Context
Le Corbusier's cabanon
Jean-Lucien Bonillo
During the 1930's Le Corbusier stayed at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, in the Villa E-1027, owned by his friend Jean Badovici, architect and director of the avant-garde magazine L'Architecture vivante. Designed by Eileen Gray at Badovici's request, E-1027 is an excellent example of the principles of 1920's modern, rationalist and purist architecture – tinged nevertheless with both humanity and sophistication. Currently being restored, it will soon be open to the public, and be part of a major 20th century heritage site which includes: Villa E-1027, the Unité de camping and the small cabanon or hut-like cottage adjoining the open-air restaurant “L’étoile de mer”
Although the Unité de camping was no more than a row of five extremely small, bare bed-rooms, it was run as a hotel by the owner of L’étoile de mer, Robert Rebutato. Corbusier had given him the design for this minimalist hotel in exchange for a plot of land where he would build his famous cabanon, attached to the restaurant. This “holiday bedroom” (Le Corbusier's title on the graphic documents drawn up in his studio) enabled him to put into practice some elements of his “patient research”. We shall look at three of them, more or less mentioned in the various interviews in the film.
- The minimalist habitat, a major theme of 1920's heroic modernism, was revisited here in a form more like a guest bedroom than an independent living unit (the Le Corbusier couple ate their meals at L’étoile de mer). The “Modulor”, which he had developed a little earlier as an alternative to the metric system, was used throughout. It was a harmonic measurement system based on human proportions and the Fibonacci sequence.
- Prefabricating the building and mass producing the living units; this was clearly an early attempt by Le Corbusier, who even took out a patent. Designed as a prototype, made in Corsica by the carpenter Barberis, the erection on the Roquebrune site took place in August 1952. The rusticity of the exterior, with rough-hewn half-trunks of pine, is in deliberate contrast to the precision and finish of the interior.
- The relationship between architecture and nature, one of the architect's central themes, can be seen equally in the larger projects (like the plan Obus for Algiers) as in the smaller ones – here for example. The site hut, recycled as a work-room and placed at a distance, the terrace of L’étoile de mer which was used as dining room, some useful improvements to “outdoor living”... all combine to make this holiday home seem exploded, “a house without walls” in harmony with and immersed in nature.
Two final points.
- It was on this site that the famous Roq and Rob project was conceived (Roquebrune and Robert): a model of grouped housing suitable for the sloping Mediterranean hillsides.
- The construction and the spirit of the cabanon are in keeping with Le Corbusier's post-war period, where without sacrificing what he had learnt about purity during the inter-war years, he coloured his work with a certain home-made, old-fashioned look now known as “brutalism” (The Maisons Jaoul near Paris, the Unité d'habitiation in Marseille, Chandigarh).
Brief bibliography
- Bonillo J.-L., « L’architecture est le site », in Pauly D., Le Corbusier et la méditerranée, catalogue d’exposition, Parenthèses-Musées de Marseille, 1987, pp. 142-151.
- Chiambretto B., Le Corbusier à Cap-Martin, éd. Parenthèses, Marseille, 1987 et 2006 (Voir aussi sur le même thème le diplôme de fin d’études de l’ENSA Marseille sous la direction de Jean-Lucien Bonillo).
- Lucan J. (dir), Le Corbusier, une encyclopédie, catalogue d’exposition, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1987.
- Alison F. (dir), L’interno del Cabanon. Le Corbusier 1952 – Cassina 2006, éd. Triennale/Electa, Milano, 2006.
- Papillaut R., « Le Corbusier, le bon sauvage en son cabanon », L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, Micro-Architectures, n° 328, juin 2008, pp. 44-47.
- Bonillo J.-L., « Cabanon et Unité de camping », in Bonillo J.L. et Pousse J.F., L’architecture contemporaine sur la côte d’Azur, Nice, ed. Conseil général 06 et Les Presses du réel, 2011.