VILLA SAVOYE

The house encapsulates all of his Five Points — "the supports, the roof gardens, the free designing
of the ground plan, the horizontal window, and the free design of the facade," in Le Corbusier's
words. And in its manipulation of abstract form that breaks from historical precedents, it influenced many
generations of architects. Here's a tour of this must-know modern home.

Hill, J. (2013, February 7). Must-Know Modern Home: Villa Savoye. Houzz. Retrieved January 27, 2022,
from
https://www.houzz.com/magazine/must-know-modern-home-villa-savoye-stsetivw-vs~6821280

Le Corbusier designed the Villa Savoye to express the power of man over nature; he did accomplish this
feat. The building is located in a large, open field and has several windows to utilize natural light and a
rooftop garden. It seems to embrace nature, rather than spurn it. Because the Villa Savoye is a
machine-like building surrounded by nature, it appears to present a balance between modernity
and the natural world.
 Corbusier, L. (n.d.). Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier (article). Khan Academy. Retrieved January 26, 2022,
from
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/
a/corbusier-savoye

"The house is a box in the air,..."

—Le Corbusier, Précisions
Made of reinforced concrete, the ground floor walls are recessed and painted green so that the house
looks like a box floating on delicate pilotis.

Top 11 Le Corbusier Villa Savoye Quotes. (n.d.). Famous Quotes & Sayings. Retrieved January 27, 2022,
from https://quotestats.com/topic/le-corbusier-villa-savoye-quotes/

BBC RADIO PODCAST- Sir David Chipperfield on Le Corbusier

Pioneer of Modern architecture, Le Corbusier, chosen by award winning architect Sir David Chipperfield.
Le Corbusier aimed to build a better world through radical buildings and the controversial reshaping of
whole cities. Flora Samuel, Professor of Architecture at the University of Sheffield, joins Matthew Parris to
unpick the life of a man who considered himself a herioc figure, fighting battles to improve the world.

Chipperfield, S. D. (Executive Producer). (2011). Great Lives [TV series]. Apple podcasts.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/great-lives/id261779765?i=1000223762975

Vers une architecture, recently translated into English as Toward an Architecture but commonly known as
Towards a New Architecture after the 1927 translation by Frederick Etchells, is a collection of essays
written by Le Corbusier , advocating for and exploring the concept of modern architecture. The book has
had a lasting effect on the architectural profession, serving as the manifesto for a generation of architects,
a subject of hatred for others, and unquestionably an important work of architectural theory.

Corbusier, L. (n.d.). Toward an Architecture. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toward_an_Architecture

Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture is an architecture manifesto by architect Le Corbusier.It was

first published in the magazine L'Esprit Nouveau and subsequently in his 1923 book Vers une
architecture.Early in his career, Le Corbusier developed a set of architectural principles that dictated his
technique, which he called the "Five Points of Modern Architecture". They are considered to be most
evident in his Villa Savoye.

Corbusier, L. (n.d.). Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 27, 2022,
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier%27s_Five_Points_of_Architecture
Through the great expanses that he favors may occasionally turn his rooms into hothouses, his flat roofs
may leak and his plans may be wasteful of space, it was Architect Le Corbusier who in 1923 put the entire
philosophy of modern architecture into a single sentence
“Celebrate your achievements, but never let them sink you into the pool of complacency.”
(Author: Israelmore Ayivor)

Al Shawa, B. (2011, September 3). The DARKER Side of Villa Savoye. misfits' architecture. Retrieved
January 27, 2022, from https://misfitsarchitecture.com/2011/09/03/the-darker-side-of-villa-savoye/

‘Time’ wrote in 1935 stating: “Through the great expanses that he favors may occasionally turn
his rooms into hothouses, his flat roofs may leak and his plans may be wasteful of space, it was
Architect Le Corbusier who in 1923 put the entire philosophy of modern architecture into a single
sentence ’A house is a machine to live in.”
Celebrate your achievements, but never let them sink you into the pool of complacency.
(Author: Israelmore Ayivor)

Villa Savoye | Utopia/Dystopia. (n.d.). Utopia/Dystopia. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from
https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/purism/le-corbusier/villa-savoye/

Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen has sunk a scale model of one of Le Corbusier's most famous buildings in a

Danish fjord, as a statement about the Brexit vote and Donald Trump's election.sculpture is a 1:1 replica
of a corner of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye that appears partially submerged – as if the building is sinking
beneath the water.
"The foundation of modernity has been seriously challenged,"
(Said by the Havsteen-Mikkelsen)

Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye sunk in Danish fjord. (2018, August 1). Dezeen. Retrieved January 28, 2022,
from
https://www.dezeen.com/2018/08/01/le-corbusiers-villa-savoye-sunk-danish-fjordasmund-havstee
n-mikkelsen-installation/
Le Corbusier draws upon his memories from his summer travels along the coast of southwest France. Le
Corbusier's paintings depict his fascination with the geometries of mundane objects to either emphasize
or deconstruct typological forms, informing his early architectural studies. Many did not like his paintings.
“I am drawn to places where people live naturally. Le Piquey is full of life that is healthy, calm and
to scale: to a human scale…This is what civilizations destroy, plunging people into artifice and
misfortune.”
(Le Corbusier in a letter to his mother, 1932)

Aggarwal, V. (2018, October 14). Le Corbusier's Paintings Showcased for the First Time Since 1966.
ArchDaily. Retrieved January 28, 2022, from
https://www.archdaily.com/903626/le-corbusiers-paintings-showcased-for-the-first-time-since-196
6

As soon as it was completed, it was said that the house was not comfortable. Some issues like roof
leaking everywhere, skylight made a terrible noise preventing occupants from sleeping, felt cold and
damp, suffered from sustainable heat loss.
‘Time’ wrote in 1935 stating: “Through the great expanses that he favors may occasionally turn his
rooms into hothouses, his flat roofs may leak and his plans may be wasteful of space, it was
Architect Le Corbusier who in 1923 put the entire philosophy of modern architecture into a single
sentence ’A house is a machine to live in.”
Celebrate your achievements, but never let them sink you into the pool of complacency.
(Author: Israelmore Ayivor)

Villa Savoye | Utopia/Dystopia. (n.d.). Utopia/Dystopia. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from
https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/purism/le-corbusier/villa-savoye/
 FARNSWORTH HOUSE

The Farnsworth House, built between 1945 and 1951 for Dr. Edith Farnsworth as a weekend retreat, is a
platonic perfection of order gently placed in spontaneous nature in Plano, Illinois. The windows are what
provide the beauty of Mies' idea of tying the residence with its tranquil surroundings. His idea for
shading and privacy was through the many trees that were located on the private site. The
man-made geometric form creates a relationship with the extraneous landscape surrounding it to
exemplify "dwelling" in its simplest state.

Perez, A. (2010, May 13). AD Classics: The Farnsworth House / Mies van der Rohe. ArchDaily. Retrieved
January 27, 2022, from
https://www.archdaily.com/59719/ad-classics-the-farnsworth-house-mies-van-der-rohe

The structure’s modern classicism epitomizes the International Style of architecture and Mies’s dictum
“less is more.”
“The house invites nature in through continuous glass walls and is anchored delicately to the
forest floor. The simplicity of the design, precision in detailing, and careful choice of materials
made this and others of Mies’s buildings stand out from the mass of mid-century”
(Author - Vincent Michael)
Modernism.Smoothness and continuity are apparent in the details of the surfaces of the house, from the
floors to the wood panels.

Michael, V., Mies, L., & Von Eckardt, W. (n.d.). Farnsworth House | Description, History, & Facts.
Britannica. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Farnsworth-House

“Heavy glass seals behind you as you step into the home, muffling all sound. It’s disorienting, yet
enchanting, to stand in a glass box and stare into the silent woods. The birds chirping, leaves
crunching, and the river faintly running continue to play in your head, but in here, pure quietude.”
(Author - Amy Dvorak)
It’s no wonder Farnsworth made this her place of respite each weekend for some 20 years. But to achieve
that serenity required precision that could never compete with, but would rather complement, Mother
Nature. In this, Mies was a master.
Set in any other environment, the Farnsworth House would still be remarkable. But sitting along the river,
nestled in the woods just an hour outside an architectural metropolis is what makes it otherworldly.
Unfortunately, its siting is what also poses its greatest threat. Although it is raised five feet and three
inches, the home floods just about every year.

Mies, L., & Dvorak, A. (2019, August 12). Farnsworth House by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Dwell.
Retrieved January 27, 2022, from
https://www.dwell.com/article/farnsworth-house-flooding-ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe-a1d85bbd

Writing about the conflict in 1998, author Alice T. Friedman asserted that:
“There is no evidence to suggest that [Farnsworth] sought to have her behavior challenged by the
‘inner logic’ of Mies’s unyielding architectural vision; on the contrary, she seems to have had a
clear idea about how she wanted to live and she expected the architect to respect her views… She
soon discovered that what Mies wanted, and what he had thought he had found in her, was a
patron who would put her budget and her needs aside in favor of his own goals and dreams as an
architect.”

Farnsworth House — Construction. (n.d.). Farnsworth House. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from
https://fh.lapels.club/construction/

Architect Maria Ludwig Michael Mies changed his name. He added his mother's maiden name Rohe and
the Dutch “van der” to become, drum roll please, Mies van der Rohe. Most of his fans just refer to him as
Mies – like Cher or Moby or Beyonce, he’s still one of the most famous architects in the world some 50
years after his death. Today we talk about his greatest house – the Farnsworth House – with Alex Beam,
author of the new book Broken Glass: Mies Van Der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight Over a
Modernist Masterpiece - and Scott Mehaffey, Executive Director of the Farnsworth house in Plano IL,
which you can visit. Later on, a few minutes with Frank Harmon, reading from his book Native Places.

Schulze, F. (Executive Producer). (2011). The Checkered history of the Farnsworth House [Podcasts].
Apple podcasts.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-checkered-history-of-the-farnsworth-house/id4226901
58?i=1000093368535

Noted art historian and Mies van der Rohe biographer Franz Schulze offers rare insights into this
architectural gem, discussing the key people and dramatic events that have shaped its history. This
podcast is brought to you by the Ancient Art Podcast.

Beam, A. (Executive Producer). (2020). Mies, Edith, and the Farnsworth House [Podcasts]. Apple
podcasts.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/177-mies-edith-farnsworth-house-alex-beam-scott-mehaff
ey/id986108444?i=1000504270043
 FALLING WATER

“This delicate synthesis of nature and the built environment probably counts as the main reason
why Fallingwater is such a well-loved work. The contouring of the house into cantilevered ledges
responds so sympathetically to the rock strata of the stream banks that it does make Bear Run a
more wondrous landscape than it had been before.”
(Franklin Toker, In his book, Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America's Most
Extraordinary House)
Wright further emphasizes the connection with nature by liberal use of glass; the house has no walls
facing the falls, only a central stone core for the fireplaces and stone columns. This provides elongated
vistas leading the eye out to the horizon and the woods.

Wright, F. L., & Wiebe, C. (n.d.). Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright (article). Khan Academy. Retrieved
January 27, 2022, from
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/
a/frank-lloyd-wright-fallingwater
Falling Waters’ landscape has been transformed by water and rock.The building draws nature inside its
three floors: natural cliffs protrude from the central fireplace, southern light enters through expansive
corner windows, and the sound of rushing water is always present.
“Designed for this setting, the house was hardly up before its fame circled the Earth; it was
recognized as one of the clearest successes of the American genius, Frank Lloyd Wright…It's
beauty remains fresh like that of the nature into which it fits. It has served well as a home, yet has
always been more than that: a work of art, beyond any measures of excellence. Itself an
ever-flowing source of exhilaration, it is set on the waterfall of Bear Run, spouting nature’s
endless energy and grace. House and site together form the very image of man’s desire to be at
one with nature, equal and wedded to nature…”

Designing Fallingwater. (n.d.). Fallingwater. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from

https://fallingwater.org/history/about-fallingwater/designing-fallingwater/

Cracks appeared in the east and west parapets of the terrace of the main bedroom.Overloading
the beams of the main floor with extra heavy reinforcing rods caused the slab to sag more than
should have been expected.There is no proof that this extra load augmented the damage, yet it was
foolhardy. With time also there were some cracks visible.
...The small deflections (up and down) at Fallingwater were not foreseen; neither were those (from side to
side) in early skyscrapers, yet these are now accepted as normal. Some of the great monuments of
architecture have suffered structural troubles, precisely because they were striving beyond normal
limitations…

Fallingwater - criticism of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece home. (n.d.). Wright House. Retrieved
January 27, 2022, from http://www.wright-house.com/frank-lloyd-wright/criticism_fallingwater.html

“The natural setting is so integrated into the house that in occupying it we are constantly
reminded of where we are by the sound of the waterfall the flow of space and movement inside
and outside the floors and terraces, gives the house a sense of refuge while the views and
sunlight are framed by steel windows, which act as spatial nets or webs similar to weaving
stained glass in Wright’s earlier houses.”
(Robert McCarter)
Indeed, the most remarkable aspect of the house is the way so artificial a construction appears to fit so
closely into the natural environment. Seen from the river it is as if the house has, in author Robert
McCarter’s words, “grown out of the ground and sits in the light.”

Wright, F. L. (2016, June 8). Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater explained | architecture. Phaidon.
Retrieved January 27, 2022, from
https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/architecture/articles/2016/june/08/frank-lloyd-wrights-fallingwate
r-explained/

In Frank Lloyd Wright's design of Fallingwater, he incorporated many different design concepts
into the overall structure. An important concept for Wright was what he called balance or reflex. This
refers to the design relation of diverse building components. Balance and reflex can be seen
throughout the building but the best example is in the hatch stairs. These stairs point against the
flow of the river, creating a juxtaposition and balance. Balance and reflex can also be found between the
set of terraces and the set of waterfalls. The intersection of the terraces mimics the intersection of the
waterfalls.
 Fallingwater: Structure and Design. (n.d.). Union | Digital Works. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from
https://digitalworks.union.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2047&context=theses

Shaping episode podcast

“The walk down the house where you are aware of the woods, you hear the stream and you come
around a bend and suddenly the house appears. And it's not the view of the house you expect,
you expect the view of the waterfall.
Next, you cross a bridge and this bridge separates you from the outside and you enter the realm
of the family's life there.
And then you try to figure out how to get into the building because the doorway isn't easily found,
it's just a slip between two stone walls and it's dark.
The inside is compact, confining.”
(Guest - Director of Fallingwater Lynda S. Waggoner)

Seal, M. (2018, April 30). Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. The Shaping Opinion Podcast. Retrieved
January 27, 2022, from https://shapingopinion.com/frank-lloyd-wrights-fallingwater-episode-8/