Villa Shodan

Dave Fortin / Ben Klumper / Chad Zyla

Villa Shodhan (Ahmedabad, India - 1954) is the result of Le Corbusier’s endeavors to progress his ideologies towards a way of life from the machine age polemic to a more primal relationship between man and his living space. It is one of the ultimate examples of the evolution of the free plan and the development of the free section.

The Villa, based on his earlier Maison Dom-ino, is a series of spaces that explore and challenge normative notions of spatial perception through varying degrees of opacity, transparency, overlap, adjacency, expansion and compression. The structural concrete frame allows an openness in both plan and section, creating spaces prescribed only by one’s movement through them via such connecting devices as the horizontally biased architectural promenade. Although the monolithic nature of an entirely concrete building suggests a static and somewhat mundane quality of space, the opposite is true. From the roughness and randomness of the imprinted wood formwork, to the complexity and infinite perceptions of spaces, Villa Shodhan is inherently and internally unique, tempting the creativity of its inhabitants to play within its vastness. The functions within the house are completely independent from its structure, leading to a collection of flexible, inter-woven spaces, serving whichever programmatic necessity the inhabitant wishes.

Through the absence of interior partitions, Le Corbusier was able to bring natural light into the certain spaces as an architectural material. This, along with the free passage of the warm Indian breeze created a tactile and ever-changing environment with a strong connection to the natural site. In effect, the Villa’s openness is its most tangible trait.

Ben Klumper, Dave Fortin, Chad Zyla are MArch students at the University of Calgary.