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VILLA BESNUS, PRIMER ENSAYO CONSTRUIDO
90 AÑOS DE LA PRIMERA VILLA PURISTA DE LE CORBUSIER
Por Marcelo Gardinetti | Diciembre de 2012
Las reflexiones arquitectónicas expresadas por Le Corbusier en L’espirit Nouveau entre
1918 y 1922, artículos que mayoritariamente se transcribieron a las páginas de Vers une
architecture editado un año después, fueron plasmados por primera vez como hecho
palpable en la construcción de la Villa Besnus. La modesta vivienda de Vaucresson, sirvió
a Le Corbusier como un laboratorio de ensayo para dar forma construida al lenguaje que
desarrollará durante los próximos 10 años en sus villas domésticas y que lo catapultó
entre los arquitectos de vanguardia de las primeras décadas del siglo XX.
La vivienda fue encomendada por George Besnus, impresionado por el vigor expresivo de
la maqueta de la casa Citrohän, expuesta en el salón d’Automne de 1922. Besnus quería
construir una pequeña Citrohän en su terreno, ubicado en las afueras de París, pero la
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3. English version
VILLA BESNUS, FIRST TEST BUILT
90 YEARS OF THE FIRST VILLA PURIST OF LE CORBUSIER
By Marcelo Gardinetti | December 2012
The architectural reflections expressed by Le Corbusier in L’Esprit Nouveau between 1918
and 1922, articles mainly were transcribed to pages of Vers une architecture published a
year later, were embodied first as made evident in the construction of the Villa Besnus.
Vaucresson The modest housing, served to Le Corbusier as a testing laboratory built to
shape the language that develop over the next 10 years in their home villages and that
catapulted him among the vanguard architects of the early twentieth century.
The house was commissioned by George Besnus, impressed by the expressive force the
model Citrohan house, exhibited at the Salon d’Automne of 1922. Besnus wanted to build
a small Citrohan on his land, located on the outskirts of Paris, but the big difference in
height between the street and the interior and the irregular shape of the land suggested
to Le Corbusier another idea.
The house was the right opportunity to Le Corbusier of translating their drawings and
models in a concrete work to dump the entire repertoire developed so far. It does not
omitting detail, displaying his ability to give new meanings to elements, taken of another
reality, from a compendium of formal criteria to accompany him on most of his early
works.
It is in this work where Le Corbusier wields first common elements of his work purist, with
the use of a flat roof to give cubic character of the building, designed openings according
to regulating lines that developed from his love of geometry, using a module provided to
the human scale, builds the woodwork with simple elements commonly used in industrial
buildings, windows placed flush with the wall to accent the lightness of image volume and
gives rise to the free plant, eliminating any reference decorative building.
This compilation of criteria summarizes all the concepts spilled in those years, and the
result further stimulates his interest for architecture, that as of this work happened to be
their primary activity, without ever leaving his passion for painting.
Unfortunately, years of unscrupulous interventions led to the villa to a state almost
unrecognizable, with the addition of volume in the front and a decisive change in the
cover. However, the plastic nature of the work still emerges between aggression shyly
constructive beats subjacent within the walls of the house that preserved in his spirit two
irreplaceable components: a will and an idea.
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