The photo promenade of Villa Savoye. Le Corbusier and the image as an expression of the form

Abstract

This paper is based on original documents from the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris. It intends to catalog, organize and analyze the initial photographs of the Villa Savoye (1929-30), managed by Le Corbusier himself, taken during the works or just at the end of these, and that were used in the publications of the thirties. First, all the known photographs have been located, in the archive or in the editions. Then, the date and authorship of each image has been clarified, through indications such as the state of the works, the interior conditioning or the direction of the shadows. They have been grouped according to the different reports and the main reviews and books of the period where they appeared have been ordered. We also propose formal and conceptual relationships between the images, the architecture they represent and the story they elaborated about that house.