LA TOURETTE
I’ve never been to La Tourette, which as you may know, is the Dominican monastery designed by LeCorbusier. I became curious about La Tourette as I gave a monastery project to my design students. As I became more curious, I realized that although I had seen iconic images of the building ever since I started architecture school, I realized that I did not know how it worked. I did not know which volume the sanctuary was in. I did not know how the monks circulated thru the piece. Sure, show me a photo of La Tourette, and I would have instantly told you the name of the building. Part of the goal of transparent drawing is to give designers a way of cutting thru the iconic images that we all have been exposed to over the years.
This drawing is of the church portion of La Tourette. Now I understand where the light enters the space, and why the roof of the church seems to float.
This is a transparent detail view of the lower church and chapels. This form is the most organic part of the composition. I now have a much better understanding of the influence of his painting on his architecture; this form could have been taken directly from one of his paintings.
I used Google Images as the only source for these studies. I invite you to type La Tourette into Google Images. You will see the wealth of information, both photographs and drawings. From these multiple views, I was able to put together a reasonably accurate understanding of how the building works.
I so appreciate your commentary on La Tourette, particularly about how the interior space works and how one might move through the space. In general one only sees the exterior which reveals itself, somewhat impersonally, as sculpture. Importantly, your drawings give the sense of how the entire project articulates in terms of both interior and exterior. Importantly, I now have a sense of what light might be like, and even sound, as one moves through the space. Bravo!
Thanks Arakawa Robert! Now I only need to go there to actually see this. Maybe become a monk?