




Photos taken from:
http://architypes.net/place/villa-savoye
The last in a series of white houses designed by architect Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye was built as a weekend house for the Savoye family. The site was a large field surrounded by mature trees. Because one of the primary design goals was to leave the site as untouched as possible, the house was sited on the middle of this field. The automobile was a new thing at the time, and Le Corbusier put a lot of though into how the experience of arriving at the site by car would be integrated into the experience of the house. To understand this experience, imagine arriving at the site by car, passing through a thick stand of mature trees which then open up into the clearing, with the house in the middle. The driveway then leads under the house and around to the front door. In fact the radius of the curve of the ground floor leading to the entrance was determined by the turning radius of a car of the day. You would then get out of the car, protected under the house, and enter the front door.