Villa La Roche

The task was to build both a house for Raoul Albert La Roche, a Swiss banker and his family, as well as an art gallery for La Roche's vast collection. I admired the way that Corbusier cleverly split up the functions of the building into two distinct volumes: a public gallery and a private domain, all on a cramped plot of land.

+ View Full Sized Image

The use of height in the main hall drew our heads up and effectively expresses the three levels of the house—which is further exemplified by the left wall as a literal cross-section. This space also serves as the center point of two circulation paths that travel to opposite sides of the building. 

+ View Full Sized Image

+ View Full Sized Image

Contrasting from the vertical height of the main entry hall, the horizontal expanse of the gallery provides ample space for La Roche's paintings and many Corbusier-designed pieces of furniture. 

+ View Full Sized Image

There are no direct exterior views, but large amounts of daylighting are allowed to stream in from the strips of windows at the top. 

+ View Full Sized Image

The concept of an 'architectural promenade' remains steady throughout the circulation of the building, leading one through a spatial processional as the plan unfolds.

+ View Full Sized Image

Natural lighting was always a significant part of Corbusier's intention. A large glass hallway runs along the bridge that joins the two separate sides of the house.

+ View Full Sized Image

Corbusier's experimentation with color makes a bold statement in the dining room - the black tile floor, burnt sienna walls and ceilings, umber woodwork, and white windowsill.

+ View Full Sized Image

Spartan and stream-lined, the confinement of the private spaces (the bathroom, bedrooms) conjure a purist, monastic feeling.

+ View Full Sized Image

The villa sits hidden at the end of a cul-de-sac, le square du Docteur Blanche, amidst a street of other modernist apartments, and is also the current home of the Foundation Le Corbusier. At the end of Docteur Blanche stands an apartment by Robert Mallet-Stevens, one of Corbusier's contemporaries and another influential figure in the development of French modernist architecture.

+ View Full Sized Image

The house was built upon a challenging urban site, as it is north-facing, surrounded by apartment buildings on all sides, and subject to many neighborhood regulations. (Which are probably dotted with numerous cries of 'C'est impossible!', as I can imagine.)

+ View Full Sized Image

Although currently without access, the rooftop garden was an economical way of using valuable space for relaxation. Concrete flagstones, sliding metal screens, and plant tubs populate this prime sunbathing location.

+ View Full Sized Image

The treatment of interiors in the house consists of monochrome for the entry hall, but polychrome for many of the other spaces.  Here, we see use of deep ultramarine, red brown, and light sienna as we look from the third floor bedroom doorway through the main hall and across to the library.

+ View Full Sized Image

Aligning with his famous five points, Corbusier lifted the villa off the ground, supporting it by reinforced concrete pilotis.  An open plan, free facade, strip windows, and a rooftop garden were the other four tenets, which is most famously manifested in his Villa Savoye, a quick train ride away on the RER to nearby Poissy.

+ View Full Sized Image