I first heard about Villa Savoye reading Alain de Botton's Architecture of Happiness; to my great shame, I have to admit my knowledge of architecture are fairly limited. Maybe that's why I respect architects so much.
By the time our class trip to Le desert de Retz was planned, I had completely forgotten what Villa Savoye standed for - I was convinced it must be some boring old-ass bourge building.
Then I remembered it was this beautiful modernist building with a tragic story; Le Corbusier imagined it as this extremely minimalist, functional, clean space.
The story says that the family who commissioned it couldn't live in it because the roof was leaking ; at the time, construction materials weren't developed to build flattop roofs and this was the first of its kind.
And, of course, I was among sculptors who were pretty smitten with it. Personally, I was quite confused by this living space that is not a living space. But I loved the details- the sinks, the armchairs...
It's pretty amazing to think how popular this kind of design is nowadays and pretty impossible to imagine how much of a shock it was back in 1929 when it was designed. Just think Victorian houses. Exactly.
I guess it's also less impressive for someone familiar with the aberrations of Corbusier-inspired architecture, like all the Romanian housing complexes I grew up in. It was quite eerie to see how much the kids' rooms looked like trashy Communist student dorms.
Now I regret not having taken more photos, but in the end it's such a well-documented building it seemed almost redundant.
There should be a shop update next week, I've been crazy busy with exams and school deadlines lately...
Really neat photos! Thanks for sharing. I will look into the Villa Savoye some more.
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