Villa Cavrois (Castle)

 For this attempt at restarting my Rhino memory I chose to (semi) replicate Villa Cavrois. Villa Cavrois is one of my favorite pre-ww2 architectural works. The villa also now houses post-restoration furniture designed by Fien Mullér and Hannes Van Severen who I shamelessly fan-girl over. 

As for the Rhino file - it's quite literally a dumpster fire. I made the mistake of creating the file in mm, while referencing floor plans that were in feet. Tried to build a staircase while converting the math from standard stair builds into mm - safe to say I had about nine small melt downs. However, I learnt that the divide tool is my new obsession and spent an hour dividing everything I could click on. Second mistake was thinking it would be easy to build the four levels with accurate floor plans inside, but I think we can all take a guess on how that turned out. I gave up on trying to be a Rhino Youtube star when my walls didn't line up and started eyeballing things and filling in gaps with cubes to make the form solid which I know is as criminal as 0pt text box margins but here we are. Major disclaimer not to zoom in on the photos of my render because they look much more impressive at a small size. If you do choose to zoom: yes, I know literally nothing lines up, it's missing a floor and some windows and yes, I also realize the proportions of this render are as infuriating as Jason Kenney. I would also like to note that I watched probably eight different videos about building windows in Rhino, all of which made it look so incredibly innocent and easy to execute. Turns out it's not so easy when your form is built like a child ate an entire bag of halloween candy and then tried to play with lego. 

A little bit about Villa Cavrois if you're a design n3rd like me:

Villa Cavrois was designed and built between 1929 and 1932 by architect and designer Robert Mallet Stevens. It was commissioned as a family 'home' by Paul Cavrois who owned one of the largest fabric manufacturing companies in industrial France at the time. From the 1870's onwards the industrial bourgeoisie began building massive neo-regionalist residences on the outskirts of Croix with aims to distance themselves from the factories and support a better and healthier quality of life. It was here that  Cavrois purchased a large piece of land which he named Beaumont to be that grounds for his villa. Mallet proposed a modern design that would prove high-contrast to the rest of the villas in the area. This ultimately won him the commission with complete design freedom, the only strict rule being he remain within budget. 

The reason I chose to replicate Villa Cavrois for this project is because it has been deemed more of a castle than a home due to its sheer size. Its got a 60 metre long facade and four floors spanning 2,800 m². The floor plan was distributed in two symmetrical wings which was traditional of aristocratic residences of the seventeenth century; basically kept children and parents separate with a shared central space (obviously where the smoking room was). Compared to the vogue neo-regionalist villas surrounding Beaumont, Villa Cavrois was built to be stylistically modern. The villa was designed with stark volumes and lack-of ornament and was built using industrial materials and techniques (glass, metal and steel). It featured advanced equipment such as central heating, electric timers, telephones in every room, an elevator and the use of large bay windows, which were not used in homes at the time. The furniture, decor, everything down to the lights switches were designed specifically by Mallet, which was integral to his concept of "complete work."

During World War 2 the villa was occupied by the German army and turned into barracks after the Cavrois family fled France. They returned after the war but due to Madame Cavrois' death in 1985 the villa was sold to a developer who wanted to subdivide the park. The villa actually remained abandoned by its owner even after receiving classification as a monument historique in 1990 and was quickly deteriorated by vandalism. In 2001 the state purchased the villa along with a central part of the park, which then underwent 13 years of restoration overseen by Michel Goutal to achieve its original state of 1932. You can now tour Villa Cavrois which is part of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux. 

There is a link below if you're interested in Villa Cavrois, there is a 26 minute documentary about the restoration of the villa along with lots more information about the grounds and building (neat!)

http://www.villa-cavrois.fr/en/

Below is my eyeballed render of Villa Cavrois. Spiral staircase turned out pretty rad. 

(also lmao at half of it not touching the construction plane, theres only up from here ppl!)