9 - Five Points of Architecture
In 1926, two years before design started on the Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret published a manifesto/declaration entitled "Five points towards a new architecture." This is a short manifesto that "in no way relates[s] to aesthetic fantasies or a striving for fashionable effects, but concern architectural facts that imply an entirely new kind of building."17
Perhaps due to its brevity, the manifesto does not explain why these five points are important, or what relevance they have to works of architecture. However, Le Corbusier was a man to whom ideas were fundamental. It is therefore interesting to see some of the results of his thought processes, even if the underlying rationale is not made clear.
The five points can be summarised as 1) Supports; 2) Roof gardens; 3) Free design of the ground plan; 4) Horizontal windows; and 5) The free design of the façade. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Villa Savoye is a clear example of a building incorporating these five points.
By supports, Le Corbusier states the ground level of buildings should be raised 3 to 6 metres above existing grade, so that "the rooms are thereby removed from the dampness of the soil; [and]they have light and air."18 The main floor of Villa Savoye is set one level above grade. With the exception of bedrooms for the servants (who apparently are not covered by this manifesto), there are no primary rooms at grade level.
What this does is to literally and figuratively separate the house from the ground (fig. 9.08). It is an interesting contrast to other design philosophies that seek to merge the dwelling with the earth, and to incorporate the experience of a tactile terra firma in a design. However, the disassociating the house with the ground does allow the perception and experience of the house to be more cerebral . . . ie, it allows one to fully appreciate the Absolute harmonies to which the composition is attuned.
It is also interesting consider in this context Le Corbusier’s ideas of urban planning, particularly the Voisin project (fig. 9.11). Here are a series of free-standing towers set amongst landscaped fields. It is this same mental approach that is found in the siting of the Villa Savoye, although on a very much reduced scale.
The roof garden is obviously provided in Villa Savoye. Similar to the argument above, a roof garden, as opposed to a garden planted at grade, is mentally disassociated with the surrounding landscape. One can appreciate the verdant roof terrace, but the feel is distinctly different than a grade level garden.
The use of roofs for other purposes was not new to Modern architecture. Le Corbusier cites the famous example of the race track on the roof of the Fiat factory in Turin (fig. 9.04). This is a striking image of ‘new’ and ‘modern’ which was critically important to the modern movement. One suspects that it was not the object per se that was important, but rather the idea of breaking from a very structured 19th century past and its social conventions. I suspect that there is an element of this thinking in both this manifesto point, and in its realisation in the Villa Savoye.
The free design of the ground plan involves several ideas. First, there is the idea of an independent structural system that carries the floors separate from the walls. This was previously espoused by Le Corbusier in his Domino project (fig. 9.01). This allows walls and partitions to be merely screens, and to be positioned wherever desired. Secondly, there is the idea of bringing the landscape under the outline of the building.
Villa Savoye uses the independent structural system, but as previously noted, with the exception of certain visible public zones, the columns are placed to suit residential space planning requirements. The idea is still there, but the purity of concept has been compromised.
The idea of screen walls is also emphasized in Villa Savoye. The ground level has a screen wall (fig. 9.03, 9.07) that is obviously non-load bearing. This further mentally separates the house from the physical landscape. The landscaping also extends under the outline of the house, albeit in gravel. This gives the impression that the connection between the house and the landscaping is to be tightly and rigorously controlled. The randomness of nature is ‘controlled’ in its interaction with the house.
The use of horizontal windows at Villa Savoye is clear (figs. 9.12 and 9.13). This does several things. First, it emphasizes that the wall is non-structural, and that the building is held up a separate framing structure. Secondly, it offers and image of ‘new’ and ‘modern’ that further emphasizes the shift away from a previous epoch. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it offers a direct connection and association with the horizon, and as such becomes an element that mediates one’s perception of nature, ie, the natural surroundings and horizon are perceived and framed by the man-made structure.
The free design of the façade is a point that seems somewhat gratuitous. The idea of the non-structural aspects of the horizontal window are repeated. The free design of the façade in theory allows an easier application of regulating lines and so forth, but history abounds with many geometrically ordered buildings constructed of load-bearing masonry.