Le Lac villa, Modernist villa in Corseaux, Switzerland.
Le Lac villa is a small house on the shore of Lake Geneva in Corseaux, western Switzerland, with a white rendered facade and a long continuous window band facing the water. The building is single-story and very compact, with a roof garden accessible by an interior staircase.
Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret designed the house in 1923 and 1924 for Le Corbusier's parents, who lived there until they died. From 2010, the Fondation Le Corbusier opened it as a museum, and in 2016 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The house was designed for Le Corbusier's parents and still feels like a livable experiment: each room has a clear purpose, and almost all the furniture is built into the walls. The long horizontal window in the living room is the defining feature, drawing the eye directly toward the lake.
The house sits right on the lakeshore and is easy to reach on foot from the village center. The interior rooms are very tight and the staircase to the roof garden is steep, which may be difficult for visitors with limited mobility.
Le Corbusier designed the long window so that the Alpine panorama would appear framed like a painting on the wall. His mother lived in the house for over 30 years and said she never wanted to live anywhere else.
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