Compare two actual buildings (Le Corbusier’s ramp use in Villa Savoy and Lubetkin ramp use in Penguin pool, London Zoo In the early years of 20th century, modernist movement led architecture into the direction of functionalism. This further provoked the idea of attempting to create architecture which has non-historical basis. Modernity in architecture also paved way to a new space sense which can be developed through modern material usage such as the use of ramps. Le Corbusier’s ramp usage while constructing Villa Savoye marked a turning point in space envisioning, modern forms and technology. Through comparison of use of ramp by Le Corbusier with the later ramp usage by Lubetkin at the Penguin pool, this paper seeks to highlight the legacy of Corbusier and the way in which ramp as an element served as an essential tool to translate such legacy.

1. Topic: Compare two actual buildings (Le Corbusier’s ramp use in Villa Savoy and
Lubetkin ramp use in Penguin pool, London Zoo
In the early years of 20th
century, modernist movement led architecture into the direction of
functionalism. This further provoked the idea of attempting to create architecture which has
non-historical basis. Modernity in architecture also paved way to a new space sense which
can be developed through modern material usage such as the use of ramps. Le Corbusier’s
ramp usage while constructing Villa Savoye marked a turning point in space envisioning,
modern forms and technology. Through comparison of use of ramp by Le Corbusier with the
later ramp usage by Lubetkin at the Penguin pool, this paper seeks to highlight the legacy of
Corbusier and the way in which ramp as an element served as an essential tool to translate
such legacy.
Le Corbusier responded to his aspirations and deliveries his aspirations for mechanized
design by establishing his 5 essential architecture points that simply list prescribed elements
that need to be included within designs (Serenyi, 1984). Each of these essential points were
evidently used by Corbu while designing Villa Savoy. These elements are pilotis, flat roof
terrace, open plan, ribbon window and free façade. The ground floor walls of the building are
recessed and are made up of concrete which is reinforced. The house appears as a floating
box on pilotis of delicate nation especially because the floor walls are painted in green colour.
The exterior wall are stark white with the ribbon window strips that are smooth and have a
planar quality. This implies, there is less interior fluidity (Curtis, 1982). Fluidity in the
appearance of the house is organized through ramps of multiple storeys leading the viewer on
a path slightly curving across a house that is approximately square.

2. (Spiral staircase and Ramp)
From the entrance up till the salon (formal inner space flowing seamlessly into the external
roof terrace), the ramps are winded. The terrace was treated by Corby as a room that does not
have walls to reflect his passion for completely integrating architecture and landscape.
Finally, the ramp culminates in the solarium curve that crowns the house with round enclosed
structure appearing as a sculptured abstract when seen from down (Curtis, 1982). When
viewed from the terrace, ramps and the solarium cylinder echo the ocean liners forms lauded
within the building.
Villa Savoye cannot be considered as a mere formal virtuosity demonstration as if it was a
formal virtuosity then it would not have managed to touch heighted expressions. The
building’s tension depends upon Corbu’s intention to express the utopian dream (Curtis,
1982). The upper middle class rituals existing today have been translated by Corbu into ideal
modern life allegory which touches over the typologies of Corby for a society and use of
ramps was the key tool. It was Corbusier’s dictum that use of stairs only leads to harm people
and therefore has used ramps in an exclusive manner but he uses them as a component of
exhibited space (Curtis, 1982). On the same lines, Corbusier used the amps at the Pavillion
des Temps Nouveaux, in the same way as he used it for constructing Villa Savoye. Ramps are
used by Corbu in order to redefine space and give them a new life that encourages fluidity.
On the other hand, Lubetkin considered the building of Penguin Pool at London Zoo as a
building offering opportunities to explore creatively a new building material possibility that
was concrete reinforcement. The most prominent component of the entire building lies in the
overall shape which is elliptical (Curtis, 1982). What makes this an essential component is
the use of intertwined and spiralled ramps connected with different levels. These ramps are
sloping and cambered to give the building a dynamic feel. Some idealists of architecture have
argued that the building has a very thick bridge especially at the cliff springing’s and has
therefore argued the famous spiral ramps thin slip effect for the building as a justification in
comparison to the Villa Savoy by Le Corbusier (Curtis, 1982). As a rebuttal to this trivial
objection, it is essential to point to the fact that the span and the loading used in the building
have a completely distinct order and Lubetkin’s ramps aesthetic neatness had to be brought
out. This was done at the cost of preparing springing’s reinforced as a rod in a solid form
with barely sufficient concrete for covering it. No matter what the case, the bridge user is not
able to see the musculature supporting the ramps rather what is apparent is a flat footpath

3. ribbon zig-zagged into space and protected through hand-railing with minimum tensile
strength. All this looks perilous that it is really and has psychological influence on the viewer
making the viewer feel he is at the same level as the penguins on the ramps. With regard to
this architectural design, Lubetkin has worked to please people and at the same time has
taken care of the aesthetics of the ramp. It is the ramps used that justified the use of ramps
within the building (Curtis, 1982). The ramps however are not on axis but on strong
reinforced cement.
(Reinforced concrete used to build ramps, Lubetkin)
(Le Corbusier, 1986)
In comparison, on-axis ramp significance in the Villa Savoy building of Le Corbusier helps
in forming the case for spatial distribution in alignment with the landscape. It is the use of on-
axis ramps at the low level door of the house made the viewers and Le Corbusier ignore the
flaws present in the ramps that is their discontinuance (Curtis, 1982). Dryness and health
have been cited by him as essential reasons to have garden suspension higher to the ground.
The unique structure and the discontinuity of the ramps made it an essential tool for Le
Corbusier to reach his legacy. He further says that as a viewer reaches the garden by climbing
on the ramp to house roof, a viewer cannot fail to acknowledge how architectural unfolding

4. of the Villa takes place (Curtis, 1982). At a plan’s glance, especially at the low level, leads to
reveal all but not the pilotis placed at an equidistance as there is an on-axis ramp in between.
As evident from the Penguin building at London Zoo, the viewer can apparently view the
twisted shapes of the intertwining ramps but the structures appear heavy and they make the
viewer lose the essence ramp usage and its significance (Le Corbusier, 1986)
.
In comparison, Le Corbusier described the ideal ramp usage that is a ramp inclined steeply
which hardly ushers the viewer. In the structure the rail has abstracts to several radial lines in
comparison to highlights found on the surface of the ramp. If, however the background looks
to nose forward, then it is only because of the use of ramp that encourages this illusion to
happen (Le Corbusier, 1986). From this perspective, there is no doubt that the ramp is an
inherent and visually ambiguous entity in architecture given by Le-Corbusier (Le Corbusier,
1986). The ramps flowing are vertical as well as horizontal. They indicate depth, deception
and a delicate balance that allows to the viewer to confound with all the composition based
visual clues (Le Corbusier, 1986). This was lacking in the ramp usage by Lubetkin. Le
Corbusier with regard to the use of ramp in Villa Savoy illustrated his legacy to view image
as a space construed in an ambiguous manner.
Reference
Curtis, W. J. R. (1982). Modern Architecture Since 1900 Phaidon Press, Oxford 1982;
Prentice-Hall, Englewood NJ 1982; second edition 1987, third edition Phaidon, Oxford 1996,
ISBN 0-7148-3524-2
Serenyi, P. (1984). Review: Modern Architecture Since 1900 by William JR Curtis. Journal
of the Society of Architectural Historians, 43(3), 274-277.
Le Corbusier (1986). Towards a New Architecture. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc.