Advantages and Disadvantages of Le Corbusiers Five Points of Architecture - Essay Example

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF LE CORBUSIER’S FIVE POINTS OF ARCHITECTURE (DOM-INO) I The architect Le Corbusier from a Swiss\French descent is a major role player and pioneer in modern architecture. He was talented in various other forms of art in the range of design, writing and painting. In 1926, Le Corbusier conceived the “Five Points of a New Architecture” that trended in 20th century modernist architectural practices. He allocated five points of essentiality that dictated a pathway in the domain of domestic architecture. The terms of his innovative design vocabulary afforded a view that had access to vast light, space and air, that correlated with uninterrupted building faced openings, and the interior left free from concrete structures reinforced. In the “Five points for a new architecture” that was published, the modern architecture tenets defined are: A) Pilotis (B) The free plan (C) Free faced (D) Strip windows (E)roof terrace gardens (A)Pilotus demonstrates influences of order and regulation represented in classical architecture. Le Corbusier suggested a substitution of the supporting walls with a reinforced concrete column grid load, offering an increased of open space. (a) Free Design of Ground Plan: Removing internal constraints of supporting walls, the interior functioning is unrestrained and open to usage. The key modern architecture characteristic was a flow of space in a natural form. This design prescribed not dividing space entirely. (b) (c) Free Design of Facade: Separation the building exterior from structural functions allows freeing the facade as a result of a construction of concrete frame. (d) Horizontal Windows: The ribbon windows inclusion extending across the dwelling facade horizontally allow rooms to have equal light and a selective view surrounding environment view. 5) Roof Garden: An innovative way to bring nature into homes, Le Corbusier conceived flat roof to serve as a domestic garden. These ideals are best exemplified by “Villa Savoye”, the work of each of these designs Le Corbusier. Figure 1.1. LC compares disadvantages of traditional architecture with advantages of open floor In 1918 a concept titled the “Purism” movement was developed by Le Corbusier and an artist Amedec Ozenfant, extending the discourse to cover salon painting and product design and architecture. The purism movement was d derived from cubism in which the focus of subject matter was in common objects like bottles, guitars, pipes and presented natural, clear forms expressive of the modern age, unlike cubism approach of decorative style. It favored evolutionary perfection bentwood furniture or café tableware. The publication collaborated on for this was a book, 'Après le cubism', The free plan served as an important initiation western architecture. Dividing and separating stopped and there was huge space, separated only partitions Functional space allowed easy rearranging furnishings and décor, enhancing interior artistic values of the interior of changing perspectives sequences. Villa Savoye was designed in 1928, by Le Corbusier and served as a manifesto of the five modern architecture points implicated. In this design he implicated all 5 of his points of modernist architecture. The house stands in , natural free space forming contrasting, white simple cubic solid structures on pillars, discretely off then actual ground. The natural, soft forms encounter geometrical hard dimensional ones. Horizontal windows surfaces set sunlight within the house and shows various images from an inner view. These features protest against artificial 19th century forms. Prominent feature were cubic solid, detail was moderate, flat, huge and uniform elevation of the surface .Undivided windows, raw materials usage like steel and concrete, spacious glass walls. Other Opinions formulated about Villa Savoye In the 19th century towards the early 20th century there was a notion of an ideal city separating city functions, but these also separated classes within the city. In the era of the Industrial revolution, upper class denominations constructed city townhouses, but they were based in countryside’s. The middle class built houses that separated themselves from railways, mills and docks and where workers resided. Living areas became status ranked. The larger townhouses were built according to separation on class level as well, with servant quarters that included working space and rooms to live in. The space quantity allocated to individual rooms also established a hierarchical system. Functions like bathing were restricted to tubs nearby kitchen fires. Servants at that time perform functions of transporting hot and cold water in the building, before pipes were innovated for the function. They maintained lighting lamps and removing waste. Servants physically isolated themselves from households and conducted necessary tasks. This social and physical separation replicated itself in city townhouse designs. As country mansions fragmented based on function, the servant’s residences were separated initially. Reception rooms were planned along Palladian bay imitations, but that the servant section was planned and rationalized according to work flow, to facilitate deliveries. The servant sections were located at an angle invisible on approach. Separation of function reflected social class separation. Status was denoted by area of location, size façade design and décor. Reaching the closure of the 19th century, applied design was criticized as bourgeois. The aesthetic of modernism was shunning decorative aspects and separate functions. It maintains class values in living patterns. In the year 1922, Le Corbusier arrived at his form in Ville Contemporize. Workers were allocated property, sited according to industry one the outer of the security zone, surrounding spaces where elite demographic resided. Le Corbusier did identify apartments in the city-centre with view, correctly as the desirable future property , but he designed 19th century social segregation notions into urban plans, and private houses such as the 1926-1927 Villa Stein and 1928-1929 Villa Savoye . These buildings were regarded as seminal Modern movement works. The two villas represents the interpretation of the functional structure building element , juxtaposing it with a human element ,providing space and light in a functional plan. Both these villas were constructed according to plans that separated functions and people performing those particular functions. Space and Light, the new status indicator with the servants quarters located on the ground floor where there was less light and space, Villa Stein, with a separate entrance for servants on the front façade. The entrance is made smaller, lower, exposed and excluded slightly from formal façade. Size, protection, height are indications of maintaining class divisions that in ways the Victorians would relate to. Villa Savoye at an initial glance appears to be more informal. The domain of the servants is based on the ground floor. A basement which was devoid of light or architectural invention for servants and machinery the ground floor serves as a definite, intangible boundary between two domains. The stairs for the servants’ stairs are sculpturally shaped ,located within the lobby and may be used by others around the house, they are actually off-axis and the second option, located on the ramp in front and is clearly intended to be restricted for servants to use. The corridor and stairway for servants, theoretically, being open to the path of the hallway increase possibility of paths crossing between the domains. However, this is not so in this case. Although the lobby symbolizes interaction it serves no ways of encouraging this. Let us examine one example. A chauffer driven guest ,or owners arrive, The maid then rushes towards the front door and the maid opens the door ,to take coats and hats, The guests or owners leave to the promenade architectural, and the maid down stairs to co-ordinate hanging of coats ,as no closet exists in hallways .She then goes to relay instructions to the cook. Aesthetic generated from space, light and function identified and separated social classes. In a contradiction of former styles, modernism architecture did not format in homogenous design rules . The design concept was the focus rather than building features. Modernism architects were into the frame of architecture, industry and town planning were in service of a democratic society, and so they optimized and economized new architecture ventures. They considered providing all people adequate conditions of living space that made them focus designing estates of housing. References 1.Robin Evans “Architectural Projection.” Architecture and Its Image: four centuries of architectural representation,works from the collection of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, (Montreal: Candadian Centre for Architecture, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1989 2. Paul Turner, “Romanticism, Rationalism, and the Domino System.” 3.The Open Hand: Essays on Le Corbusier, ed. Russell Walden, (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1977) 4.The Twenty Twelve Theme. Blog at WordPress.com. 5.Le Corbusier. Toward an Architecture, (London: Architectural Press, 1927 Read More