Corbu in Ahmadabad

Le Corbusier had reached the zenith of his career in the 1950s, when Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited him to design Punjab's state capital, Chandigarh. The textile merchants of Ahmadabad, an industrial city several hundred miles to the south, took advantage of the architect's relative proximity to commission two public buildings and two private ones. Among the latter was Villa Sarabhai, where Le Corbusier cultivated nature's elements to produce the mature fruit of a long career.

Villa Sarabhai's late owner conceived of it as a house without doors—symbolizing limitless hospitality—as well as a refuge from hot and hazy Ahmadabad. She also requested a house that could change with time, adapting and adjusting to the needs of guests and her young sons. Set among a dozen buildings in a verdant 20-acre park owned by her family, the villa was completed in 1955. Her son Anand Sarabhai has lived there ever since.

"Comfort is coolness. It is the current of air. It is the shade. And yet the sun must penetrate at the proper time in favorable seasons," Le Corbusier reportedly proclaimed during the project. After conducting careful research into local climate conditions—characterized by wide fluctuations of temperature and humidity—he settled on the vault as the villa's defining structure. The ground floor comprises 10 parallel brick vaults; four more vaults form the second floor. Temperature drops as one enters the villa, because the vaults direct the movement of air, and the floor's indigenous black stone holds coolness. Since the wind blows primarily from the southwest, the architect oriented the vaults in that direction. Doors built into the southwest end of seven of the vaults can shut out a monsoon or bring in a zephyr. Furthermore, each vault juts 10 to 15 feet beyond the house's cement facade to form a row of sunshades.

Inside, Le Corbusier fulfilled the original owner's desire for flexibility by separating the vaults with white cedar sliding doors. This allows spaces to expand laterally across multiple vaults or contract to create intimate, single-vault rooms. Stationary plaster walls, painted in red, yellow, and blue, punctuate diagonal views across the vaulted interior, bringing new rhythm to the continuity of the black stone, bare cement, and exposed brick. With a seemingly endless variety of perspectives—across solids and through voids—and the constant movement of sunlight, Villa Sarabhai is always in flux.

Furnishings and ornaments were not the work of Le Corbusier. "My mother chose many of the Indian pieces, and I selected much of the modern art," Sarabhai says. The first category includes antique brass religious objects and stone statues of Hindu divinities. Woodblock prints by Roy Lichtenstein and a print by Joan Miró belong to the second.

Artists who visit Villa Sarabhai also contribute to the collection. "Anand has collaborated with several to incorporate their work within the architecture," explains American sculptor Lynda Benglis, Sarabhai's life partner. "One of the most interesting projects was with Eric Fischl and John Baldessari, who painted over photographs of objects from Le Corbusier's Paris studio." Ceiling fans, each decorated by a different artist, spin in every vault. For the floor, Benglis made more than a dozen light vessels, paper lanterns inspired by water containers traditional in the region.

Though roof gardens are not part of the region's architectural tradition, Le Corbusier opted for one at Villa Sarabhai. He filled the gaps between the tops of the vaults with topsoil, then planted grass to create a split-level lawn. There's a fountain and a small refreshment area, too. "We always move up to the roof for evening parties," says Sarabhai.

Green parrots inhabit the trees that shade the roof garden and the ground level's main terrace, one of six. On the lawn, peacocks and dachshunds improbably mingle. Breezes ruffle the pink blossoms of bougainvillea floating on the surface of the pool, then meander indoors.

The spirit of Villa Sarabhai is perfectly expressed by Mahatma Gandhi's words, which are carved in a red stone set outside the entrance: "I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible."

Opposite: The facade's rectangular concrete hoods disguise the villa's vault construction. Bougainvillea blossoms float on the pool.

Above: A stone carving occupies an illuminated cement garden shelter.

Above: Woodblock prints by Roy Lichtenstein hang on the blue wall. The brass objects are religious artifacts.

Opposite: Jean-Louis Veret painted the black-and-white ceiling fan.

Previous spread, left: One of sculptor Lynda Benglis's light vessels, paper lanterns inspired by the region's water containers.

Previous spread, clockwise from top left: A private area featuring light vessels by Benglis, a bronze sculpture by James Prestini, a fabric hanging by Alan Shields, and a print by Joan Miró. Eames chairs arrayed around a table. A 1950s sofa and cocktail table. Artwork by John Baldessari.

Above left: A cement spout drains the irrigated roof terrace and waters the plant below. Above right: George Nakashima furniture from the 1960s.

Opposite: A steel-framed chair on the lower of two roof terraces.