15. La Villa Savoye - Le Carbusier's Masterpiece. Part 2.

Part 2.

This is the view out to the patio from the salon.  This glass wall faces south.  The house is of passive solar design.  Living areas and both bedrooms face south (north for us).  Service rooms face north and east, and terraces and garage face west.

I said they were comfortable, didn't I?  I think I'll start saving my pennies for one of these.

At the opposite end of the outdoor patio is the master suite.  Paul is standing where the bed would go.

And now he is laying on the "meridienne" or daybed between the bedroom and ensuite.  All tiled - a bit cold for my liking.

No shower, but a stunning bath.  The door at the end is the toilet.

Without Paul, from the other side.  And lit by a light well from the solarium on the roof.

Going downstairs now, to ground level.

The laundry.  We had a trough like this when I was a kid, but our plumbing joined the trough to an underfloor waste pipe.  Here it runs into/onto an open trap.  There are two maid's rooms and a chauffeur's suite on this level - all locked and used as offices.

This is the entrance hall.  Curved glass with solid double doors,  Difficult to get the idea as it houses the entry desk and a substantial bookshop.

West facade.  Triple garage behind van. The three open sections above are the patio.  The left section is the salon.

North facade.  Square chimney.  Round staircase.  All windows except four on left belong to the salon.  Four on left are the kitchen areas.

East facade.  The curved glass with the vertical detail is the entrance hall.  Above it is the kitchen and it's little terrace - for cooling.

And finally the south face with the roses along the driveway.  It was designed to " sit lightly on the grass in the clearing, with the forest all around."

All of the upper windows on the south belong to the main bedroom suite.  Below, is the salubrious chauffeur's suite of 2 rooms (the maids got one small bedroom each) and the laundry - with all that glass and sunshine there would be no problem drying clothes.

 And remember, this is all in 1930.  What did your grandma's house look like in 1930?

Probably like this one, a few doors down the road from La Villa Savoye. No wonder La Villa created a sensation!

Truth was, the Savoye family did not live in the house very much because it leaked.  All those new ideas like flat roofs with light wells, sun decks, raised terraces, sliding glass doors, etc, were great ideas but building materials and engineering needed a bit of time to catch up.  

The Germans occupied the house during WW2 followed by the Americans.  It was vacant for a long time and was about to be demolished around 1965 when a large group of architects protested and it was saved and later put on the National Heritage Building Register.  Restoration was not completed until 1997.

We had a great day.