Le Corbusier's Villa Savoy

Poissy, France
1928-1929
International Stlye Villa

When looking into a 20^th century building that has had some sort of influence on me; I immediately thought of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoy in Poissy, France. I studied this building in every one of my architecture classes. To me this building has a sort of simplicity about it that describes the International Style of the early to late 20^th century. To many the façade of Villa Savoy may be completely mundane; but to me it shows the beauty of Le Corbusier’s 5 point plan:

• Pilotis
• Ribbon Windows
• Free Facade
• Free Plan
• Rood Garden, or simply the usage of the roof in its entirety

A plan that was so new to the architectural scene at this time, that many thought it would fail. His usage of simplicity allowed many at the time to view architecture in a totally different way. Not focusing on the decorative style of architecture; Le Corbusier’s designs focused more on the house as a whole. Simple ribbon windows which give you no insight to the architectural make-up of the interior of the house. The usage of pilotis, giving it an almost light feeling to the Villa. International Style tended to base most of its outside ornamentation through its surroundings. I think that the Villa Savoy gives and receives from its surroundings. Allowing the difference in colors of the trees and grass to play with the almost pure white on the façade of the Villa.

I personally have always loved Le Corbusier’s work, from his art to his designs within the architectural world. To manage architecture into five key points at a time when there were so many elements to any architectural design, says a lot about the simplicity that he is trying to show from his designs. Le Corbusier’s way of going against the norm, and allowing the design to show through in every architectural element without trying to mask it with ornamentation is something that I think is very important to a great architect and a great design.

Opus

Source

Archetype:Prototype:Hybrid

Entourage

Hierarchy

Order

Source - any thing or place from which something comes, arises, or is obtained; origin.

In design source is used through any idea. When working with architecture source is something that is crucial to the development of a building. Architects and designers are constantly going back and forth to new ideas and old ideas. The foundation of ones work has come from another source, and that work from another. The source of one piece of architecture gives us insight to what designs and materials were used before. Pompeii is a good example of source because it became a city underground. Through looking at artifacts and its architecture that have been found, it allows us to really see the basis of their work and where the designs they used may have come from.

Many of our famous architectural designs have been linked back to those of Greek and Roman architecture. Even our day to day materials that we use to erect buildings, such as concrete, wood, marble; were used in the Greek and Roman architecture. Source is prominent in the buildings all around us.

It isn’t just something that we refer to it is an element in design that we use.

Archetype-the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.

Prototype-the original or model on which something is based or formed.

Hybrid-composed of elements originally drawn from different languages, as a word.

At least when I see these words I think of something that is original, of its own entirety, not to be relying on anything else. I think to relate these words to design, and architecture you have to look beyond the model, and look at the community as a whole. Almost as if you have to dissect each architectural design and look at it through the eyes of the designer or the community who designed it. Such as the Greeks; their design for their homes tended to have an equal spatial arrangement, which usually included a courtyard. (Blakemore 30) The archetype of this kind of building has set the standard of many different architectural styles today.

Prototype is something I learned while in high school learning about art and how to execute it in many different ways; digitally or through manual media. Through using digital art you had to sometimes come up with a prototype, or what I would say, a sketch of what your work would look like and that is what you would base the rest of your piece off of. The Greeks and Romans with their usage of spatial arrangements, materials they composed their buildings of and different interior aspects has been a prototype to our designs in architecture today.

To be hybrid you essentially have to be made up of the original elements. You can take that many different ways when dealing with design. I would relate it to the materials that were used by the Greeks and Romans that are still used today in our building types. Such as different kinds of marble and concrete. These materials set the standard to what we use today.

Entourage: a group of attendants or associates, as of a person of rank or importance.

Hierarchy: any system of persons or things ranked one above another.

These are obviously the people who make up the design. You can’t have an end result in architecture without a group of people working together on the same design. Using the entire empire was essential to completing the architecture needed for the city. Even those people that were needed within the homes and establishments after the architectural elements were finished, are still part of an entourage.

Entourage also has a lot to do with the way people would decorate their interior spaces. If rooms were of less importance within the home, then obviously there wouldn’t be as many decorative elements within that part of the house. I feel that the Romans were more focused on ranking being that they paid more attention to the façade of the building and how it looked to the area around it. Where the Greeks focused more on the way the building coincided with the area around it. I feel that entourage and hierarchy go hand in hand when looking at architecture from Greece and Rome. The way a home was ranked in wealth was the way it looked. It still is like that today, you can tell if a person is wealthy by looking at their home and the decorated interior. It was so important to stress the level of hierarchy back in the Hellenistic Age because there was such a distinction between those who were rich and those who weren’t. Architecture in that day and age helped prove the differences between people, and lifestyles.

Order: a condition in which each thing is properly disposed with reference to other things and to its purpose; methodical or harmonious arrangement.

Design is filled with order. Order in the way you can make a prototype for a certain project; all the way to as something as small as how you order pieces of artwork throughout a home.

To me order sets limits to ones design.

The Greeks and Romans really only had a few layouts to homes and other buildings, because they only knew one order; and only one way to construct these buildings.

To have order you have constraints, certain constraints that don’t allow you to produce what was your initial idea. Order, to me, is essentially what keeps us going back to the styles used in early architecture.

This weeks opus focused on the primary source; something that was original that we stem our ideas off of. In the design field people are constantly trying to stretch their mind to come up with newer and better ideas for architecture. But no matter how long people are trying to push forward, they will always have to look back at the main source of design, those elements that were first introduced by the Greeks and Romans; because without those architectural fundamentals still being used today, you loose the authenticity of the history within that design.

sketches and pitctures will be up by this weekend.