Villa Baizeau 1929 (built version)

Le Corbusier – Villa in Carthage, 1929 – Final version (built)

Villa Baizeau is located in the suburb of Tunis in Saint Monique (Carthage), is a residential house designed by the Swiss modernist architect Le Corbusier in 1928. The building is the architect's only work in Tunisia.
Lucien Baizeau was director of an important industry that produced building materials "La Tunisoise Industrielle". the company wanted to learn the revolutionary new construction methods that were being tested in Europe. They intended to send one of their employees to Europe for a study trip. They wrote on 6 November 1927 to the French ambassador in Berlin and to the mayor of Stuttgart to obtain information on the Weissenhof Siedlung exhibition held in the autumn.
During the same period Lucien Baizeau who spent long periods in France met with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in Paris. His purpose was twofold: to learn Le Corbusier methods as much as possible and to commission him a Villa in Tunis.
l January 23, 1928 Baizeau signed an agreement with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in which it was decided to build the villa whose works would begin in March.
Apart from drawing up the plans, the architects were also responsible for the estimates and had to prepare a detailed description of the construction works.
Le Corbusier failed to comply with the second part of the contract and left the Tunisian company to oversee the construction of the house.
Detailed instructions accompanied the contract: the instructions included drawings for the ground floor and first floor showing the layout of the rooms desired by Baizeau, a map of the place and a series of photographs of the area and surroundings.
It appears that neither Le Corbusier nor his assistants have ever visited the site, nor that they have ever seen the building completed.
For this reason the close correspondence between the architect and the client Baizeau is important, this has allowed us to understand the path of the various design choices.