During the week of January 11 - 15, all of our other classes and school activities were put on hold as we welcomed a visiting lecturer to give us a crash-course in modern architectural history for five days. Luckily enough, our program didn't just bring in anyone -- they brought in William J. R. Curtis. In other words, the craziest and most awesome architectural historian around today. His book on modern architecture is used at U of I, but also has international popularity, since our French friends use it as well. Essentially, this guy is an expert in the field, having seen everything and met everyone of importance in the architectural community.
Needless to say, we were all excited to meet this guy and hear what he had to say. He started with an introductory lecture on the early works of Le Corbusier, and I could tell right away that he was an intelligent, energetic, and sassy kind of guy. In between slides, he went off on tangents about his time living in a Frank Lloyd Wright house and his breakfast conversations with Frank Gehry. Think Horace Slughorn: well-connected, a little arrogant, but still likable.
After another lecture on the principles of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, the whole class took a short bus ride to the town of Poissy, where we would be visiting the Villa Savoye. For those of you who don't know, its legendary Swiss/French architect, Le Corbusier, was the pioneer of the modern movement in architecture during the early 20th century. Last year, we had drafted the Villa Savoye and thought nothing of it -- but finally seeing it in person was positively mind-blowing.
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| My sketch of the Villa Savoye entrance |
The house looks kind of like a weird design from the 70's, but it was actually built in 1928. It was incredibly ahead of its time. Walking throughout all of the rooms was the best part, because the way each space flowed into the next was extremely creative. I loved Corbu's philosophy on the use of long, strip windows: "You don't have a great view unless you frame and limit the view." A huge wall of glass turned out to be a sliding door onto the roof terrace; I decided this house would be the perfect place for a Gatsby-themed party. After sketching for a while, we headed home very tired but very happy, shocked to have been so inspired by such a simple-looking building.
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| Two rooftop terraces and a GIANT sliding door |
The next day, William gave us two more lectures in the morning, this time about German architect Mies van der Rohe and Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. In the afternoon, we visited Villa La Roche, a house by Le Corbusier in the heart of Paris. The site conditions weren't ideal (it was a very tight lot) but I liked what Corbu did with the space. His use of balconies and curving ramps was pretty cool. It adhered to his "5 Points" ideology by having 1) pilotis to sit upon, 2) a free plan, 3) a free facade, 4) strip windows, and 5) a roof terrace.
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| My sketch of the living room |
On Thursday, we started off the day with a lecture on the late works of Le Corbusier (such as Ronchamp and La Tourette, which we'll be visiting later in the semester). Then we talked about Louis Kahn and Jorn Utzon (who did the Sydney Opera House). In the afternoon, only 16 of us went with William into Paris to see the Maison de Verre (House of Glass). This house was designed by Pierre Chareau, from whom Le Corbusier later took inspiration. Again, it was an incredibly avant-garde home built in 1931 -- the walls were made of glass blocks for the first time ever, it was supported by soaring steel columns, its staircases seemed to float... I would definitely live there.
SIDE NOTE: To see an awesome video about cinematography and architecture, featuring many of the world's most famous buildings, watch this 100% computer-animated masterpiece. Just 10 minutes long.
On Friday morning, class met on the southern end of Paris at the Cité Internationale. This was a cool area I had never seen before: it felt like an American university campus! The large grounds (very quad-like) were surrounded by an Illini-Union-esque center and dorms for students of various countries. The Japan House looked very Japanese; the Mexico House had Aztec decorations; the Italy House looked very Baroque... etc etc. We made a visit to the American House, of course. But what we went to see was the Pavillon Suisse, or Swiss Pavilion, which was designed by Le Corbusier. We could see how his style was changing at that point: instead of a boxy white plaster facade, he used concrete to form a lot of curved shapes. We went next door to his Brazil House which was even cooler because it used lots of crazy shapes and colors.
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| Cité Internationale welcome building |
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| Le Corbusier's Pavillon Suisse dormitory |
Saturday was the last day of our week-long architecture extravaganza, so rather than hearing more lectures, we squeezed in two more important site visits. In the morning, we all took a bus to the French countryside behind Versailles. We arrived at the Maison Louis Carré after the beautiful drive, and it ended up being one of my favorite buildings that we saw. Atop a hill in the quiet woods sat a huge house designed by Alvar Aalto, the only thing that he ever built in France. This place was built in 1957, but it might as well have been brand new: it was ultra modern but also woodsy, with a very natural vibe. It was truly an ideal house: a great rolling ceiling led down into the vast living room, which had an amazing view out onto the surrounding landscape. Every bedroom was arranged perfectly, with great views, built-in furniture, and even a sauna. All of the furniture and lighting was designed by Aalto himself, which was very impressive. Even now, as I'm designing my own building for studio, I realize that Aalto's work has inspired me a lot (his use of materials, and the way the roof sloped down into the hillside, were just great).
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| View from behind |
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| My sketch of the front facade on the hilltop |
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| Entrance to the living room |
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| A section showing how the roof and ceiling slope down along the hill |
Finally, in the afternoon, our class met up for a final visit to Le Corbusier's personal apartment in Paris. It was a small place, and much more modest than his designs for others, but it was still cool to see where he lived and worked. We have one more William J. R. Curtis week planned for later in the semester -- and I can't wait. I'm sure it will be intense and exhausting, but seeing all of these landmarks has been 20 times more useful than looking at photos in textbooks.
