Tutorial: Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye; Garden Terrace Circulation/Teaching Modern Architecture
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- čas přidán 14. 07. 2024
- ►An educational design tutorial and spatial analysis of Villa Savoye's garden terrace ("roof garden"), designed by Le Corbusier in Poissy, France (1929-1931). The tutorial analyzes how Le Corbusier manages the garden terrace's spatial experience with two garden boxes and a small "altar" table to create an integrated, dynamic mix of both circulation and occupiable space. The architecture's garden terrace (or, "roof garden") is an excellent example of managing spatial experience and building spatial suspense by making subtle decisions with architectural elements.
The tutorial is intended to teach architecture university students fundamental lessons about managing spatial experience and architectural circulation, suggesting methodologies for analyzing, dissecting and understanding space; its lessons are intended to be "actionable," meaning that the general design principles can be learned, extracted and applied to other architectural design projects.
The tutorial teaches a general rule about an architect's use of "guidance": typically, instead of providing the visitor with total freedom, or no freedom at all, the architect should aim to gently "guide" the visitor with subtle hints, subtle clues, and subtle suggestions about both function and experience. The teaching also references a method for drawing projection lines from an existing space's architectural elements to understand how it is working spatially.
Villa Savoye is considered a masterpiece of modern architecture, and the definitive statement of Le Corbusier's "Five Points of Architecture" (pilotis, roof garden, free plan, free facade, ribbon window) and his manifesto to modernism, "Towards An Architecture" (also known as "Towards A New Architecture"). Villa Savoye also features Le Corbusier's most definitive example of his "architectural promenade," a dynamic circulation experience and excellent precedent for an architecture of "motion."
►For design tutouring, architectural writing, and essay help, feel free to contact me: teachingmodernarchitecture@gmail.com
![The Free Plans of Le Corbusier's Architecture [Villa Savoye]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JBRmGUbUj3Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Nice job! I love Savoy
Very interesting! This helped me studying for my exam, thanks!
Thank you for your feedback! Glad you enjoyed!
Great explanation! Thanks 👍🏼🇵🇦
Thanks, brother!
Keep these coming. I'm really enjoying getting to learn about Villa Savoye, and can think back to being in a room and thinking "how do I orient myself", but it's not something I think of when I'm there. Great video!
Cheers, brother! Glad you are enjoying them!
I'm impressed by what I've gained from just three of your videos so far, and I noticed the 11:11, 06:06 and 10:10 in your videos hehe, which prove the efforts that you've put into making these, I really appreciate that, thank you so much sir, hope you keep doing more videos.
Thanks a lot for saying this. I appreciate the kind comment.
@@teachingmodernarchitecture8587 do you think there is a connection between maths and art?
@@hicrhodushicsalta4382 What kind of connection, brother? As in something like the golden ratio, whereby a specific mathematical ratio is cohesive with our brains in some way, and thus it is extra pleasurable for humans to experience?
Your video is very interesting .
I love your videos please continue on making them. They really helped me appreciate Le Corbusier in a different light
Thanks very much for your comment. I'm sure I'll post something new eventually.
Thank you for this :)
No problem. Glad you enjoyed.
Thanks for the class, I love this building ^^
No problem, brother. Glad you enjoyed!
i like this guy
Thanks, jony. I appreciate the love. Have a good one!
Another great analysis! Does the space below the ramp of the first level have any purpose? :D
Thanks, Michael!
Thanks for your question. It gave me something to think about yesterday while I was driving up to my parents' place for Christmas. I like being challenged on things like this because it allows me to be sure that my reasoning is strong, and it also makes me think of new possibilities for videos that I hadn't thought of.
(My response is going to assume that you mean the space around the small table that I focused on in the previous video. I think that is the area that you mean.)
For the space around the small table in the vestibule: although that space is not loaded with functional purpose or utility, the entry area provides an excellent experiential setup for the circulation on the ramp. Part of the reason that circulating on the ramp is so experientially rewarding is that Le Corbusier "sets up" that experiential moment very effectively. He has built your anticipation in the moments beforehand, allowing you to see that *something* interesting is going to happen. But, importantly, you also can't see *all* of the ramp experience, because the ramp bends 180 degrees. Standing near the small table, you know something exciting/interesting is going to happen on the ramp, but you don't necessarily understand everything about it yet. (You can look up the concept of the "sublime" for more discussion about this concept.)
To explain what I mean by "set up," I will explain it through a film metaphor. You can think of the small table space as "character development" for the "climactic scene" of walking on the ramp. I don't know if you have seen the films of Alfred Hitchcock, but for example, in "The Birds," he spends most of the first hour of the movie simply introducing the characters and making the audience care about them. Then, when the characters are attacked by the birds in the second hour, the viewer *cares* due to the first hour's character development. The viewer is more engaged in the climactic moments of the action because they are invested in them from the first hour. If the character development didn't exist, the climactic moments wouldn't be nearly as engaging--it would just be a bunch of strangers being attacked by birds. Who cares?
Another analogy could be doing an eight-hour hike to the top of a mountain, to enjoy its incredible view. Hypothetically, you could take a helicopter to the view and see it that way, and skip all of the hard work. But, it is much much more satisfying to do the hike yourself, to suffer to get to the top, to do the hard work, and *then* experience the view as the reward after you have invested so much energy into it.
That is a purpose of the small table space.
(It seemed like you had some uncertainty about my use of the word "wasted", judging from the comment you deleted. Was it clear what I meant by that?)
Cheers, brother. Thanks for your question!
@@teachingmodernarchitecture8587
Happy Holidays!
I hope you had a wonderful time at your parents' house!
Thank you for your response. But at 2:44 of this video, there is some space underneath the ramp and I was wondering if Le Corbusier had given that space some purpose in his plans.
I do have a clearer understanding of the small table by the vestibule because of your further explanation. Very profound.
And regarding the garden terrace, I actually did think the plant boxes and table were placed arbitrarily. But obviously, I was wrong because the architect had an intense understanding for planning and details. And you have explained that to us in such a short period of time.
There also seems to be a wash basin in the first level. The Spanish Flu must've influenced this feature in the house. (but I'm just guessing)
But really, I am grateful for your enthusiasm in answering our questions in the comment section. More power to you! And I am sure this channel will grow this coming 2021. Lastly, we haven't gotten your name yet :D
Cheers, sir! Merry Christmas!
@@mikebuhayTV
Oh! Okay -- take a look at this photograph: www.flickr.com/photos/world3/15794464387/
You can see that the rectilinear void in the perspectival section is the black door closet space in the photo. That seems like storage space.
The triangular void… check out this photo and the tiny fleck of triangle on the left: www.flickr.com/photos/33750036@N05/18808293961/sizes/l/
It looks like he is using that triangle below the ramp as tuck-in storage. Wow, thanks for asking! Up until this point, I had never actually seen a photograph of the garage from that angle. Neat. I love this kind of sleuth work, ha.
The best garage photograph that I had seen over the years had been this one:
www.flickr.com/photos/pierremm/6941770919/in/album-72157629117900292/
That fellow's Flickr set, www.flickr.com/photos/pierremm/albums/72157629117900292 , is a nice one for seeing a few angles that are rarely seen. I have consulted it a few times over the years.
Regarding the sink: I included some discussion about the wash basin in my Promenade video, but then I edited it out because I felt it hurt the flow. I have read numerous times about the sink being another conceptual reference to the church/temple, ie. the wash basin that you use when entering a church to purify yourself, or an ablution before entering a mosque.
Colin Rowe:
"As we further enter the vestibule of this temple and house, just how are we intended to interpret the so prominently displayed lavabo or sink? Scarcely as a functional accessory. For any details which one might associate with the act of washing (towels and soap) are conspicuously absent and would surely damage the pristine impact of this very obsessive little statement. Is it then a place of ritual purification, the equivalent of a holy water stoop? Personally, I think it is; and, though we have scarcely arrived within the house, an item so poetically obtrusive as this one could usefully prompt a little digression."
Le Corbusier seems to make a similar church-like reference with the table in the garden terrace. I edited this note out of my last video, also. Flora Samuel referred to the terrace table as an "altar" to domestic space. If you look at that table closely, you'll notice that the table is bizarrely low in height.
I also noticed a few weeks ago that they have painted the gardener's shed entirely green. (What the heck are the restoration crews doing?)
Cheers, brother!
@@teachingmodernarchitecture8587
WOW! I knew the spaces below the ramp weren't wasted! Seeing the photos made me go "AHA!" It is incredibly clever i must say.
Thank you too for sharing the flickr album, I have looked at all of them now and have seen angles that i haven't seen before. I hope one day I'll be able to go there and other incredible architecture around the world.
Cheers! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Strain -- I mean new Year :D
@@mikebuhayTV Right on, brother! Glad you liked the photos. Talk to you soon! Happy New Year to you, also! :)
Hello, good sir! Hope you're doing well. Are we going to see your new uploads soon? :)
Thanks for returning! I'll see what I can do; I imagine I will do something new eventually. I've been thinking about doing a quick video on why modern architecture is easily the most important and useful architecture to learn. I've also been really interested in studying Venturi's Mother's House for a long time, but have never gotten around to it. Is there any chance you live in Vancouver? I've been thinking of starting a small "architecture school" here with a few students for fun.
@@teachingmodernarchitecture8587 that sounds so much fun! however, I do not live in BC. But I do dream to learn as much as I can about architecture, from concept to actual building that can be meaningful to a place and its people. I know I am still young and I hope I do not lose this dream.
I deeply appreciate your invite. Bless you