This villa has a story: The commission was given to Le Corbusier in 1951 for the residence of a Mr.

Hutheesing, Secretary
of the Millowners, with a set of requirements primarily personal, complicated and subtle. Just when the construction plans
were completed Mr. Hutheesing there upon sold them to Mr. Shodhan, who owned another plot and desired to start
construction immediately. As luck would have it, Le Corbusier's Indian projects are always dictated a priori by the Indians.
The transfer of this house to a new plot was therefore a perfectly natural event.
The plans reveal an evident structural simplicity, but also, countering this, a wonderful plasticity in the handling of the
rooms-in their form, their dimensions, in the shadows of the brise-soleil on the faades and of the roof parasol, and,
moreover, in the hanging gardens swept by an orchestration of benificient air currents. This plan recalls the ingenuity of
the Villa Savoye of 1929-30 at Poissy, placed here in a tropical and Indian setting, as well as in Le Corbusier's post-1950
style.
The raw concrete of the faades, showing the imprint of the wooden formwork, is purposely left unfinished; the forms are
made from what wood was available. A smooth finish appears only under the roof parasol and on the interior ceilingsthese forms are therefore of sheet-metal, and the resulting surface will receive intense color magnifying the raw concrete.
A characteristic element is furnished by the ramp which leads to the mezzanine and to the main level. Above, the
accommodations are disposed in the space of a "hanging garden", on several levels, constituting three apartments,
separate and yet in contact with one another. At the ground level, application of the "optimum pavement" Modulor.

Perhaps some aspects of flexible design, combined with a lot of the clients respect for
the designer! As a freestanding object in space, it could conveniently realign, reorient
and adapt to the new site configuration as well as landscape. Designed for the warmer
climate and extroverted client, Villa Shodhan is a story of roof parasol. Living quarters of
the house are sheltered under an umbrella-like free standing roof parasol. A fitting device
for the hot-dry climate where shade is essential during daytime and the outdoor is
pleasant in the evening. Terraces under the canopy of stars and overlooking the
swimming pool have their roots in tales of Arabian nights and the flamboyant client
profile.
Essentially a cube in concrete, the house is eloquently composed to kinetically balance
the solids with voids a dynamic sculpture, ever changing with the position of sun,
through mutual shading. The nearly-plain facade of the relatively cool north-east is
contrasted by the Brise soleil an elaborately louvered sun screen of the south-west.
Such modulation of south-west provides the much needed shade from the haze and the
heat of the sun while keeping it transparent for the prevailing breeze as well as views
outdoors.
Micro climate conditions are further enhanced by the landscape elements such as
contoured lawn and swimming pool on the windward side. The house is entered through
north-west with entry marked by a cut-out in a blank wall and pronounced by a
cantilevered porch. This leads to an arrival space defined by the walls and a freestanding
ramp. Transversely placed ramp forms a barrier arresting the views into more intimate
living spaces of the house. The bottleneck created at the confluence of horizontal and

vertical circulation, at the commencement of ramp, further marks the threshold to family
and dining areas, which extend naturally into gardens. Once the threshold is crossed, the
volume transforms vertically with floor cut-outs linking two floors, spatially as well as
visually.
Typical of bungalows of colonial era, as fallout of the served and servant phase, the
kitchen is housed outside in a detailed block of building along with servant quarters,
storage and services.
The upper floor of the house contains the sleeping areas. They are accessed by ramp, a
typical Corbusian device, offering smooth transition and gradual link. Sheltered by the
roof parasol, intermediate floors extend into terraces of different volumes for activities
spill over. It is this interplay of enclosed and semi-enclosed spaces, low and high
volumes which provide for spatial variety, visual continuity and form complexity within a
relatively simple cubical form of the container.
Spatial experience is enriched further by the graphically composed openings on two
lateral walls, modulating light and framing views. Plastered, white painted walls of rooms
above stand apart from structure and remain as an infill, honest to express the structural
concrete elements such as columns, beams and concrete fins. In keeping with tenets of
modernism the concrete surfaces are kept exposed, unplastered, offering a natural
texture of the wooden formwork baton brut which it manifests well under the bright
sun outdoors, while the ceiling indoors (also exposed) is relatively smooth with steel
plate formwork.
Every inch a Corbusian, with the ramp, brise soleil, brut baton, Shodhan Villa is also
proportioned in a very Corbusian modular scale. Completing the characterisation are the
bright shades of Prussian blues, vermilions, yellows and oranges of the Corbusian
palette. The dashes of these bright colours create cheerful contrast against a neutral
backdrop of exposed concrete elements. Kota stone flooring with graphically laid bands
of varying widths of stone slabs weaves the tapestry of stone. Juxtaposition of apparent
opposites such as freestanding roof over a firmly anchored built mass on ground,
sculpted voids in a cubical monolith, free forms of cut-outs in a geometrically profiled
planes, lightness of slender column countered by the monochrome masses of wall
planes, variation of volume within logic of structure, brightness of colours against the

neutral concrete backdrop, and others render the Villa Shodhan timeless in its space
perception. Ever fresh and contemporary even after half a century of its realisation, it is
indeed poetry in space.

The original design of Villa Shodhan was commissioned to the secretary of the Millowners, Surottam
Hutheesing, in 1951. His intention was to showcase his social and economic position prior to his impending
marriage by building a house reflecting his lifestyle.[4] However, the plans were then sold to fellow millowner,
Shyamubhai Shodhan. Despite his different lifestyle and an entirely new site for the project, Shodhan elected
to retain the original plans as was the case for all of Le Corbusiers Indian projects.

The original design of Villa Shodhan was commissioned to the secretary of the Millowners, Surottam
Hutheesing, in 1951. His intention was to showcase his social and economic position prior to his impending
marriage by building a house reflecting his lifestyle.[4] However, the plans were then sold to fellow millowner,
Shyamubhai Shodhan. Despite his different lifestyle and an entirely new site for the project, Shodhan elected
to retain the original plans as was the case for all of Le Corbusiers Indian projects.

The design of the Villa Shodhan is structurally simplistic while still retaining plasticity in the treatment of the
divided spaces. The overall frame of the building is in raw concrete, with clear markings of the wooden
formwork. The frame is anchored to the ground, not elevated on stilts, a feature Le Corbusier used frequently
in the 1920s.[8] Standard sheet metal is added to the underside of the interior ceilings and a protective
parasol is used as the roof.[9][10] The design of the interior concrete piers, running to the full height of the
buildings elevation, is based around the architect's domino skeleton design established in 1915.[11] A ramp
provides access to the main and mezzanine levels, while the rooms are grouped around a triple-height
terrace. The ramp also leads to accompanying stairs, providing access to the roof and terrace.[12] The
terrace plays an important role in the natural climate control process, cooling down the bedrooms in the
middle of the day and providing an alternate sleeping area during the summertime.[13] Upon the parasol roof
of Villa Shodhan, there is a garden abundant in thick grass and water troughs. The vision of dense greenery
is also reinforced by overrun plants and trees, seeming to camouflage the building and its environment. The
roof also features an oval aperture, which matches up with a hole in the lower slab roof, giving visitors a
framed view of the sky. This is almost mimicked by the pool, situated at the base of the ramp, aiming to bring
the outside in.[14]
The plan of Villa Shodhan recalls the ingenuity of the Villa Savoye, placed in a tropical setting.[25] It has also
been stated that Villa Shodhan is the finest reinterpretation of the idea behind Maison Citrohan.[26]