Sainte-Marie de la Tourette

The Monastery of Sainte -Marie de La Tourette in Éveux at Lyon was built in 1956-60 by the famous architect Le Corbusier (Charles -Edouard Jeanneret- Gris ).

The Convention

The Dominican Order was founded in 1215 as a preacher community. The convent of Éveux, School of the entire Dominican Order in France after the style of an old monastic colleges, was born after the war and was quartered in the castle -developed estate.

Architectural History

On March 14, 1953, the architect's contract for the construction of the " Couvent d' études " with the architect Le Corbusier was closed. Père Marie -Alain Couturier, the initiator of the " Sacred Art " movement in France, recommended to the Council for the implementation of this construction project Le Corbusier. Previously, he had already conveyed the order for the church of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp Le Corbusier. In December 1954 the first model was introduced to clients. The inauguration took place on 19 October 1960, the construction work but only completed on 1 June 1961. The monastery complex was designed as a closed convent, then in the late sixties was converted into an educational institution due to lack of young people.

The building was completed in October 1960 a total of 256.8 million francs ( the equivalent of about 3.08 million DM). La Tourette is available as a monument since 2006 under monument protection.

Location, topography and model

The monastery of the Dominicans was built on a valley sloping hillside terrain, which opens to the valley floor, near Éveux in Lyon. On July 28, 1953 Le Corbusier visited before starting the planning on the recommendation of Père Couturier Romanesque Cistercian monastery Thoronet, which due to its location on a sloping hillside and the associated differences in level of the cloister, the arcades and the church building a model for the newly created monastery La Tourette's was.

Distribution of the monastery

The lifelong fascination with Le Corbusier for monasteries and the monastic determines the design of the monastery. Le Corbusier ties with his design ideas to the intellectual foundations of religious art in France and draws on the tradition of the Middle Ages back, to develop new ideas of space for a contemporary architecture. The cornerstone of Gothic architecture in France in 1140 is influenced by the thoughts of Abbot Suger of the church Saint- Denis and Bernard of Clairvaux. Le Corbusier takes up the idea of the light imagery of the Abbot Suger of St. Denis, " by visibilia ad invisibilia ". Instead of existing in the Gothic Cathedral diaphanous Füllwände he developed the principle of ondulatoire, which corresponds to the vertical light strip of the vertical window structure of the Gothic window, the bottom wall zone. Bernard of Clairvaux does not look at the experience of light, but in the reduction to the existential - " by spiritualia ad invisibilia " - the most important prerequisite for the construction of a monastery. Le Corbusier, with its tendency to existentialist minimalism and purism takes up this thought-world, and in the first sketch of 4 May 1953, he recorded on these two thoughts to construction " la promenade toit jardin " and " la exterior ramp ". This late work of Le Corbusier is characterized by the variety of the motives of the movement, a rich visual language, and on the other hand, the sparseness of the material. The hermitage to reduce the urge all the existential minimum, conveys the experience of the absolute spirit, of the " fructus spiritualis ". The purism thinking Corbusier includes already in the early work of an ascetic attitude in all buildings. The Unité d' Habitation in Marseilles accordance with the model of the Charterhouse, a combination of community facilities and private apartment dar. What is announced in Marseille, which he experienced in his small studio and Cabanon at Cap Martin himself, is fulfilled in the monastery of La Tourette. Here it is possible Corbusier masterly to put his affinity with the monastic life in interior designs.

Disposition of the building

The building is set in the natural topography of the surrounding forest and meadows. Mighty piloti carry the building. The basic scheme of the four-wing complex forms a rectangle of 66.50 × 47.50 meters. The church building completes the main building to a four-winged building. Under the two room floors is the cross-shaped monastery complex with direct links to the church and the refectory. The in the courtyard of the four wings arranged in the form of a cross cloister leads to the church of plain poured concrete without any jewelry. Vertical and horizontal slits of light and " light cannons " expose from the apex of the Church in the service of the religious and guide the light in crypts with the altars for silent fairs. In the lower floor there are the study rooms, and including the refectories. With the terrain just the kitchens and utility rooms.

Interior layout and floor structure

The four-wing building was designed starting from the horizontal roof terrace towards the mountain three storeys, and five stories to the valley with different floor heights. Horizontal, the building is divided into five floor levels with different ceiling heights. From the natural sloping terrain, the freestanding pillars that support the building body of Klosters charge. The input level (so-called Level 3 in the plans ) is accessed via the gate located on the east side. On this floor, the monastery gate is with a visit to cells, the lounges of converse and students, the oratory, the library, three seminar rooms, recreation rooms of the Fathers and of the future priests and the church. The floor underneath the west wing contains the chapter house and the refectory with sideboard. The atrium with cloister is set in the courtyard of the four wings and connects the spaces together. In the nave is from east to west: the confessional, altar, choir stalls and on the west wall of the organ. To the south of the high altar to the longitudinal rectangular nave grown vestry and the nave on the north side lie the crypt with side altar. Among partly the same height as the terrain of the slope the named in the plans Level 4 and 5 with lounges, storage and cellar rooms, kitchen, heating and the two crypts with individual altars. Above the entrance level ( level 3), the two upper floors are cells ( levels 2 and 1), each with 50 residential units. Each wing of a projectile comprises 15 to 21 residential units with associated sanitary facilities. The cell space corresponds to a cave, only the workstation receives a smooth reflective wall. The vertical development of missiles carried by each center of the southern, eastern and northern wings arranged stairways with double-barreled podiums. According to the function room, the floor heights are staggered. The two cells projectiles have a ceiling height of 2.46 m, the floor height of the living cells is thus 2.26 meters. The basement level of the entrance floor with gate ( level 3) is 4.06 meters and the floor underneath ( level 4) is graded depending on slope gradient and function from 4.52 to 5.81 meters storey height.

Views and roofs

Access to the monastery is located on the east side. The portal in the dimensions of 2.26 x 2.26 meters is the starting point of the promenade Architecturale. The basement of the building heights vary according to their function. The nave is on one level and includes approximately with the roof of the other building from. Only the bell tower dominates the building. The walls were left in raw concrete, a few fillings are inserted know with lime. The southern, western and eastern façade is formed by the honeycomb of living cells and designed according to the principle of ondulatoire facades of common areas. In the cloister windows consist of large floor- to-ceiling glazed concrete frame. To ensure good ventilation vertical louvers are equipped with rotating metal windows. The leading to the living cells corridors are illuminated through horizontal slots under the blanket. The roofs of the monastery are covered with a layer of soil that provides insulation against moisture and to compensate for temperature fluctuations.

The development of the Promenade Architecturale

The Rule of St. Benedict organize the monastic life in the seven-time gathering of the community of monks in the church to pray the Psalms. The contents of the Psalms reflect the day and the seasons, place and time, event time, timelessness, liturgy, order this time as worship, and thus organized especially the need of a continuous way from cell to church, the joint collection and extract into the church, the dining room ( refectory ) and the meeting room of the Community ( chapter house ). In the Cistercian ideal plan (after Eberle ) the order of the rooms of the monastery itself becomes the image of the liturgy, the cloister as a procession room is the center of the plant. Assuming devises Le Corbusier with Iannis Xenakis various forms of promenade Architecturale. The architecture of La Tourette is determined by the " la promenade architectural " architecture as a space of movements of the liturgy. In the oldest plan a simple ramp in the middle of the cloister is set to merge later cloister and ramp to ramp a cross, which connects the wing of the Convention. The cloister has become a cross, to mark the center. The transition cross is important motion space of the monastery. Parallel to the cross connects a second ramp from the portal from the input directly to all floors and the roof garden. The entrance is 226 cm square starting point for all space dimensions. In the course of the road from the entrance to the classrooms, the aisle widths change. The course is divided into sections with different space widths of 296 cm, 183 and tapers until only a monk can go alone into a bottleneck with 113 cm width. The ramp to overcome distances and heights is an important element of this promenade Architecturale. The vertical steep staircases are in contrast to the course of the cloister.

The invention of the ondulatoire and Pan de verre

The ondulatoire adds up to a series of modular dimensions of the red and blue row, to which in their sequence to a parallelism of musical intervals, a musical feature assigns. The ondulatoire was used by Le Corbusier for the first time in Chandigarh on Parliament and developed by Xenakis in La Tourette to full maturity. The so-called Pan de Verre merges three spatial zones, base, Aughöhe and skylight; in each panel is realized the circles of the rose window, which is determined in the cathedrals light wall the upper space. Two light wall systems developed Le Corbusier himself after the solution of the Pan de Verre, which was first applied to all the walls of the Community, followed by the development of ondulatoire, which was used only on the exterior facades and causes a plastic appearance modeling of the wall. Two different light systems determine the space of the refectory in the morning and evening. The wall of the ondulatoire meets the Pan de Verre.

The Church

The church is a voluminous along rectangular cube of in situ concrete, " béton brut" and hereinbrechendem light. First was a huge sound reflector, which should transfer the singing of the monks into the valley planned. Later, a tower with a bell as a symbol of the sound and the name of La Tourette was ( the turrets ) initially planned with eight, later four bells, and recently performed with just one. The organ, initially forgotten by the monks, is included later in the planning of the church interior. The light and the dark determine the late work of Le Corbusier. The crypt as a space for the individual, solitary celebration of the monks was determined by the darkness. By means of the " Les Canons de Lumière " seems focused light through the ceiling into the sacristy.

The Building Construction

La Tourette was built as a reinforced concrete frame. All surfaces of the cells projectiles, the Pan de Verre and ondulatoire consist of prefabricated reinforced concrete elements. The windows are predominantly fixed glazing. Ventilation is provided by lockable doors with ventilation slots, so-called Aerateurs. The church walls are made of in-situ concrete, divided by the structure of the formwork panels. The flat roofs ( Toit Jardins ) are covered with a layer of earth and been left to the natural vegetation.