Le Corbusier and the healthy body: towards a phenomenological-quantitative reading of modern architecture

Abstract

This article investigates how Le Corbusier’s modern architecture, particularly the Villa Savoye, was configured to support the restoration of the unhealthy body during the early twentieth-century public health crisis of tuberculosis. The study first introduces Beatriz Colomina’s phenomenological-qualitative interpretation of therapeutic bodily-sensory experience within Le Corbusier’s architecture. It then integrates Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of bodily intentionality with Bill Hillier’s space syntax methods–visibility graph analysis, convex space analysis and axial line analysis–to formulate a phenomenological-quantitative framework. This dual-methodological perspective bridges subjective experience with objective spatial configuration. Spatial analysis of the Villa Savoye reveals three key phenomenological-therapeutic characteristics: “spatial-visual boundary,” which directs sensory attention; “spatial-visual ritual,” which supports kinaesthetic rhythm; and “spatial-visual outflow,” which fosters connection with nature. These features collectively facilitate a therapeutic intercorporeal relationship between the body and its surrounding spatial environment. The study concludes that the Villa Savoye transforms the body into three healthy forms: the exposed body, the athletic body and the meditative body. This article presents an integrative framework combining phenomenology and space syntax to assess restorative environments. By quantifying behavioural and sensory aspects of embodied spatial experience, it contributes to the interdisciplinary development of environment-behaviour studies.