The casa dioppa (which means the twin houses) is situated in the town site of Weissenhorf. It was designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret in 1927 and has been occupied by the Weissenhof-Museum im Haus Le Corbusier since 2006.

The idea behind the construction of this house was to build two detached residences for educated mid-class family. Consequently, it combines two double room and various symmetrical, unified by a row of piles and ripped a window the size of the building. It is part of the first houses where “the five points for an new architecture” thesis developed by Le Corbusier were applied: it comprises free facades, roof garden, long windows free plan and pilotis bases on three levels for the two families structure.  It is not a coincidence if he wrote and published his manifest about it during the Weissenhorf exposition. This five points thesis brings enormous freedom to architects in comparison with the obligations imposed by the traditional stone and brick architecture.

It is the only edifice of the Weissenhorf housing development which integrates colors, especially with the recessed entry volume painted in a dark grey to accentuate the impression of a suspended volume.

Inside, in the first level coexist coal cellar, furnace, maid’s room. The next floor allows the architect to experience the spatial modification of a room depending on the hour of the day : the living room can be entirely opened during the day or it can be divided in two dormitories thanks to retractable beds and a sliding partition. On the last level, there is a roof garden allowing sunbathing on the terrace.

References :

– https://voirenvrai.nantes.archi.fr
– Kirsch, Karin. The Weissenhofsiedlung: Experimental Housing Built for the Deutscher Werkbund, Stuttgart, 1927 (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1989).

Authors : Armand Perrot, Louise Daugas, Sara De Boeck