Mid Century Modern Architecture Design

Le Corbusier

Villa Savoye, Poissy

The Villa Savoye seems to grow from the interior, almost as though reacting against any form of external 'front', thanks to a central force, which is almost forcefully expressed in the continuity of the spiral staircase, but which loses its intensity towards the outside walls, which balance the externalenvironment with the internal forces.

The staircase, an 'architectural promenade' which leads to the 'lyrical experience of the purely plastic', achieves vertically an accelerated communication between consecutive spatial experiences: the first moment of contact at ground level, the moment of interim passage and arrival at the middle zone and final freedom from tension at roof-garden level. Three moments, three different stages of life here all the basic symbols of architecture are organised in synthesis and finally meet in culmination.

Visual Arts Center, Cambridge