Today’s agenda focused on visiting Villa Jeanneret and Villa La Roche - two adjacent Le Corbusier sites in Paris. While Villa Jeanneret is closed to the public since the Le Corbusier Foundation uses the space for its offices, I was able to visit Villa La Roche. This home was built between 1923 and 1925 for avid modern art collector Raoul La Roche, whose only requirement for Le Corbusier was the need to display his art collection. Left practically unconstrained by his client, Le Corbuiser proceeded to create a sculptural design for Villa La Roche, incorporating ramps, convex walls, curved surfaces and accents of bright colors to bring depth to the all white exterior and interior. Though it was two years after the completion of Villa La Roche that Le Corbusier formulated his essential “five points of architecture” (a roof-garden, open plan, free façade, horizontal windows and supporting columns, or pilotis), these architectural elements have a discernable presence in the home. The gallery/living room, for example, is pierced by a row of horizontal windows and raised above the ground by five visible pilotis, thus giving Villa La Roche an urban-like appearance similar to a train car or Métro station. To me, Villa La Roche seems to be an early attempt to apply urban design to a private residence and therefore is a key modern site in Paris.

-Ian
Philip Johnson Glass House Intern