Case Study: The Shodhan House By Corbusier

INTRODUCTION

This case study is focused on the Shodhan House by Corbusier. Le Corbusier proved himself to be proficient in many areas. He had ambitious plans to create whole communities in his designs. He was even called the father of international style. As his style evolved, so did his buildings. The Shodhan House is an example of his purist design. There were many factors that contributed to the design of the Shodhan House, and many things had to be taken into consideration. Firstly, since the building was located in India, there were many considerations regarding weather that had to be taken into account. The owners wanted to stand out among their neighbours with an opulent design. Corbusier worked with this challenge by creating a double height ceiling and mezzanine which were design elements in many of the buildings in the area, but also exhibited the opulence of the owners. Corbusier made this building unique, but used elements common in many of his modernist designs. A flat roof (with garden), a parasol (to shade from the sun), an open facade, and the piers elevating the floor, and a ribbon window. These were the elements used in many of his designs and others.

The main idea of the plan was to address the problem of glaring sunlight in the location of Ahmedabad. There were also considerations taken for the wind, climate and culture of the people in India. This is an example of regionalism in design.

The structure of the design was centred around the iterations of the roof. Corbusier wanted the plan to be open more than anything else, and the structure was reiterated many times to achieve this. The structure of the building itself is very grid based. The structure was skeletal, allowing for changes to be made easily ...

... middle of paper ...

...f the brise-soleiol on the faades and of the roof parasol, and moreover, in the hanging gardens swept by an orchestration of beneficent air currents. This plan recalls the ingenuity of the Villa Savoye of 1929-1930 at Poissy, placed here in a tropical and Indian setting."

The designs of Le Corbusier revolutionized what people see as modern architecture and the Shodan House is a prime example. Often modern architecture is associated with a vast array of windows, many linear forms and post and beam architecture, all of which are present in this design. The geometrical shape of the Shodan House in conjunction with the lines created from the windows form an example of what is now regarded as modern architecture.