The Villa Savoye

The Villa Savoye is a wonderful demonstration of Le Corbusier's 'five points of a new architecture', which he developed in 1927, exploiting the new opportunities of reinforced concrete. The house is firmly driven into the ground - a dark and often damp site. The reinforced concrete gives us the pilotis. The house is up in the air, far from the ground. the garden runs under the house. The garden is also over the house, on the roof. Reinforced concrete is the new way to create a unified roof structure. Reinforced concrete expands considerably. The expansion makes the work crack at times of sudden shrinkage. Instead of trying to evacuate the rainwater quickly, endeavor on the contrary to maintain a constant humidity on the concrete of the terrace and hence an even temperature on the reinforced concrete. One particular protective measure: sand covered with thick concrete slabs, with widely spaced joints; these joints are sown with grass. Until now load-bearing walls from the ground they are superimposed, forming the ground floor and the upper stories, up to the eaves. The layout is a slave to the supporting walls. Reinforced concrete in the house provides a free plan! The floors are no longer superimposed by partition walls. They are free. The window is one of the essential features of the house. Progress brings liberation. Windows run from one end of the facade to the other. The columns set back from the facades, inside the house. The floor continues cantilevered. The facades are no longer anything but light skins of insulating walls or windows. The facade is free.