Villa Stein continuation

The restoration of a modern icon: Villa Stein-de Monzie or

‘Les Terrasses’ Clients: the current homeowners of 'Les Terrasses’

The project management team: Agence: Pierre-Antoine Gatier, Paris

M. Pierre-Antoine Gatier, chief architect of historic monuments

Clients: the homeowners—the Villa was divided into flats in 1960

Located in the town of Vaucresson (then, Garches) in the Hauts-de-Seine department, the Villa Stein-de Monzie was built between 1926 and 1928, by the architects Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, on the initiative of Michael Stein, the brother of Gertrude Stein, and his wife Sarah, an American family of modern art collectors, and Gabrielle de Monzie, daughter of a wealthy banker and wife of Count Anatole de Monzie.

Villa Stein-de Monzie project continuation

2014: an invitation from M. Pierre-Antoine Gatier to look at the ‘evidence’—the original intention: Le Corbusier's ‘poetics’ and the ‘Five Points of Architecture’ that were lost or made invisible over time, due to interior interventions and significant deterioration of the building envelope, including the facades and terraces.

2014–2016: The outcomes and brochure—2nd edition:

The primary intention of the brochure created by NYIT architecture students was to assist the homeowners: with a better and closer read into Le Corbusier's intentions; to bring attention to the Villa's original design; and to highlight certain design intentions that had been lost, but could be reintroduced during the conservation and restoration of the Villa.

The dynamic for understanding and dialogue was achieved through interactive sessions at the Villa with the homeowners, with architect Gatier's participation.

Among the design elements highlighted for consideration and reintroduction:

1) The original modular window system, which had been replaced with standard aluminum windows without the harmonics of the modular system, a device Le Corbusier used to weave the entire building envelope into a harmonic whole.

Budget:

CLOSE READS CONSULTANCY

Judith DiMaio Architect FAIA RIBA

2) The Gatehouse canopy, or Le Corbusier's foreground gesture. The crucial lead up to the Villa beyond. The missing canopy is a critical omission demanding a rebirth.

Budget: Canopy and Gatehouse 160.000 € HT (provisional value 2023)

Design and construction for Michael and Sarah Stein and Gabrielle de Monzie

Departure of the Steins and de Monzie to the US—sold to Norwegian banker, Steen

Minor work carried out by the Steens with Le Corbusier

Departure of the Steens and gradual abandonment of the Villa

Division of the villa into condominium apartments

Classified as a 'monument historique'

Historic monument inscription of the facades and the roofs of the villa and caretaker’s house

New and Ongoing Ventures—2023