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Analysis of Villa Savoye

By Dalton Webb
















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The Villa Savoye was built in 1931 near the town of Poissy, France.
1
The architect that
designed Villa Savoye was none other than Le Corbusier. It is built in the International style and
is set on top of a hillside. This house was built for the Savoye couple, who wanted a vacation
house in the countryside that was not far from Paris. The house consists of a living room, master
bedroom, two small guest rooms, kitchen, pantry and a servants quarters.
2
Those things are
just the labeling of rooms though. Le Corbusier used his 5 points of a New Architecture to create
the layout of the entire building. These 5 things are: (1) pilotis that elevate the mass off of the
ground, (2) an open floor plan, (3) free faade, (4) long horizontal windows and (5) the roof
garden.
3

In order to gain access into Villa Savoye you first have to be let into the property. The
caretakers house was made in the same spirit of the Villa Savoye. It is elevated off of the ground
with pilotis and has a set of horizontal sliding windows that face toward the entrance of the
property. After driving through the gate you will go through some woods and then you will enter
a clearing. As you drive up towards Villa Savoye you will first notice how it floats off of the
ground with the thin pilotis supporting it. The white faade of the upper floors are free of
decoration and gives off a stark contrast to the green forest that surrounds it. The green painted
faade on the first floors on the hand helps connect the building with forest. This first floor is
used as the parking garage, drive way, location for the two guest bedrooms, and part of the
servant area.
2

____________________________________________________________________________________
1
Deborah Gans, The Le Corbusier guide, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1987), 65
2
Stamo Papadaki, Le Corbusier, architect, painter, writer, (New York: Macmillan Co, 1948), Pg 30-32.
3
William Curtis, Modern architecture since 1900, (3rd ed. London: Phaidon, 1996), Print, Pg 275-285.
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Upon parking your car inside the carport-like entrance to the house, you will notice an
elongated ramp that glides up and around what seems to be the central part of the house.
4
The
elongation of the ramp gives you time to embrace and experience the house itself. Like walking
on a cruise liner where your key importance is to enjoy your time there. The second floor where
the ramp leads you first is the piano nobile of the house since it contains most of the functions
and interactions of the house.
5
This is visibly noted in the exterior with the band of sliding glass
windows. Upon entering the second floor you will see the start of the outside ramp that extends
up into the 3
rd
floor that contains the roof garden. The 2
nd
floor also contains the master
bedroom, living room and the start of the roof garden.
6

This house is in the International style due the nature of Le Corbusiers 5 points of
architecture. The 5 points were Le Corbusiers way to produce a style of house that fits the
international style. A building that has no past connections, creates its own zeitgeist of its time
and make an architecture that is for everyone. A house that fits into the International style is
usually geometric, extensive use of concrete and glass, and does not have noticeable details from
other styles. The International style was the start of modernism but the Villa Savoye is the
monument of the first stage of the Modern Movement.
6
Le Corbusier thought that Modernism
was the absence of connections to the past. At the same time he kept the same core values of the
past when designing the Villa Savoye. This is how he kept but also developed something new at
the same time.
4
Stamo Papadaki, Le Corbusier, architect, painter, writer, (New York: Macmillan Co, 1948), Pg 30-32.
5
William Curtis, Modern architecture since 1900, (3rd ed. London: Phaidon, 1996), Print, Pg 275-285.
6
Kevin D. Murphy. The Villa Savoye and the Modernist Historic Monument, (Journal Of The Society Of
Architectural Historians 2002), 61, no. 1: 68-89.

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Villa Savoye was built for a married couple who had no perceived conception of either
modern or ancient architecture.
7
This gave way for Le Corbusier to implement his 5 points of
architecture. Using the free faade that is void of any exterior structuring, pilotis that float the
piano nobile above the ground, the free floor plan that separates the house into sections but gives
an open airy feeling, and the roof garden that is used to make up for the area of ground lost by
the foundation of the building itself.
The exterior of the building seems to float on top of the pilotis but with the use of the
green paint on the first floor walls it is balanced with the nature around it. It seems at home with
its long bands of horizontal sliding glass windows, free faade, and its pilotis that you could
compare to the trees that surround the property.
The Villa Savoye is the prime example of the International Style. It shows no connection
to the past, it creates an architecture of its own, it has its own feel to it which does not belong to
any other past architecture and it creates its own zeitgeist.
The Villa Savoye like many projects such as, Falling Waters by Frank Lloyd Wright,
gives that architect an stamp on history. It not only helped create something new at that time but
it gives the future generations something to study. It gives them something to absorb,
manipulate, change, integrate into other styles, and make it into something of their own. Famous
buildings such as, Villa Savoye and Falling Waters fuel the waves of creativity in the minds of
people for generations to come.

7
Deborah Gans, The Le Corbusier guide, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1987), 65.

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Bibliography
Curtis, William J. R. Modern architecture since 1900. 3rd ed. London: Phaidon, 1996. Print.
Gans, Deborah. The Le Corbusier Guide. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1987.
Murphy, Kevin D. "The Villa Savoye and the Modernist Historic Monument." Journal Of The
Society Of Architectural Historians 61, no. 1 (2002): 68-89.
Papadaki, Stamo. Le Corbusier, architect, painter, writer. New York: Macmillan Co. 1948.

















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Villa Savoye, Poissy, France, 1928. (n.d.). Foundation Le Corbusier. Retrieved February 18,
2013, from www.fondationlecorbusier.fr.

Long band of horizontal
sliding glass windows
pilotis
Roof garden
Cruise liner like railing
Free facade