Review of Week 2 - Richard

Name: Richard

Student ID: 2828442

Blog address: www.archdesigntwo.blogspot.com

Group No: 3 - Second Life

Richard from the outset explained to use and even had a book to go over some of the basic principles regarding the Ville Savoye by Le Corbusier and made it intentionally clear that Le Corbusier's theories on architecture were the basis of his design. Interesting ideas he bought up were those if the building being a 'machine for living in' and again emphasized the 5 principles on how to go about doing that:

1) Free the floor plan.

2)Use of horizontal windows.

3)Use of a roof terrace, giving back to nature what floor space you had taken.

4) Supporting the building by pilotis (columns).

5) A free facade.

Showing us his work after, it was the shortest review of my day but although there wasnt that much detailing and further exploration I think it cleverly summed up some of the real positives and ideals of Corbusier through the building exterior. A job well done.

I have added an extra excerpt from the wikipedia page of Le Corbusier as I think it might be needed for my next weeks assignment:

Five points of architecture

It was Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (1929–1931) that most succinctly summed up his five points of architecture that he had elucidated in the journal L'Esprit Nouveau and his book Vers une architecture, which he had been developing throughout the 1920s. First, Le Corbusier lifted the bulk of the structure off the ground, supporting it by pilotis – reinforced concrete stilts. These pilotis, in providing the structural support for the house, allowed him to elucidate his next two points: a free façade, meaning non-supporting walls that could be designed as the architect wished, and an open floor plan, meaning that the floor space was free to be configured into rooms without concern for supporting walls. The second floor of the Villa Savoye includes long strips of ribbon windows that allow unencumbered views of the large surrounding yard, and which constitute the fourth point of his system. The fifth point was the roof garden to compensate for the green area consumed by the building and replacing it on the roof. A ramp rising from ground level to the third floor roof terrace allows for an architectural promenade through the structure. The white tubular railing recalls the industrial "ocean-liner" aesthetic that Le Corbusier much admired. As if to put an exclamation mark after Le Corbusier's homage to modern industry, the driveway around the ground floor, with its semicircular path, measures the exact turning radius of a 1927 Citroën automobile.