Le Corbusier Butterfly Roof

The formal dining area pairs a custom table by heerenhuis manufactuur with vintage danish midcentury chairs.

Le corbusier butterfly roof.

The most significant element to the home is the show stopping asymmetrical le corbusier style butterfly roof that allowed for additional square footage and expanded views. Le corbusier s butterfly roof finally became real just three years later in karuizawa japan. Popularized in the 1950s the butterfly roof is an inverted gable whose v shape resembles that of two lifted wings. While he did make the feature a southern california mid century trademark it was another architect who first developed the butterfly roof.

According to a piece published by curbed this winter the butterfly roof design was originally conceived by famous swiss french architect le corbusier in 1930. To make a pitched roof following planning guidelines and to make a flat roof matching the square plan. In 1930 he proposed it for a chilean vacation home for heiress and arts patron eugenia errazuriz but she went bankrupt before it could be built. Topping it off is an asymmetrical le corbusier style butterfly roof that gives the home its distinctive form while creating soaring spaces on the second floor.

The butterfly roof is a result of deliberation to satisfy two design conditions. But it was not built by le corbusier the designer was czech architect antonin raymond. Twenty eight years before krisel designed tract homes for the alexander construction company in palm springs swiss french architect and modernist pioneer le corbusier first came up with the soaring architectural feature. Le corbusier s first attempt at the butterfly roof took place in chile where he was commissioned to build a vacation home in zapallar for eugenia errazuriz heiress to a bolivian silver mining.

Typically found atop homes in the southwestern united states the butterfly roof is an iconic feature of mid century architecture.