Villa Savoye Flashcards
(20 cards)
who is the architect
Le Corbusier
date
1928-31
location
Poissy (30 mins from Paris)
who was Le Corbusier (context)
-swiss-french architect, painter, urban planner (french citizen in 1930)
-pioneer of modern architecture and influential on urban planning
-wanted to provide better living conditions for crowded cities
-founded CIAM
what did Le Corbusier found
-founding member of the CIAM (congrès international d’Architecture)
key exterior desisign features (6)
-ribbon windows (echo industrial architecture and provide light)
-ground floor entrance is a curved glass wall (allows light into a place of shadow due to overhanging upper floor)
-pilotis (house raised on slender pilots, leaves ground floor free and open)
-flat roof garden and open terrace on first floor
-abstract sculptural design (geometric forms on exterior)
-pure white exterior
effect of pure white of exterior
association with newness, purity, simplicity and health
-later corbusier published ‘when cathedrals were white’
key interior features (5)
-curve on ground floor is based on the turning radius of the 1927 citroen (and incorporates and integral garage)
-dynamic transitions inbetween floors (spiral staircase leads to first floor, ramp leads to roof terrace)
-no historical ornamentation
-built in furniture
-subtle planes of colour
form summary
-not gtrand scale
-reinforced concrete slender pilotis support horizontals
-long ribbon windows in metal frame
-asymmetrical
-horizontally dominant
-sculptural effect created with reinforced concrete
effect of use of concrete
-concrete exploited for appearance and sculptural freedom
-strength allows for ribbon windows, curved glass and large salon window
function
-commissioned by wealthy patrons as a well equipped weekend retreat
-functions as a ‘machine for living’
-incorporates functional use of owners motor car garage and turninng circle
when did le Corbusier devise his 5 points of architecture
-devised 5 points of architecture in 1926
-viewed it as a universal system that could be applied to any architectural site
how does villa savoye embody le corbusiers 5 points of a new architecture
1.) pilotis that elevate bulk of building
2.)flat roof terrace integral to a healthy life (makes up for space building takes up in nature)
3.) free and open interior plan
4.)horizontal strips of ribbon windows (light, ventilation and views)
5.) freely designed facade
what did le corbusier say about the function of houses
believed houses should function as ‘a machine for living’
materials and methods
-renforced concrete pilotis (strength of concrete)
-rendered breeze block walls
-steel and concrete allows for strength and free plan
-glass walls
-glazing
influences
-international style
-bauhaus
-purism
-mondrain/ de stijl
influence of international style
-simplification of form
-rejection of ornament
-concrete, glass steel
-honest expression of structure
-industrialised mass-production techniques
-machine age
-logical design for support
bauhaus influence
-1919-1933, foundation of international style
-principles founded by german architect walter Walter gropills
-aims for function related to form
influnce seen in….
-maximised glazing (in ribbon windows)
-steel skeletal structure
-no heavy space definers, instead freestanding walls
-roof garden
influence of purism
-formed in 1918, movement that proposed a kind of painting in which objects are powerful forms stripped of detail (criticised fragmentation of the object and growing decorativeness of cubism)
-aimed to give industrial/ mechanic subject matter a classical quality
-co founded by le corbusier, theory set out in book ‘Apres le Cubisme’ in 1918
-reflected in white and openess
influence of mandarin/ de Stijl
-mondrains rational order in his framed grids (founded de stijl)
-reflected invilla savoyes geometric ground and interior plan, balance of verticled and horizontals, and cubistic quality
