Le Corbusier: The Villa Savoye
Le Corbusier: The Villa Savoye
Jacques Sbriglio
Birkhäuser / Fondation Le Corbusier, 1999
Paperback | 4-3/4 x 8-1/2 inches | 187 pages | 114 illustrations | English/French | ISBN: 3764358076
PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
With its uncompromising and clear construction, the Villa Savoye, completed in 1931, established Le Corbusier s reputation as an undisputed master of twentieth-century architecture. André Malraux placed it on the historic register in 1964. In this guide, historic documents and new photographs provide an in-depth presentation both to visitors to the site and to interested readers at home. Informative architectural guide in a handy format Numerous plans and photographs
French architect Jacques Sbriglio is the author of four guides to Le Corbusier's buildings published by Birkhäuser.
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dDAB COMMENTARY:
In my review of The Sunny Days of Villa Savoye a few days ago, I mentioned that "there are numerous books devoted to this singular masterpiece," the house Le Corbusier designed for the Savoyes in Poissy, France at the end of the 1920s. This is one of those books. Whereas Sunny Days tells the story of the house from the perspective of the clients — the author's grandparents — Jacques Sbriglio's earlier book is a guide to its architecture, most of it a description of the house's famed promenade architecturale. The first and longest chapter, Orientation Guide, is a tour through the house in the order of someone's approach to the house and their movement through it level by level, room by room; from the porte cochère to the solarium on the roof. Other, shorter chapters document the history of Corbu's design and the definitive scheme's realization, detail its postwar preservation efforts, and discuss Villa Savoye in terms of "Principles of the Modern Dwelling."
Sbriglio's book was first published a few years after I was fortunate to see the house in person. Although it has the proportions of an architectural guidebook, I think it functions better as a case study for research or a memento from a visit rather than something to read before or during a visit. If it were around before I hopped on the train from Paris to Poissy to see it in person, I probably would have searched it out and read it; but I'm glad that wasn't the case. The text is long and the tour is overly prescriptive, potentially ruining some of the surprises that come from moving through the house in the flesh. Plenty of photographs and drawings accompany the text, but unfortunately the images aren't keyed to the text; references would be helpful in this regard, but at least the images are captioned. These critiques are minor, though, in an excellent guide to a house more than deserving of such an in-depth tour and history.
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