re-draw architecture competition: villa savoye

Throughout history, designers have employed drawings as a fundamental tool for the communication of ideas and visions. Drawings were used as a means of rendering abstract concepts and engaging the wide public in a primordial effort of giving shape to one’s own thoughts. They were made to narrate concepts visually.

The “Re-Draw” competition aims to develop one drawing to ‘represent’ an iconic architectural piece. The participants are asked to draft one image, with absolute freedom of scale, technique, and level of abstraction.

We encourage creativity, criticality, and innovation. The drawing can highlight functional aspects of the building, showing a deep understanding of one or more design aspects. It can focus on the aesthetic qualities, experimenting and mastering a drawing technique with hyper-realistic outcomes, or it can be an optical deformation, a caricatural interpretation, or a distant abstraction of the built architecture.

The drawing can strengthen a conventional interpretation of architecture, or explore a new angle, a new point of view, intellectual and/or physical. The Villa Savoye can be portrayed as a whole, a part, or a collage of disconnected moments. The entry is completely flexible and adaptable to the participant’s interpretation.

Villa Savoye, a modernist icon located in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris, stands as one of the most significant contributions to 20th-century architecture. Designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, and completed in 1931, Villa Savoye is a manifestation of Le Corbusier's "Five Points" which underpin his theory of modernism and are vividly expressed in this singular construction. The house was originally commissioned by the Savoye family as a summer retreat, providing a contrast to the traditional French country estates surrounding it. Villa Savoye's design breaks from the past and is characterized by an aesthetic of structured simplicity and an honest display of construction. After surviving a proposal for demolition in the 1950s, Villa Savoye was designated as a French national historic landmark in 1965. It now stands as a testament to the enduring relevance of Le Corbusier's vision. As a teaching tool, a pilgrimage site for architects, and a source of inspiration for countless buildings that followed, Villa Savoye's importance to the architectural world is immeasurable. It exemplifies the modern movement's break from historical styles, the pursuit of new ideas about space, and the use of technology to improve living conditions, thus igniting a conversation about architecture that resonates to this day.