Introduction to History of Contemporary Architecture
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Le Corbusier Ville Savoye, Poissy (1928-31) - (Federico Bucci)
30 km east from Paris, following the course of the Seine towards the Atlantic, on the edge of the
forest of Saint-Germain, is the municipality of Poissy that, from the early 20th century, became an
important centre of the French automotive industry. Here, from 1928 to 1931, amid a large green land,
the young Le Corbusier (who was at that time just over 30 years old) designed and realized a country
house for Pierre Savoye, director of an insurance company, and his wife Eugénie, who would later be
highly disapproving to the architect, blaming him for the construction defects and, above all, for the
higher-than-anticipated costs. However, masterpieces are priceless and Mr and Mrs Savoye went down
in history as those who commissioned this small and extraordinary architectural work, eloquent
expression of an avant-garde idea. The building measures 21.5 metres in length, 19 in width and 9.4 in
height. Its external look, to be considered in close relationship with nature, is that of a white
parallelepiped cut lengthways by strip windows and suspended between a roof garden and a series of
thin, cylindrical, reinforced concrete pillars known as pilotis. The house is arranged on three levels,
served by a staircase and a ramp, the elements, in other words, of that “promenade architecturale”
onto which Le Corbusier based the design of the interior spaces. In summary, at the ground floor is the
garage for the cars; at the first floor there are a living room (facing onto a large terrace), bedrooms
and bathrooms; while from the terrace, through the external part of the ramp, one has access to the
roof garden, dominated by a large window framing the landscape. However, in order to fully grasp the
striking beauty of this icon of Modernism, let the architect speak about the “house under construction
in Poissy”, as he did during the conference The Plan of the Modern House held in Buenos Aires on Friday
11th October 1929. “The site: a great lawn, slightly convex. The main view is to the north, therefore
away from the path of the sun; what would normally be the front of the house will therefore be inverted.
The house is a box in the air, cut all around, without interruption, by a horizontal window. No more
hesitations about making architectural play with the solid and hollow parts of a building. The box is set
amid meadows, dominating the surrounding greenery. The driveway passes between the pilotis and ends
beneath the box, sweeping around a curved volume under the pilotis which encapsulates the entrance
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to the house, entrance hall, garage and service areas (laundry and ironing rooms and servants’ quarters).
Automobiles turn beneath the house, stopping where they please. From within the entrance hall, a very
gentle ramp leads, almost without one noticing, to the first floor, where the inhabitants go about their
lives: reception room, bedrooms, etc. Receiving views and light from the box’s regular perimeter, the
various rooms are collected and centered around a hanging garden which serves to distribute adequate
light and sunshine. And it is onto this hanging garden that the sliding glass walls of the living room and
many rooms of the house open in absolute freedom: thus, the sun shines everywhere, from the very
heart of the house. From the hanging garden, the ramp, now in the open air, continues up to the roof,
towards the solarium. The latter, moreover, is connected by three flights of a spiral staircase to the
cellar, excavated from the ground beneath the pilotis. This spiral, a pure vertical organ, fits freely into
the horizontal composition. To conclude, look at the section: air circulates everywhere and light reaches
every point, penetrating throughout. A walk through the house gives architectural impressions of a
diversity that disconcerts any visitor unacquainted with the architectural freedoms offered by modern
techniques. The simple pillars of the ground floor are placed in such a way as to cut into the landscape
with a regularity whose effect is to do away with the very notions of a ‘front’, ‘back’ or ‘side’ of the
house. The plan is pure, created to meet highly specific needs. It is at home in the rural landscape of
Poissy”. But, as Le Corbusier concluded, “it would also look magnificent in Biarritz”. Villa Savoye,
masterpiece of modern architecture and manifesto of Le Corbusier’s theories on dwelling, after years
of abandonment and a long restauration process, is now listed among the French “historic monuments”.
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