The Georgia O’Keeffe home & studio

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House of the week 05 / Villa de Madame Manorama Sarabhai / Le Corbusier

The country is tropical. The monsoon rages for two months of the year and is an alternating combination of downpours and sunshine. A western architect has spent his life learning his profession; to be sure he must apply his profession in India, but he must adapt it to antagonistic requirements: comfort is coolness, it is the current of air, it is the shade. And yet the sun must penetrate at the proper time, in the favorable seasons. Mosquitoes are everywhere and windows cannot be left open without special provisions being made. Whether it concerns housing, offices, or a palace, the conditions of the problem are dictated by a constant merciless sun with conditions of temperature, humidity and dryness varying from one month to another-ail contradictory factors. To play the role of a modern architect under these conditions is most easy. 

In a temperate country, in Paris, I have experienced the unamiable effects of the sun at certain seasons (summer) behind a sheet of glass. This glazing which is wonderful for ten months becomes an enemy during the dog-days. It thus becomes necessary to invent something. It was in my private atelier on the Rue Nungesser et Coli where I would suffer in silence (for a cause !) that I cast my eyes upon the brise-soleil, which I have conceived, which I have named and the term has become universal today: brise-soleil (sunbreaker). Universally recognized and exploited as well... even wrongly !!! For example, a building such as a recent airport in which a façade was embellished with imposing brise-soleil, but it was the north façade! In another airport, in the Orient, furnished with brise-soleil imitating those of the High Court of Chandigarh, the budget having been pared down ... they have reduced the depth of the brise-soleil !!! One can imagine the result! The pseudo-modern designer has provided himself with a ready-made motif to feed his plagiarizing pencil. 

The Sarabhai house is situated according to the prevailing winds (in order to be traversed by currents of air), and its façades are furnished with brise-soleil. 

Another research followed: to reestablish contact with the noble and fundamental materials of architecture: the brick, friend of man; rough concrete, a friend also; white coatings, friends of man; the presence of intense colors provoking joy, etc.... 

For the structure, Catalonian vaults: cradle-vaults of flat tiles set in plaster without formwork, coupled with a row of bricks cast roughly in cement. These half-cylinders are carried to the walls by the intermediary of a rough concrete lintel. The composition serves to create openings in these walls, ail parallel, playing solids against voids-but playing intensely the architectural game. 

Much research has gone into this house. One of the most brilliant solutions is that of the roof. The half-cylinders of the vaults, once the waterproofing is assured, are covered with earth and the upper part of the house becomes a magnificent garden of lawn and charming flowers... which the architect-author of the plans would rather see sparse than excessive. The architect Le Corbusier has declared war, in principle, on those gardeners who, although having all good intentions, give a false impression of life in foisting only exotic plants upon us and multiplying to excess the plants called "rare", falsifying, falsifying... under the cover of Nature, falsifying even the atmosphere. 

The photographs of the Manorama Sarabhai house were taken before the end of construction. Such are the hard brutal facts of "news pictures" ! There is no Jack of admiration for a swimming pool at the foot of a majestic toboggan run, a pool reduced by the solicitude of an anxious mother to the role of a cooling basin for air-conditioning. It's a sad adventure for a toboggan to stick its nose into the bowl of a foot-bath. There would have been a better solution: to carry out the design of the architect-author of the project ! 

The beauty of the cylindrical Catalonian vaults would demand calm. Instead, for reasons of economy, they have fixed in place the great vanes of the ventilators which simply howl at the ceiling. Adjustable ventilators, capable of being oriented, should have been in their place. 

The ground floor is of Madras stone with an unobstrusive black bonding according to a new method applied by Le Cor­busier to ail his stone paving according to the resources of the Modulor. This permits the contractor of having no waste at ail in achieving an harmonic richness unequalled until now. This has been used in Ahmedabad for the Sarabhai house, the Shodhan house, the Palace of the Millowners and the Museum. Also, at Chandigarh it was used for ail the palaces of the Capitol. It will be spoken about again in the time to come. via fondationlecorbusier

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Wilkinson Residence / House of the week 03

There’s the tree house your Dad built for you in the backyard, and then there’s the tree house Robert Harvey Oshatz built in the forests of Portland, Oregon. Designed in 1997 and completed in 2004, the Wilkinson Residence is in perfect harmony with its surroundings. Built on a steep sloping lot, the living space resides amongst the forest canopy, making your morning coffee most enjoyable. With more curves than Lombard Street, the Wilkinson Residence is a property you have to see to believe.

A lover of music, the client wanted a house that not only became part of the natural landscape but also addressed the flow of music. This house evades the mechanics of the camera; it is difficult to capture the way the interior space flows seamlessly through to the exterior. One must actually stroll through the house to grasp its complexities and its connection to the exterior. One example is a natural wood ceiling, floating on curved laminated wood beams, passing through a generous glass wall which wraps around the main living room.

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House of the week #02 / Casa Leme / Paulo Mendes da Rocha

Thoughts of concrete often bring to mind sidewalks and foundations.  Occasionally we hear about concrete counter spaces or concrete sinks, but to think of a home made entirely of concrete is a totally different story. The Sao Paolo based Leme House boasts exactly that.  It’s interior and exterior design is made almost entirely of concrete, creating a neutral feel that’s slightly industrial but also sophisticated and modern.

The main living space features a double high ceiling height with an open glass skylight with concrete beams and a wide staircase that connects the first floor with a mezzanine type second level.  The connecting staircase is the only structural piece of the lower level that stands out in terms of color.  Its white steps ascend to the top level where there’s a lighter whitish floor and white beams.

Everything else in the home though, is colored like the natural gray of concrete.  The areas of the home that connect to the outdoors cast a dramatic feel against the green, grown in landscape and transition areas that blur the lines between the indoors and out.

Massive skylights on the home’s perimeter give light to reading rooms while concrete doors connect the transitional areas to a luscious outdoor space that features a pool and overall native feel. via openhousebcn

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House of the week #01. Casa Ugalde / José Antonio Cordech.

via openhousebcn

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