Take tips from the best—Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye is a master class in open-plan living

Mary Ann Sullivan, Bluffton University

FROM BERLIN TO LOS ANGELES, open-plan has become the lifestyle of choice, allowing you to combine your living room, kitchen and dining room as you please. But complete freedom can be confusing. Learn how to make the most of the open plan by looking at one of its most original and luxurious applications in the Villa Savoye, the early 1930s home on the outskirts of Paris designed by Modernist master Le Corbusier.

Le Corbusier Corbis

Le Corbusier (1887-1965)—born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a watchmaking center in northwest Switzerland—was the ne plus ultra of Modernists in the late 1920s, when he began to design a weekend house for the Parisian Savoye family. The site chosen was a spot west of Paris, overlooking the Seine Valley, in a village called Poissy. Back then, it was the countryside; now it's firmly part of the city's suburbs.

The fifth, and last, of Le Corbusier's so-called "white villas" in and around the French capital, the Villa Savoye—designed with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret —got rid of interior load-bearing walls, allowing for wraparound windows and continuous interior spaces.

Spread over four levels—including a basement wine cellar and a vast rooftop terrace—the three-bedroom house is "the culmination" of Le Corbusier's pioneering years as a theoretician of modern architecture, says Mary McLeod, a professor of architecture at New York's Columbia University.

The centerpiece is the first floor, which includes two open-plan rooms. A combined dining area and living room expand into a terrace, thanks to a wall-size internal window that slides open. In the master bedroom, at the other end of the house, bathing facilities are blended in with a sleeping and dressing area.

Completed in 1931, the Villa Savoye was a world-wide sensation, says Prof. McLeod. "It was published extensively in the period," she says. And "it almost immediately became an icon of modern architecture."

The house was commandeered by the occupying Germans during World War II, and later used as a nursery school. A planned demolition in the 1950s was halted after international protests, and the building became the first Modernist work to be declared a national monument in France. Now the restored house can be visited as a museum.

Open Plan, Open Mind Alamy

Open Plan, Open Mind

Unlike Modernist villas by Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Villa Savoye didn't have elaborate plans for large pieces of stationary furniture. In projects like Wright's Robie House and Mies's Tugendhat House, everything was designed, says Prof. McLeod, but Le Corbusier allowed for more freedom. Approach your open-plan living and dining room with radical flexibility, and consider periodically rearranging the furniture.

Rethink Windows Mary Ann Sullivan, Bluffton University

Rethink Windows

Le Corbusier was a proponent of built-in storage space, believing that "all you needed were tables, bed, and chairs," says Tim Benton, emeritus professor of art history at the Open University and author of a book on the architect's villa designs. With that in mind, he lined areas beneath windows with fixed shelves, creating light-filled display areas on top, which owners could adapt to their needs. Try placing an array of tables beneath your windows and fill in the space with whatever you fancy.

Bathing in Plain View Alamy

Bathing in Plain View

The master bedroom accommodates a tiled bathtub with adjoining chaise longue, and even a bidet—Le Corbusier loved to make art out of everyday objects, says Prof. McCleod. Try something similar by placing a free-standing bathtub in your bedroom.

Swap Your Apron for a Lab Coat Alamy

Swap Your Apron for a Lab Coat

The Villa Savoye contains one of Modernism's first luxury kitchens, which Le Corbusier filled with metal surfaces and transparent cabinets that wouldn't have been out of place in a laboratory. Bring a new sense of openness and cleanliness to your own kitchen by sourcing furniture from a wholesale lab supplier.

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