La Tourette (Rue de Lyon, France) 1960

La Tourette (Rue de Lyon, France) 1960 

La Tourette also known as Sante Marie de la Tourette is a Dominican Order priory, located on a hillside. He was drawn to the steeping slope with powerful views. The monastery was designed by the architect Le Corbusier. It was his most important and final building. The building design began in May 1952 and was completed in 1961.  

The committee that decided the creation of the building, wanted the primary duty of the monastery to be for the spiritual awakening of the people. It was built to be a self-contained world for a community of silent monks and to accommodate the unique lifestyle of the monks. Le Corbusier intention was to give monks what men today need most "silence and peace." Even though this was somewhat achieved, there were still issues with the size of cells and with soundproofing. Maintenance issues are still common today for the monastery, with cracking concrete, defective insulation, and dangerously installed electricity.

The exterior of the monastery consists of four perimeter heavy rectangular structures that create a closed interior space. The first volume that is compact, rests in the edge of hill which houses the church. The other three volumes are raised with pilotis of many different shapes which accommodate living spaces and all the other functions of the monastery. The structural form of the building is reinforced concrete, with undulating in other words, a rippled effect on the glass surface. The glass is located on three of the four exterior faces. 

The interior of the monastery was designed to have 100 bedrooms for teachers, study rooms, a church and etc. The dining room is in the lowest level and the peristyle of the temple is in the form of a cross, which also functions as a ramp and leads to the church. The study, entertainment, and library halls are placed on the above level, while the monk's cells are at the highest level. 

The open space between the four volumes would be considered a patio, but it's not a typical patio. Its divided into four parts by the two corridors joining each other. There's different forms of geometry throughout the four parts, like a cylinder which contains a helix staircase, a prismatic roof and a quadrangular pyramid. 

The use of light is also very important for the building. Light is a way for the visitor to experience the space better. Light guides the visitor through the space. In order to control the amount of light that enters the large space and corridors, vertical, wavy glass sheets were used. 

Today, the monastery has housed people for around forty years, welcoming all types of people from architects to students from all over the world. It functions as a meeting place for different disciplines connected to the human sciences and philosophy. The monastery became a pilgrimage site for students of architecture. You can even stay overnight in the unused cells. Fees for the room goes straight to the maintenance of the monastery. 

Sources 

AD Classics: Convent of La Tourette / Le Corbuiser.” ArchDaily, 15 Dec. 2010, www.archdaily.com/96824/ad-classics-convent-of-la-tourette-le-corbuiser. 

Soeten, Hans de and Thijs Edelkoort. La Tourette + Le Corbusier : L'Architecture Du Couvent Et L'Attitude De L'Architecte = the Architecture of the Monastery and the Architect's Attitude. Delft, The Netherlands : Delft University Press, c1987., 1987. 

Fondation Le Corbusier, www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sysId=13&IrisObjectId=4731&sysLanguage=en-en&itemPos=17&itemCount=78&sysParentId=64&sysParentName=home.