THE REVOLTED ARCHITECT

Politiquement, j'ai toujours été un révolté.
OSCAR NIEMEYER

With the end of Estado Novo in Brazil, in 1945, the communist militants, arrested during the dictatorship of Gétulio Vargas, are amnestied. Then, the architect Oscar Niemeyer decides to host, in his own house, Luís Carlos Prestes, general-secretary of the Brazilian Communist Party. After a few weeks of coexistence, Niemeyer converts himself to the cause and joins the party that will chair in 1992.

In 1964, he is invited to Israel by Yekutiel Federman, owner of Dan Hotels, to discuss some potential projects. Meanwhile, there is a military coup in Brazil. The coupists sack the headquarters of the magazine Módulo and his studio. Incidents that force him to extend his, in principle brief, stay in Israel. But, six months later, he ends up returning to his country.

In 1965, a year after his return to Brazil, he resignes from his position as a professor at the university in protest for the dictatorial policies of the Brazilian military government and, taking advantage of the success of his monographic exhibition at the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris, leaves for France. In this exile, which will last about twenty years, he designs, among other works, the Headquarters for the French Communist Party in Paris.

Siège du Parti communiste français (sketches by Oscar Niemeyer, 1965)

In a few days, Niemeyer develops a preliminary project in accordance with the local conditions and its surroundings, that is to say: in accordance with the size and shape of the site, as well as with the orientation and operation of the building And at the same time it gives an answer to one of the main requirements of the program: to provide a safe building, with discreet and easy controlled entrances.

All of this explains the final solution adopted: a block in curved line which unfolds throughout the whole area of ​​the plot that borders with the neighbors, where the party's offices are located. In this way it frees the rest of the lot and preserves, between the building and its neighbors, the spaces necessary for its vertical accesses, located outside to facilitate future modifications that the program of the building may eventually require.

Then he places the rest of the building a meter and a half below the street level, creating a system of inclined planes where we can find a large auditorium, semi-buried but easily accessible, and the entrance hall, which it is called foyer de la classe ouvrière, where, through multiple curved walls, a whole series of spaces for exhibition, waiting and conference rooms are located.

Siège du Parti communiste français (photos by Joan de Torres Calsapeu, 2000)

In the words of its own author, the building becomes an example of contemporary architecture and a potential point of tourist attraction. But it is not a simple architectural challenge. It is the worker's house. A building with new, simple forms, without luxurious and superfluous finishings that represents the fight against misery, discrimination and injustice which, according to him, must be the goal of French communism.

However, it is not a communist who welcomes him, and facilitates his architectural practice in France but André Malraux, then minister of culture of President Charles de Gaulle's last government. In 1959 Malraux had described Brasilia as the city of hope and Palácio da Alvorada's columns as the most beautiful ever seen after the Greeks. It is thanks to Malraux's devotion for the work of Niemeyer, which he collects in his Imaginary Museum, that the Brazilian architect owes him, to a large extent, his projects in France.

According to Niemeyer himself, Georges Pompidou, then prime minister, stated that this building is the only good thing that the Communists have done, ignoring the fact that the architect has not a quite very rebellious past. In fact, in 1936 he designed, in collaboration with, among others, Lúcio Costa and the advice of Le Corbusier, the Headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Rio de Janeiro commissioned by a fervent fascist and Brazilian anti-communist like Gustavo Capanema.

"LES HEURES SOMBRES"

La maison se posera au milieu de l'herbe comme un objet, sans rien déranger.

LE CORBUSIER

In June 1928 Pierre Savoye, co-founder of the insurance company Gras Savoye, visits Le Corbusier, in his Parisian studio, to entrust a weekend residence, to receive friends and take a break with family, in a field of 7-hectare in Poissy.

The Villa Savoye, spontaneously named by its owners as “Les Heures claires” (The clear hours), is built between 1929 and 1931. As early as 1930, Eugénie Savoye, Pierre’s wife, begins a correspondence with his architect, which will last until 1937, where she communicates all its construction defects.

G.E. Kidder Smith 'Villa Savoye' (1959)

The first letter dates from March 24, 1930, where Madame Savoye already complains that the terrace, garage and cellar are flooded and that the infernal noise of rain on the skylight in her bathroom does not let her sleep. In another letter dated September 6, 1937, she writes: "It's raining in the lobby, it's raining on the ramp, and the garage wall is absolutely soaked. What's more, it's still raining in my bathroom, which is flooding every time that there is rain."

Le Corbusier goes so far as to tell her that, as a client, she should consider architects as friends of their house and not their enemies. Nevertheless, at the beginning of 1938 the owners stop living there. But it is not until May 1940 that they definitively abandone it. Shortly afterwards it is confiscated by the Nazis for its strategic location. From there they can watch the entire Seine Valley and the Ford factory in Paris.

René Burri 'The Villa Savoye' (1959)

It is not until two years after the end of World War II that the Savoye family regains their ownership. Widowed and impoverished, Madame Savoye turns her land into a farm by transforming the house into a barn and, consequently, accelerating its decline.

Perhaps for this reason, in 1958 it is expropriated again. This time by the Poissy City Council which reserves 6 of its 7 hectares for the construction of a new school and ends up transforming the Villa into a Maison des jeunes et de la culture, although at first it was planned to be demolished.

The Villa Savoye, Destruction Through Neglect (1966) MoMA

Then the alarm goes off and a whole series of campaigns and mobilizations begin, on an international scale, to save Villa Savoye. As a result of this pressure, the building passes into the hands of the French Republic. And in 1965, a few months after Le Corbusier's death, André Malraux, then Minister of Culture, classifies it as a historical monument.

But as Arthur Drexler, director of MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design, denounces: the harm is already done. Even restored, the Villa Savoye, due to this amputation, can never again be seen as an object, without anything altering it.