Villa Savoye

The Villa Savoye, sometimes also called Villa les Heures Claires, was designed by Le Corbusier and built from 1928 to 1931 in Poissy northwest of Paris.

Architecture

The villa is situated high on a large plot, in a large meadow surrounded by deciduous trees. A circumferential row slender columns supporting the upper floor, the facade is divided by a continuous horizontal band of windows. The ground floor is far behind the supports retracted, the resulting covered open space serves as a driveway and access to the ground floor integral garages. In addition to the garages on the ground floor of the entrance with the porch and the servants' rooms.

The entrance leads inside a gently rising ramp ( architectural promenade ) to the first floor to the living quarters. This open over sliding glass walls to a patio garden. From the terrace you enter via the now in outer space continued ramp to the roof of the solarium, a sun terrace, whose curved screen protects against wind and enriches with its curve the design of the villa.

The Villa Savoye is the consistent implementation of the formal language of Le Corbusier from his " five points for a new architecture ": the house on stilts ( piloti ), the roof garden, free plan, the long windows ( band) and the free facade.

Next to the Villa Tugendhat, Fallingwater and the Schminke House, Villa Savoye is one of the most important representatives of houses of modernity.

History of the building

Le Corbusier's buildings achieved from the beginning a lot of attention and recognition as an impressive document of modernity. The client had to say, however, that the flat roof before long had numerous leaks. The house was practically unusable because of structural damage. Le Corbusier soothed and promised a repair. But since he did nothing, it eventually came to be that the family Savoye threatened to file a lawsuit against him. However, because of the outbreak of the Second World War and the flight of Pierre and Eugénie Savoye, there was not a method.

1940-45 the house was first used by the German occupying power, after that the Americans and was further damaged. Finally, the uninhabited villa was only used as an agricultural store. 1958 expropriated the city of Poissy family Savoye to build on the site of a school building. The villa was scheduled for demolition. But Thereupon rose massive protests that led to the intervention of the French Minister of Culture André Malraux. In 1962 the state took over the building and led by 1963 first renovation measures. In 1965, the Villa Monument historique, the actual renovation lasted from 1985 until 1997. 's Villa Savoye is currently open year round to visitors.