LE CORBUSIER'S BATHROOM FITTINGS: THE FREE DISPOSAL AND THE RADICAL EXPOSURE IN THE IGLOOS

Abstract

This paper is a study of the bathroom design of Le Corbusier, particularly his purist period in the 1920s. A bathroom is a domestic service room, invented by industrial civilization and often considered an ignoble work of anonymous design, exactly like its plumbing fixtures (bathtub, washbasin, bidet, toilet, etc.). Nevertheless, this little room has historical significance because of its indispensable presence in the habitat and its considerable impact on changes in the plan composition and typology of housing architecture, as noted by Sigfried Giedion. Among modern architects, it was Le Corbusier who was more sensitive to the issue and more interested in the question of bathroom design. He manifested its function (hygiene of the human body) representing modernity, declared that its physical condition should be bright and spacious as a living space like a traditional salon and brilliantly exploited the potential architectural qualities of this utility room in a singular and progressive manner. As an architect, he ennobles the bathroom. As shown in the development of the series of Citrohan house projects from 1920 to 1927, the disposition of sanitary objects in the bathroom plan is made increasingly dynamic. The bathroom also obtains a free form, responding to the free disposition of sanitary objects and also to their free forms produced by anonymous industries. Through Manage d'objets par un meme contour commun, the pictorial technique of Purism is applied. The form of the bathroom wall converges with the outline of a commercial bathtub, for example in the Weissenhof house of the Citrohan type or in the Garches house, both constructed in 1927. The bathroom of Le Corbusier is similar to the space for the exposition of objets trouvOs. The best example is given by the villa Savoye (1929). Left open completely, its bathroom invites a look inside completely and appreciation of the sculptural quality of its objects under light. The washbasin, lonely and exposed in the vestibule of the villa, shows another interesting operation. The sanitary object is removed from its place of daily intimacy and put into another place, clearly more public. This process enables all spaces of the house to be transformed into a potential museum. Both architectural and artistic, the exhibition of the architect is not only appreciated by the visitors of his architectural works, but also by the readers of his written publications, through his photographic reproductions mise-en-scene.