to be “Healthy (and morally so too) and beautiful in the same way working tools and instruments that accompany our existence are beautiful” 27 28

In Architecture of Happiness Alan De Botton writes: “nature’s way is to corrode, melt, soften, stain and chew on the works of man” 30

Buildings with thick masonry walls which, when exposed to the elements, are allowed and expected to weather and erode. The villa Savoy’s thin outer skin cannot weather in the same way, as there is little tolerance in its thickness for the erosive action of the weather. The white walls rely on the paint to provide a thin layer of protection, which when they become tarnished need repainting.

To visit the villa now, one would be confronted with a villa overrun with vegetation, the concrete is stained and the wood has aged and tarnished. This would heavily contrast that of the villa, when it was first built. It would have had a completely different character. The newly varnished wood against the stark grey concrete, the newly planted vegetation would not soften the unsightly junctions of the massive concrete retaining walls.

If the villa was allowed age, without constant maintenance or if it was allowed tarnish it would be instantly unsightly. The ideals Le Corbusier wanted for the building and its purity meant that it cannot be allowed show signs of patina through ageing.

This is the actual assimilation of an art work back to its location, the place wherein it was first taken 31

The materials, which the villa is constructed, are left exposed to the elements so that staining appears in the grain of the shuttered concrete as well as on the rough surface of the dashed walls.

During the war years the villa stood abandoned and it was a large undertaking to restore it to its former self. The Villa Savoy now stands as monument, it functions not as a villa but as a museum, people make pilgrimages to it to see its pure expression unaffected by time, a petrified existence. In words of Le Corbusier, about the Villa Savoye, a year before he died: This is a perfectly preserved building and will remain so. 29

initial sketch ideas

In Conclusion A handmade pencil is my THINKING MACHINE To conclude we need to examine my Object, the pencil. Like the Villa Savoy has been stripped down to its functional elements. It is slightly tapered with only a small clasp holding the lead, it is lightweight and balanced. More important than the form or the usefulness is the pencils relation to me the user, and creator. One could buy a clutch pencil and it would work just as well. Through the crafting of the pencil, and through its future use a bond will form. Maybe in 5 years time when the wood worn from use and it has been stained by the lead, I will reflect on the time it has travelled with me. It is involved in my process of aging as I am in its.

clutch pencil

handmade

Bibliography:

Notes:

Mohsen Mostafavi and David Leatherbarrow, On Weatheering: The Life of buildings in time, The MIT Press, Massachusetts, 1993

Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What happens after they’re built, Phoenix, London 1994 Francesco Dal Co, Villa Ottolenghi: Carlo Scarpa, The Monaclli Press, New York, 1998 Jacques Sbriglio, Le Corbusier: The Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier foundation, Paris 1999 Richard Murphy, Querini Stampalia Foundation, Phaidon Press, London 1993 Maria Antionietta Crippa, Carlo Scarpa: Theory Design Projects, The MIT Press, Massachusetts 1986 Pallamaa, Juhani. The Space of Time, Oz. V.20 1998 H.W. Janson. Le Corbusier: In Perspective, A Spectrum Book, New Jersey. 1975 Curiousa, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier, March 2009, viewed 22 March 2009.

Jacques Sbriglio, Le Corbusier: La Villa Savoy, Le Corbusier foundation, Paris 1999, p6 2 Curiousa, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier, March 2009, viewed 22 March 2009. 3

Brian Eno in Alan de Botton’s, Architecture of happiness, Penguin, London, 2006 Francesco Dal Co, Villa Ottolenghi: Carlo Scarpa , The Monaclli Press, New York 1998, p16

Maria Antionietta Crippa, Carlo Scarpa: Theory Design Projects (The MIT Press, Massachusetts 1986)

H.W. Janson. Le Corbusier: In Perspective, A Spectrum Book, New Jersey. 1975

Marcello Piacentini Le Corbusier in Perspective, A Spectrum Book, New Jersey. 1975 p26 8 M.Piacentini p27 9 J.Sbriglio 10

Richard Murphy, Querini Stampalia Foundation: Carlo Scarpa, Phaidon Press, London 1993, P8 11 R.Murphy p 8 12 Maria Antionietta Crippa, Carlo Scarpa: Theory Design Projects The MIT Press, Massachusetts 1986 p36 13 M.A.Crippa p 34 14 15

J.Sbriglio p26

F.D.Co p16

J.Sbriglio p63 Precisions sur un etat presente de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme, le Corbusier, republished by Cres, Paris, 1930, p58

F.D.Co p27 F.D.Co p28 20 F.D.Co p28 19

21 22

J.Sbriglio p88

F.D.Co p32 23 F.D.Co p32

24 25 26

M.Mostafavi and D.Leatherbarrow p76 Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals were White ,McGraw‐Hill Paperbacks

Mohsen Mostafavi and Dacvid Leatherbarrow, On weathering: The Life of buildings in time, MIT Press, Massachusetts, fourth printing 2005

M.Mostafavi and D.Leatherbarrow p17 Le Corbusier, Toward a new Architecture, New York, 1972, p13 29 Letter from Le Corbusier to M.Querrien dated 10 November 1964 28

30 31

Alan de Botton’s, Architecture of happiness, Penguin, London,2006 R.Murphy p 8