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| Vers
une architecture and Villa Savoye A comparison of treatise and building |
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| 3 - Mass | |||
| Having established that his
theory is based on mathematically expressed harmonies, Le
Corbusier states that these harmonies are perceived
through the eyes. He discusses these perceptions as three
reminders to architects; mass, regulating line, and plan.
With regard to mass, Le Corbusier has famously argued
that: Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shade reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image of these is distinct and tangible within us and without ambiguity. It is for that reason that these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms.7 Villa Savoye uses a multiple of primary forms as part of its design. Fig. 3.07 shows how a series of simple forms comprise the volumes of the design. Figs. 3.03 and 3.04 show detailed elements, where the composition of cylinder and rectangular masses are clear. Compare these with the photos of primary forms shown in Vers une architecture - - grain elevators, pyramids, etc. Colin Rowe makes a perceptive observation about Vers une architecture: An absolute value is consistently imputed to mathematics, which is ‘sure and certain,’ and order is established as an intellectual concept affirmative of universal and comforting truths; but, perhaps, even with the word ‘comforting’ the senses are involved, and it becomes apparent that cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones, and their products are demanded as objects governed by and intensifying sensuous appreciation. At one moment, architecture is “the art above all others which achieves a state of Platonic grandeur”; but, at the next, it becomes clear that this state, far from being changeless and eternal, is an excitement subsidiary to the personal perception of the “masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light.” So the reader can never be clear as to what conception of rightness the word ‘correct’ refers. Is it an idea, apart from, but infusing the object, which is ‘correct’ (the theory of the Renaissance)’; or is it a visual attribute of the object itself (the theory of 1900). A definition remains elusive.8 |
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| Fig 3.01 - Grain elevator. Primary cylinders - sculpted shade and shadow. (Vers une architecture) | Fig 3.02 - Pyramids (from Vers une architecture) | Fig 3.03 - Villa Savoye Cylindrical columsn, rectangular middle, cylindrical top | Fig 3.04 - Villa Savoye Primary forms. White cylinders give shade and shadow. |
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| Fig 3.05 - Coliseum (from Vers une architecture) | Fig 3.06 - Grain elevator. Bold primary forms, sculpted by light. (From Vers une architecture) | Fig 3.07 - Primary massing of Villa Savoye Base, middle and top in primary forms | |
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