Anti-Pilotis House
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| Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, a perfect example of pilotis |
During his career, the French architect Le Corbusier came up with five points of architecture that dictated his architectural technique, one of which was the use of pilotis, making his buildings seem like they’re floating above the ground as well as allowing for a more open concept in the first floor of the building.
Flipping this idea inside out, however, and putting all the supporting columns back inside the building makes for an interesting challenge.
I created a 10′ wide grid in the house and then worked to use as few walls as possible to create a livable and interesting space.
The columns not only help to make the space look much taller, but provide a sense of rhythm throughout the house.
And then you can just repeat this basic house shape again and again,
stacking them up in urban towers
or in modular suburban configurations.
Until you have a whole city!
It’s important to know the rules but it’s maybe even more important to know how and when to break them, and that knowledge only comes through experimentation, through taking the old norms, understanding them, and then running in the exact opposite direction just to see where that will take you.
If walls could dream… they’d do just the opposite and stay up all night.
