courtyard and housekeeper’s flat together within a single element and slides into the hillside, it is reminiscent of the solid wall utilised in the Dutch House. Koolhaas has, however, developed the original Miesian element three-dimensionally beyond its singular privacy definition; the movement of vehicles along the driveway forces arrival from underneath the wall into the courtyard and includes features pierced into the solid wall including a pivoting circular aperture, echoing a similar element found on the solid box of the house itself. During the era of the Purist Villas, Le Corbusier went through an iterative evolution towards the final Villa Savoye that encompassed all the features of the house machine he strived for. The Maison á Bordeaux incorporates some features seen in previous villas and is both reminiscent and contradictory of Corbusier’s ‘Five Points Towards of New Architecture’. The façade is free; the windows run the length of the space along the raised living area; the main structure is raised in the air, but in a much more complicated manner; an open floor plan exists on two of its levels and the building includes an outdoor terrace. It is clear that even in referencing himself, Koolhaas continues to utilise and evolve elements differently to their original situation. Reading the elevation of the Maison á Bordeaux, references to the intense juxtaposition of different types of glass in the Patiovilla (Figure 33) and the solid-transparent relationship of the Dutch House (Figure 34) can be seen (Figure 35). Koolhaas’s composition of referenced, modified and montaged elements of Le Corbusier, Mies and himself generate complexity and in turn create the visually striking building. In no way is the building timid like the Patiovilla or immediately recognisable as having Miesian and Corbusian elements, Koolhaas has designed a building of his own vocabulary.
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