Villa Besnus a Vaucresson

Le Corbusier – Villa Besnus, “Ker-Ka-Ré”, Vaucresson France, 1922

This project was the direct practical result of the urban stand at the "Salon d'Automne" in Paris in 1922. It dates back to a time when all kinds of difficulties arose simultaneously. Although theories had been put forward and principles developed to clarify the ground in "L'Esprit Nouveau", everything in this house had to be re-created from an architectural point of view: construction methods, an effective structural solution to the roof problem and of the window frame, parapet, etc. The project reveals its free planning: the bathroom is positioned in the center of the plant area. In the same way it defines the shape of the windows and their proportions, correctly sized to the human scale.

Here, for example, is an example that is only one of many that could be taken from this nursing home given aesthetic considerations: a sketch shows the cage of the rounded staircase, which will be seen is placed perpendicular to the facade. Le Corbusier recounted how when one evening he had just exited the Velodrome d'Hiver, he suddenly realized "that this perpendicular staircase had a discordant rhythm that destroyed the basic unit of his design. He then readjusted the position of the staircase to make it turn a quarter turn along the facade, thus emphasizing and amplifying the latter. Intense moments like these, he says, teach us a permanent lesson. "They make us turn our backs on the simple accident, push us to sacrifice a pleasant detail and they force us to seek a coherent unity. We must use all our soil to the end and invariably achieve the largest possible dimensions. It will be seen that in an architecture in which we can engage in plastic speculation, from a purely plastic point of view, we can do good or bad".