Researched examples - best practice 1) The Paulownia Tree ( 1924 – 2016 ) Villa Le Lac ECAL / Jaime Hayon Villa ‘Le Lac’ located on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, is one of the first examples of modern architecture designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret. The house was completed in 1924 and became the home for Le Corbusier’s parents. When ECAL / university of art and design in Lausanne were notified that the historical Paulownia Tree, planted in 1924 on the garden terrace of villa, was to be removed due to an incurable illness, ECAL asked artist and designer Jaime Hayon to honor the site and the architecture, by creating a new work from useable timber salvaged from the tree. ‘I was honored to be given the task to create new objects from the Villa ‘Le Lac’ tree to, in turn, honour the great Le Corbusier,’ explains Jaime Hayon. ‘I thought about who would most miss the beautiful Paulownia standing on the banks of Lake Geneva. I thought about birds singing amidst the sound of leaves in the wind, a little home for those birds, and kids laughing joyously while swinging from the branches. I let this spirit guide me in creating the three objects which speak to the poetic nature of the tree, evoking new life.’ So the Paulownia Tree and Le Corbusier’s memory continues to live in three decorative objects which will be produced from all the healthy parts of the tree, down to the very last piece of wood. The pieces reference the tree that has been cut down, and have a specific functional use, a bird house, and a ledge designed to hold household items. An offspring from the Paulownia Tree has been replanted at the ‘Bourse aux Arbres’ in the suburbs of Lausanne where it is now more than 1m high.
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