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Le Courbusier's Villa Savoye in Poissy-sur-Siene. (Courtesy A.F.L.C. A.D.A.G.P.) |
| Ville Savoye recently profited from a complete face-lift, which
makes its radical modernism even more apparent. by Laurie Attias Since its construction nearly 70 years ago, Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye has been a symbol of the International Style--at once the Swiss-born architect's most striking expression of his concept of houses as "machines for living" and one of the most original country homes ever built. Some liken it to a sugar cube perched on a perfectly square vanilla cake. "The Man of Perfect Proportions can be imagined inside it," historian Vincent Scully once said, "his outstretched limbs stretching its materials back to pure idea." Built in the northwestern Parisian suburb Poissy-sur-Seine for a wealthy industrialist and his wife, the house has long been open to the public. But despite its designation as a historic monument in the mid-1960s and several facade renovations, the interior of this luminous glass-and-concrete icon had become shabby and dilapidated. Fortunately, the Villa Savoye recently profited from a complete face-lift, which makes its radical Modernism even more apparent. Funded by France's culture ministry, the renovation took more than nine months. When the villa reopened last summer, the floors had been recovered, the walls repainted, the pavilion entrance remodeled; even the light switches, outlets, and door handles had been faithfully restored. This machine-age villa, constructed around a diagonal ramp, turns the genteel Palladian model on its head. An L-shaped series of rooms separated by glass walls sit entirely above ground on stilts. Those who make a pilgrimage to the newly pristine building will discover that, in strict accordance with the architect's dictums, the core of the immaculate, all-white house contains surprising touches of saturated color--walls of solid deep blue or green, a robin's-egg blue tile bathtub, grays in the bedroom, and pastels in the dining room--which visually expand the light-filled spaces. As you meander up the ramp, the transparent rooms merge with the rural scenery beyond. At the top, the house opens up into a roof garden, where the spaces seem to melt into the sky. |
Keywords:
Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, International Style
