Yuking Yao

1.Reflection on the Ground Floor.

There is a curved glazing wall on the ground floor separating the interior and exterior in a creative way. According to Le Corbusier’s concept of Villa Savoye, the house is supposed to be lifted above the ground just like it is flowing in the air. The internal space is dark while the external space is bright. The glazing wall reflects the surrounding environment and in the same time, people can still see through the wall. When visitors walking along the glazing wall to the entrance, they not only feel the rhyme of the light on the curved wall, but they also feel like walking in the nature.

2.The rhythm of circulation

I define each level a different color: Ground Level—Green; First Level—Yellow; Second Level—Red; Surrounding landscape—Blue. And the color gradient on the circulation illustrates the speed of transition between spaces. According Le Corbusier’s concept of “Promenade Architecture”, the main circulation—the ramp provides people a slow speed and enjoyable experience from ground to the roof. In contrast, the spiral stairs is a direct and high-speed transition between spaces.

3. The view and landscape.

I took a specific point of view to analyze how Le Corbusier brought the landscape into Villa Savoye. There are three major elements in the view—frames, reflection and internal plants ,which blur the boundary between nature and architecture.

Frames

a) frames of planter beds

Le Corbusier uses the white frame of planter beds to disguise the skylight.

b)frames with glazing

The glazing blur the view of landscape which provides a contrast with view through un-glazed frames. I think the same view through different frame form a hierarchy, blurry or clear.

c)frames without glazing

The direct and clear view through the frame bring nature closer to visitors.

Reflection

a)”going-through” reflection

It is a pleasant experience when looking at this kind of reflection. The glass wall reflects the courtyard while people can still see the interior through the wall. What is more interesting is that there are frames behind the wall, and the reflection of external white frame is overlap the internal black frame.

b)reflection

The reflection emphasized the natural elements in the courtyard.

Internal Plants

Then plants can blur the boundary between nature and architecture.

Architecture Proposition

I summarized some concepts of Villa Savoye and designed a concept architecture with those concept.

1.the rhythm of circulation.

Same as Villa Savoye, my proposition contains two kinds of circulation in low and high speed. Two stairs and one ramp. But differently, I make stairs the major circulation.

2.”house is flowing in the air and the roof is a garden”

I raised up the habitation area above the ground to gain a better view. Meanwhile, there are gardens on the roof and in between habitation spaces, which provides resident pleasant experience closer to the nature.

3. the spaces on a ship

Just like Corbusier applied the concept of spaces on a ship to his architecture—that is, the private spaces(cabins) are small and public spaces are large—I showed the contrast of scales between public and private spaces in my proposition.