A Week in Paris - Villa Savoye
Just outside of Paris in the town of Poissy exists an icon of modern Architecture. An example of the International Style the Villa Savoye was inhabited in 1931 as a country house for the family that gave its name to the lodge. A seminal example of Le Corbusier’s Five Points of Architecture, the house was designated a French historical monument in 1965 and part of the Architectural Work of Le Corbusier World Heritage Site in 2016. Its protected status and Le Corbusier’s ideas and this house have influenced nearly every modern building.
Following its restoration from 1985 to 1997, the house is now open to the public year round. For me, this building was a pilgrimage. It is a building I studied and analyzed in school and is the only Lego Architecture set that I own that I had not visited.
Just a short train ride from the center of Paris to the end of RER A line, the house is a 20 minute walk from the train station situated in a roughly square clearing between school buildings. Its iconic floating mass and smokestack or sail like roof form help to frame views from the inside out and create a series of unique rooms along the ramp procession from ground to roof.
The narrow stair seems familiar if only because it has influenced so many buildings that have followed it. The ribbon windows that are freed from the constraints of the structure behind it were groundbreaking for its time, influencing buildings for decades to come.
