Villa Savoye

This blog post will discuss the Villa Savoye and the famous Le Corbusier and "the Five Points' of Architecture.

Villa Savoye is considered one of the most important houses of the 20thCentury. It is an influencial building in the development of International Style of Modernism and happens to be one of the only houses in France to be declared a national monument during its architectural lifetime.

Villa Savoye was designed by Swiss born French architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret known as Le Corbusier who is said to belong to the first generation of the so-called International school of architecture. Charles-Édouard Jeanneret moved from Switzerland to Paris where he gave himself the name of Le Corbusier for the start of his architectural career. Le Corbusier mainly built with steel and reinforced concrete and worked with elemental geometric forms.He made three major architectural discoveries during his career. One being, a number of times in different settings, he witnessed and absorbed the importance of the contrast between large collective spaces and individual compartmentalized spaces, an observation that formed the basis for his vision of residential buildings and later became vastly influential. The second being, classical proportion through Renaissance architecture; and thirdly, geometric forms and the use of landscape as an architectural tool.

Le Corbusier discovered “The Five Points” of architecture which is a list of elements to be incorporated in his designs. The Five Points being; pilotis (columns), flat roof terrace, open plan interior, ribbon windows and free façades. Le Corbusier followed these points as a checklist, so much so that the Villa Savoye is tailored to these five points.Le Corbusier envisioned prefabricated houses, for example, imitating the concept of assembly line manufacturing of cars.

Villa Savoye was designed as a weekend holiday home for clients, The Savoye family, Pierre and Eugénie. It was the last building in Le Corbusier's "white villas" series of private homes and was created in collaboration with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, who worked with Le Corbusier on a number of his most famous projects. This house has been said that it has single handedly transformed Le Corbusier’s career as well as the principles of the International Style; becoming one of the most important architectural precedents in the history.  During this time in Le Corbusier’s career, he became intrigued by the technology and design of steamships.  The simplistic, “streamlined result born out of innovative engineering techniques” and modular design had influenced Corbusier’s spatial planning and minimalistic aesthetic. The pilotis that support the decks, the ribbon windows that run alongside the hull, the ramps providing a moment of withdrawl from deck to deck; all of these aspects served as the foundation of the Five Points of Architecture and are found in the overall composition of Villa Savoye.

The house occupies a site in Poissy, a small community outside of Paris, in a field that was originally surrounded by woodland. The client's brief included few restrictions, giving Le Corbusier the freedom to design a house that expressed his Five Points of architecture – the key features he felt necessary for Modern architecture.

These include pilotis that lift the building up above the ground, a flat roof that could serve as a garden and terrace, open-plan interiors, ribbon windows for light and ventilation, and a free facade independent of the load-bearing structure.Villa Savoye is also a demonstration of Le Corbusier's belief in the home as a "machine for living in"which is a concept based on Le Corbusier’s admiration for well-built cars and trans-Atlantic steamships. He conveyed this through spatial planning, with spaces arranged to maximise efficiency, and a minimalistic aesthetic. A row of slender reinforced concrete columns supports the upper level, which is painted white. The lower level is set back and painted green to replicate the surrounding forest to create the perception of a floating object above.

The curved, sliding drive way at ground level matches the turning circle of automobiles of 1929. Cars like; the Chevrolet Convertible,Mercedes-Benz Gazelle and Ford Roadster.

This enabled the owner to drive underneath the larger volume and easily pull into the integrated garage. It is also a true recognition to Le Corbusier's interest in car design and manufacture. The lower level is dedicated to the maintenance and service programmes of the house, while the living spaces are located on the upper level. Strips of windows, which is known to be a common feature in Le Corbusier's work, are designed to open by sliding over each other and are placed in the middle of the facade on the upper level to bring in as much light as possible.

Villa Savoye is so famously known throughout its architectural life for development of the International Style of Modernsim and for Le Corbusier’s check list of ‘The Five Points’. However, if it was such a successful piece of architecture; why was it abandoned. The property was only inhabited for roughly ten years before The Savoye Family were forced to abandon the house because of the outbreak of World War Two. During the war, Villa Savoye was first used by the Germans as a hay storage and then by American Troops, which in a result, left the property heavily damaged. When the war was over, The Savoye Family were then left with a bill of roughly $80,000 in order to make the property habitable again after the war. Unfortunately, The Savoye Family decided against the renovation of the home but still retained ownership.

Over the years, Villa Savoye deteriorated and became vandalised. Covered in; graffiti, urine, and excrements, an unnatural state for a building to be in due to being abandoned. Then in 1985 work started on the refurbishment of the property with the restoration of several original features which was completed in 1997. Today, Villa Savoye is now open to the public to visit. It has been known to be referred to as the house that no one goes home to due to the property going from being a luxury holiday home, to a museum.