Architecture usually feels heavy. You look at an old house, and you see thick stone walls, tiny windows, and a foundation that seems to be fighting the earth. Then you see the floor plan Villa Savoye relies on, and everything changes. It’s light. It basically floats.
Built between 1928 and 1931 in Poissy, France, this weekend retreat for the Savoye family wasn't just a house. It was a manifesto. Le Corbusier, the mastermind behind it, famously called a house a "machine for living in." People often misunderstand that. He didn't mean he wanted us to live inside a cold, oily engine. He meant that a home should be as efficient, functional, and logically designed as an ocean liner or a car. If you look closely at the layout, you’ll see he wasn't kidding. The ground floor is actually shaped by the turning radius of a 1930 Citroën.
Honestly, it’s a bit weird when you first think about it. The house is a box on stilts. But those stilts, or pilotis, are the secret sauce. By lifting the bulk of the house off the damp ground, Corbusier freed up the land.
The ground floor: Formed by a car
Most houses start with a front door. The floor plan Villa Savoye starts with a driveway that goes under the house. This is where the genius (and the ego) of Le Corbusier really shows up.
The ground floor is mostly glass and recessed back from the upper level. It’s painted dark green to make it "disappear" into the shadows of the forest, further pushing that illusion that the white box above is hovering. But the curve of that glass wall? That’s not just for aesthetics. It was specifically measured so a chauffeur could drive a car under the house, drop off the passengers at the main entrance, and continue around the curve to the integrated garage. It's peak 1920s luxury.
Inside this level, you’ve got the entrance hall, the ramp, and the spiral stairs. Then there's the servant's quarters and the laundry room. It’s the "engine room" of the house. You don't stay here; you transition through it. The ramp is the most important part. Corbusier hated how stairs "cut" the space between floors. He wanted an "architectural promenade." A ramp lets you experience the changing perspective of the house slowly, almost like a movie scene unfolding as you walk up.
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The first floor: Where life actually happens
Once you get to the first floor, the floor plan Villa Savoye opens up into something surprisingly livable, even by today's standards. This is the L-shaped living area.
Because the house is supported by a grid of concrete columns—one of Corbusier’s "Five Points of New Architecture"—the walls don't have to hold up the roof. This is the "Free Plan." He could put walls wherever he wanted. Or nowhere at all.
- The living room is massive.
- Giant sliding glass doors open directly onto a hanging garden (a terrace).
- The kitchen is tucked away but efficient.
- The bedrooms are separated by a hallway to keep things private.
The master suite is a trip. It has an open-concept bathroom where the bathtub is basically a lounge chair made of tile, sitting right in the middle of the room. No walls. Just a curtain. It was scandalous at the time, but it shows how much he wanted to break down the "cells" of traditional room design.
The windows here are also a big deal. They are "ribbon windows." They run horizontally across the entire length of the facade. In a normal 19th-century house, you get vertical patches of light. Here, you get a panoramic view of the landscape. It makes the interior feel ten times bigger than it actually is. It’s bright. It’s airy. It’s basically the blueprint for every modern "open concept" home we see on HGTV now.
The roof garden: Reclaiming the earth
Corbusier felt that if you build a house, you "steal" land from nature. To pay it back, you have to put the garden on the roof.
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The floor plan Villa Savoye culminates in the solarium. The ramp continues from the first-floor terrace all the way to the top. Up here, you have curved walls that act as windbreaks and create a private sunbathing spot. It looks like the deck of a cruise ship. This wasn't just about tanning, though. It was about health. Back then, "fresh air and sunlight" were seen as the cures for the grime and tuberculosis of the crowded cities.
Why it almost fell apart
For all its brilliance, the house was kind of a nightmare to live in. The Savoyes actually hated it after a while.
The roof leaked. Constantly.
The ribbon windows rattled.
It was freezing in the winter because of all that glass and a lack of insulation.
Madame Savoye famously wrote to Corbusier saying, "It’s raining in the hall, it’s raining on the ramp, and the wall of my garage is absolutely soaked."
The "machine for living" was broken. After the family fled during World War II, the house was used as a hay barn and nearly demolished. It took a massive international outcry (and the fact that Corbusier was still alive and famous) to save it. It was eventually restored in the 60s and 90s.
How to use these ideas in your own space
You probably aren't going to build a concrete box on stilts in the middle of a field. But the floor plan Villa Savoye still has lessons we can use.
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First, think about the "promenade." How do you move through your house? Is it just a series of doors, or is there a flow? You can create a sense of movement just by how you align your furniture or by keeping sightlines clear from one room to the next.
Second, the "free plan." If you’re renovating, remember that not every wall is a load-bearing wall. Opening up a space to let light travel from one side of the house to the other—using those ribbon-window vibes—can change the entire mood of a home.
Third, the indoor-outdoor connection. Corbusier didn't just put a balcony on the side; he integrated the terrace into the heart of the first floor. If you have a patio or a deck, try to make the transition so seamless that you forget where the "inside" ends.
Next Steps for Enthusiasts
If you really want to understand the scale, you need to look at the sectional drawings alongside the floor plan Villa Savoye. The way the ramp cuts through the center of the house is much clearer in a 3D section than in a flat 2D map. Research the "Five Points of New Architecture" to see how each one—pilotis, roof garden, free plan, ribbon windows, and free facade—all work together in this specific building. Finally, if you're ever near Paris, take the RER A train to Poissy. Walking up that ramp yourself is the only way to truly feel the "machine" in action.