Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye: A Functionalist Masterpiece
Le Corbusier: A Pioneer of Modern Architecture
Le Corbusier is the architect that dominated the architecture of the 1920s in France. His work was based on the urban concepts of Garnier, the use of new industrial materials in machine technology, and engineering resources. He also took into account the new trends in industrial design. He was the chief representative of European functionalism, an architect of great impact because he provided comfortable and achievable solutions to the problems caused by the growth of European cities during the twentieth century. These solutions largely remain in place today. In architecture, he proposed the use of sharp, simple volumes, identifying with Cubism. He defined housing as “a machine for living,” which is evident in both his collective and individual buildings.
Villa Savoye: A Functionalist Icon
This house is a town held on the outskirts of Paris in the years 1929-1931. It represents a break with the old type of houses of this nature and exemplifies a typically functionalist villa, as it follows the five basic principles of this architecture formulated by Le Corbusier:
- First, it is raised on stilts for a better arrangement of space. The idea is to raise it on stilts, making the wall not an element of load, but a space closure (or opening).
- Second, the flat roof applies the principle of the patio.
- Third, the plant is free, and the use of that freedom with respect to the wall is given by the use of reinforced concrete.
- Fourth, the windows are longitudinal and are arranged along the entire facade.
- Fifth, the facade is free.
The house is a perfect prism, a square, with four equal sides. Besides all this, the volumes are clean, pure, and highlighted by the use of a single color: white. There is a careful study of the lighting and ventilation.
Materials and Design Philosophy
The materials used are concrete, glass, and wood. His conception of the building is a game of sharp bound volumes by light, because of which he uses the cube, cylinder, etc., being the great primary forms which show better light. In this design aesthetic, it now fits better that the building is lifted onto supports, highlighting it as an isolated volume of the earth, like a kind of big box. An enemy of the arbitrary, he used a rigid set of proportions, modeled on the human level, divided into portions given a repertoire of harmonious rectangles.
Interior and Critical Reception
With respect to the interior, noteworthy is the use of internal ramps to walk around the house, which is quite sterile and smooth, continuing onto the flat rooftops. For some critics, it is a purely urban model home, so that when being in the countryside, it is desolate and sad. They see it more as a “sculpture” to admire than as a habitable and welcoming building. For others, it is a role model, like something classic, due to the simplicity and purity of its forms.
Le Corbusier’s Legacy
Le Corbusier was also a great architect and painter, an eminent architectural theorist. He wrote several books, in which he exemplified his ideas through his own projects (in the classical manner, as Andrea Palladio did in his time, e.g., I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura). He had a very clear understanding that apart from knowing how to create good buildings, it was necessary to know how to explain and transmit them to other professionals and students. He served with great skill the task of publicizing his own work.
A Visionary Architect
As a visionary, Le Corbusier saw the possibility of changing the world through architecture. Although he never allied himself with a political group in particular, his position was closer to a liberal one (some have described him as a socialist, an adjective which probably is not enough to characterize his activities). As such, he saw the whole process of design for utopian purposes. This allowed him to contribute greatly to the meaning of architecture in general.