La Villa Savoye after Le Corbusier, une Longue Histoire

Abstract

This is a study of the microhistory of Villa Savoye that has already been realized, which thus does not concern its genesis (almost too studied by others). In the construction site of microhistory the reduced scale of observation is the space which may permit the reconstruction of interpersonal relationships as a historical subject and to experiment with new procedures and put interpretative categories to the test. The problem regarding the construction defects is more or less a constant in the work of Le Corbusier, in addition to the speed of the processes of both ageing and decay which are characteristic of the materials used in modern architecture. In this sense the restoration of the works of Le Corbusier is also an opportunity to bring back to the center of the critical and theoretical discussion crucial topics regarding the reflection on modern architecture: originality and authorship. Restorations such as the ones undertaken for Villa Savoye reopened the discussion on the topic of the restoration of an auteur architecture, beginning from its foundations.

Le Corbusier e la villa Savoye: un caso di restauro autoriale / Le Corbusier and the villa Savoye: a case of authorial restoration

“…But even researching how a professional like Jean-Louis Véret was formed, his relationship with an America that was very different from the stereotypes of his time, his relationship with the work of his initial master and the truly unique decision Tra i molti lavori si citano a titolo esemplificativo, Caccia Gherardini S., Olmo C. 2015a, pp. 689-722;Caccia Gherardini S., Olmo C. 2016a , 2021 e 2022. 2 Doumato L. 1979;Brady D. 1985;Pearson C.E.M.…”

“…La ricostruzione delle articolate vicende della mostra newyorkese, basate sui documenti conservati all'archivio del Moma, sono state sviluppate insieme con Carlo Olmo nel volume Metamorfosi americane del 2016, cfr. Caccia Gherardini S., Olmo C. 2016b. La mostra al MoMa, che già nel 1932 aveva ospitato la villa nella sezione Modern Architects dell'esposizione curata da Henry-Russell Hitchcock 18 , è costruita su un meccanismo narrativo che pone in contrasto gli ingrandimenti fotografici della villa appena completata e le immagini del degrado a metà anni Sessanta, con l'obiettivo di provocare un senso di oltraggio 19 . Esposizione quella del 1966 che è l'unico momento in cui la villa Savoye è oggetto di dibattito e conflitto tra Stati Uniti e Francia.…”

“…17 "Even if it is satisfactorily restored, the Villa Savoye can never again be seen as a pure form in an open landscape, because of the recently built school.... [I]f the building can still be saved the students in that school will be able to look out of their windows at a Monument Historique that belongs, in a sense, to the whole world" Drexler A., Villa Savoye: Destruction through Neglect, MoMa, New York, 2-24 July 1966. A reconstruction of the events of the New York exhibition, based on documents kept in the Mo-Ma archives, was developed together with Carlo Olmo in the 2016 volume Metamorfosi americane, see Caccia Gherardini S., Olmo C. 2016b. In 1967, it was officially announced that "la villa Savoye et le pavillon du gardien ne seront pas classés comme établissement recevant du public".…”

“…Ed è sempre più evidente che mentre la villa vive di une apparence de vie, la carovana dei critici e degli storici perderà ben presto il valore cumulativo di una architecture sursignée, soverchiata da quella che era la chiave fondamentale di questa storia, quel che l'intrigue aggiunge al tempo, riprendendo la riflessione di Raphael Baroni su Temps et récit di Paul Ricoeur 1 .1 Among the many works are, by way of example,Caccia Gherardini S., Olmo C. 2015a, pp. 689-722;Caccia Gherardini S., Olmo C. 2016a, 2021. 2 Doumato L. 1979Brady D. 1985; Pearson C.E.M.…”

The Cat and the Ball of Yarn

“…The exhibit opened up to a series of pathways -temporal, literary and/or visual -that answered very different horizons of expectations 124 . We should remember that the first Le Corbusier model to enjoy its own history autonomous from his works was the Villa Savoye model exposed in New York in 1932 and then reconstructed after the war and placed at the center of a provocative exhibit entitled Destruction to Neglect, curated by Arthur Drexler at the MOMA in 1966, an incunabulum of the restoration of the modern 125 .…”