Shodhan house (Villa Shodhan)

Le Corbusier – Shodhan House, Kharawala road, Ahmedabad, 1951-1954

Villa Shodhan (or Shodhan House) is a modernist villa located in Ahmedabad, India. Designed by Swiss architect Le Corbusier, it was built between 1951 and 1956.
Building on his previous projects and integrating traditional Ahmedabad design features, the villa epitomizes Le Corbusier’s “family” architecture. The building is currently used as a private residence.
The key aspects considered in the design of Villa Shodhan include the sun, the wind, the view upon arrival and the landscape. They could be addressed primarily by the positioning of the facades which, with a diagonal orientation, allow the arriving visitor a view of three-quarters of the building. The landscape enhances the building by contrasting the curved mounds of the site with the geometric and rectangular lines of the structure. The rectangular geometry of the northwest and southwest facades is further emphasized by the installation of brise soleil for protection from the sun. 

The design of Villa Shodhan is structurally simple, while maintaining plasticity in the treatment of the divided spaces. The general structure of the building is of rough reinforced concrete, with clear signs of the wooden formwork. The frame is anchored to the ground, not raised on pilotis, a feature that Le Corbusier frequently used in the 20s. The lower part of the interior ceilings is finished with colored sheet metal. The roof is used as a kind of protective umbrella. The design of the internal concrete pillars, which extend to the maximum height of the building's facade, is based on the design of the structure domino conceived by the architect in 1915. A ramp provides access to the main and mezzanine levels, while the rooms are grouped around a triple-height terrace.
The ramp also leads to the stairs to the roof and terrace.
The terrace plays an important role in the natural climate control process, cooling the bedrooms in the middle of the day and providing an alternative sleeping area during the summer.
On the umbrella roof of Villa Shodhan, there is a garden full of thick grass and water troughs. The vision of dense vegetation is also reinforced by potted plants and trees, all of which seem to camouflage the building in its natural environment.
There is an oval opening in the roof that has a corresponding hole in the lower floor, thus offering visitors a framed view of the sky.