Villa Savoye
Thomas Joseph Biggins
Level 5 tb176@uni.brighton.ac.uk University of Brighton
BA (Hons) Architecture
History and Theory
Torsten Lange
18th April 2012
How did the Villa Savoye influence a new epoch for architecture?
Word count:
Labelled as one of Le Corbusier’s defining buildings, the Villa Savoye has had a profound impact on the modernist movement through out the twentieth century which became commonly known as international style. Designed with the help of his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and built between nineteen twenty-eight and nineteen thirty-one, the villa savoye was constructed on the underlying themes proposed in Le Corbusier’s thesis towards a new architecture; these underlying themes proposed in his formula labelled “The Five Points for a New Architecture” where, (1) pilotis (thin columns) that raised the building off the ground, (2) roof terrace, (3) free plan, (4) free façade, and (5) horizontal windows.” Le Corbusier’s reasoning for his principles seem to come from a variety of aspects unrelated to each other. He argued, “If a man does not move forward he becomes bankrupt.” Therefore promoting a need for a new epoch. However at the same time he upheld theories of the past when he says “Architecture is a thing of art, a phenomenon of the emotions, lying outside questions of construction and beyond them. The purpose of construction is to make things hold together; of architecture to move us.” His formulation of new principles seems to relate around the arousal of senses within an individual. His desire to create a new epoch was constantly underpinned by previous theories this one in particular with origins with Greece, Vitruvius, and the Renaissance period. Despite its contradictory nature, Le Corbusier uses the past to formulate his new epoch unlike other architects at that time.
Likewise, Le Corbusier argues “the house is a machine for living.” By continually using mechanical references, Le Corbusier is somewhat dictating how to use the
Level 5 tb176@uni.brighton.ac.uk University of Brighton
BA (Hons) Architecture
History and Theory
Torsten Lange
18th April 2012
How did the Villa Savoye influence a new epoch for architecture?
Word count:
Labelled as one of Le Corbusier’s defining buildings, the Villa Savoye has had a profound impact on the modernist movement through out the twentieth century which became commonly known as international style. Designed with the help of his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and built between nineteen twenty-eight and nineteen thirty-one, the villa savoye was constructed on the underlying themes proposed in Le Corbusier’s thesis towards a new architecture; these underlying themes proposed in his formula labelled “The Five Points for a New Architecture” where, (1) pilotis (thin columns) that raised the building off the ground, (2) roof terrace, (3) free plan, (4) free façade, and (5) horizontal windows.” Le Corbusier’s reasoning for his principles seem to come from a variety of aspects unrelated to each other. He argued, “If a man does not move forward he becomes bankrupt.” Therefore promoting a need for a new epoch. However at the same time he upheld theories of the past when he says “Architecture is a thing of art, a phenomenon of the emotions, lying outside questions of construction and beyond them. The purpose of construction is to make things hold together; of architecture to move us.” His formulation of new principles seems to relate around the arousal of senses within an individual. His desire to create a new epoch was constantly underpinned by previous theories this one in particular with origins with Greece, Vitruvius, and the Renaissance period. Despite its contradictory nature, Le Corbusier uses the past to formulate his new epoch unlike other architects at that time.
Likewise, Le Corbusier argues “the house is a machine for living.” By continually using mechanical references, Le Corbusier is somewhat dictating how to use the