Curutchet House

Curutchet House
Casa Curutchet
File:Curutchet.jpg
General information
Location	La Plata, Argentina
Address	Boulevard 53 Nº320, 1900
Completed	1949 - 53
Owner	Dr. Pedro Domingo Curutchet
Design and construction
Architect	Le Corbusier

The Curutchet House, La Plata, Argentina, is a building by Le Corbusier. It was commissioned by Dr. Pedro Domingo Curutchet, a surgeon, in 1948 and included a small medical office on the first floor. The house consists of four main levels with a courtyard between the house and the clinic. The building faces the Paseo del Bosque park. The main facade incorporates a brise soleil.

History

Construction began in 1949 under the supervision of Amancio Williams and was completed in 1953.

Design and construction

The house exemplifies Le Corbusier's five points of architecture and incorporates a ramp and a spiral staircase. The house represents a landmark in Corbusier own trajectory because it exemplifies how cultural and historical characteristics of architecture (the elements of the traditional Latin American courtyard house) can be rewritten using Corbusier's five points of modern architecture.

Dr. Curutchet's house is also one of the very few buildings that Corbusier built attached to pre-existing buildings and perfectly responding to a historical context. With this house Corbusier proved, more than with any of his other projects, that modern architecture could in fact be in a harmonious dialogue with traditional architecture.

Restoration

The house was restored from 1986 to 1988 during the centennial of Le Corbusier's birth and declared a national landmark by Argentina's Commission on National Landmarks. It currently houses the Buenos Aires professional association of architects, the Colegio de Arquitectos, and is open to the public for tours.

In popular media

The 2009 film El hombre de al lado was shot in the house and the main character is an industrial designer who lives there and has to bear architecture fans who read on Wikipedia that the house is open for visits.

See also

• Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Le Corbusier's sole other building in the Americas.

References

• Merro Johnston, Daniel El autor y el intérprete. Le Corbusier y Amancio Williams en la casa Curutchet Ediciones 1:100, Buenos Aires, 2011.
• Lapunzina, Alejandro. Le Corbusier's Maison Curutchet. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1997. ISBN 1-56898-095-7.
• Liernur, Jorge Francisco. "La casa del Dr. Curutchet", La Red Austral: obras y proyectos de Le Corbusier y sus discípulos en la Argentina (1924-1965). Buenos Aires, Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2008.

External links

• Official website by CAPBA
• "El autor y el intérprete. Le Corbusier y Amancio Williams en la Casa Curutchet", por Daniel Merro Johnston
• Information from Dr. Claudio Canenna
• Directions to house
• Gallery, architecture images.