International Heritage Proposal Document – UNESCO Submission Draft

Included Works

1. Villa Savoye – Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret (France)
2. Fallingwater – Frank Lloyd Wright (USA)
3. Glass House – Philip Johnson (USA)
4. Casa del Puente – Amancio Williams (Argentina)

🔹 Executive Summary

The proposal establishes a global architectural constellation representing the genesis, evolution, and humanistic culmination of Modern Architecture. Each house embodies a milestone in the transformation of architectural thought — from the rationalist foundations of Europe to the organic and humanist reinterpretations of the Americas.

Together, they express the universal aspiration of the 20th century:
to reconcile humanity, technology, and nature through design.

🔹 Universal Value (UNESCO Criteria)

Criterion (i): Masterpieces of human creative genius.
Criterion (ii): Exhibit an important interchange of human values across continents.
Criterion (iv): Outstanding examples of architectural types illustrating significant stages in human history.
Criterion (vi): Associated with ideas of progress, freedom, and rational harmony between human life and the environment.

🔹 Comparative Analysis

🔹 Integrity & Authenticity

All four sites maintain a high degree of authenticity in form, materials, and spirit.
Each has been restored with original technical criteria and functions as a living museum of modern design.

🔹 Global Synthesis: “Four Houses – One Human Ideal”

1. Le Corbusier (Europe): The origin — geometry and logic.
2. Wright (North America): Harmony with nature — organic architecture.
3. Johnson (North America): Transparency — modernism as reflection.
4. Williams (South America): The bridge — modernity as transcendence.

🔹 Institutional Proposal

Submitting Entity:
SpaceArch Solutions International / EcoBuddha Maitreya Foundation for Architectural and Environmental Heritage
Partner Institutions:
UNESCO Argentina Commission, National Trust (USA), Fondation Le Corbusier (France).

Objective:
To obtain the UNESCO Declaration of World Cultural Heritage – “Modern Quartet: The Universal Houses of the 20th Century” and establish an international preservation and study program uniting these sites under one cultural route.

🏛️ TECHNICAL DOSSIER – PROJECT “MODERN FOUR HOUSES OF THE 20TH CENTURY”

Objective: Joint nomination to UNESCO for the Declaration of International Historical Heritage.

🇦🇷 1. The Bridge House – Architect Amancio Williams, Mar del Plata (Argentina)

• Construction period: 1943–1946
• Location: 3350 Funes Avenue, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Original owner: Dr. Alberto Williams (musician and composer)
• Typology: Single-family dwelling suspended over a stream — reinforced-concrete bridge structure

Distinctive Features:

• Innovative parabolic arch supporting the main volume suspended above the Las Chacras stream.
• First Latin American residence with a fully integrated natural ventilation system and complete open plan.
• Recognized worldwide as a masterpiece of the Modern Movement and a landmark of Argentine rationalism.

Heritage Value:
A synthesis of landscape, engineering, and the humanistic ideals of modern architecture.

Current Status:
Fully restored and open to the public as a museum and cultural center.

🇺🇸 2. Fallingwater – Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Mill Run, Pennsylvania (USA)

• Construction period: 1936–1939
• Location: Bear Run, Pennsylvania, United States
• Original owner: Edgar J. Kaufmann
• Typology: Single-family dwelling integrated into a natural environment

Distinctive Features:

• Global icon of organic architecture.
• Cantilevered concrete terraces built directly over a natural waterfall — harmony between structure and landscape.
• Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019.

Heritage Value:
Embodies the perfect union of nature, art, and human habitation.

Current Status:
Managed by the Fallingwater Foundation as a museum and educational center.

🇺🇸 3. The Glass House – Architect Philip Johnson (influenced by Mies van der Rohe), New Canaan, Connecticut (USA)

• Construction period: 1948–1949
• Location: 199 Elm Street, New Canaan, Connecticut, United States
• Original owner: Philip Johnson
• Typology: Experimental steel-and-glass residence

Distinctive Features:

• Radical transparency and visual integration with the surrounding landscape.
• Paradigmatic example of Bauhaus principles adapted to post-war America.
• Emblem of structural minimalism and conceptual purity.

Heritage Value:
A formal and philosophical manifesto defining the modern aesthetic of the 20th century.

Current Status:
Administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as The Glass House Museum.

🇫🇷 4. Villa Savoye – Architects Le Corbusier & Pierre Jeanneret, Poissy (France)

• Construction period: 1928–1931
• Location: 82 Rue de Villiers, Poissy, Île-de-France, France
• Original owners: Pierre and Eugénie Savoye
• Typology: Single-family residence elevated on pilotis

Distinctive Features:
A built manifesto of Le Corbusier’s “Five Points of a New Architecture”:

1. Pilotis – columns lifting the building off the ground.
2. Free plan – absence of structural interior walls.
3. Free façade – independent of the structural frame.
4. Ribbon windows – continuous horizontal openings.
5. Roof garden – restoration of the natural footprint.

• Masterful use of reinforced concrete, golden-section proportions, and natural light.

Heritage Value:

• Pinnacle of the Modern Movement; model of rational housing that inspired generations of architects.
• Marks the moment when European architecture defined the universal principles of modernity.

Current Status:
National museum administered by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux.

UNESCO Declaration:
Part of the 2016 inscription “The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier – an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement.”

🌐 5. Rationale for Joint Nomination

These four works together form a continental quartet of modern thought:

• Le Corbusier: Rational purity and the birth of modernism.
• Wright: Organic harmony with nature.
• Johnson/Mies: Transparency and structural minimalism.
• Williams: Structural synthesis and Latin-American humanism.

United, they express the evolution of the modern spirit across three continents, bound by universal principles of:
technical innovation, respect for the environment, and the liberation of the human being through space.

🕊️ Philosophical Reflection – The Human Meaning of the Modern Triad

The Modern Quartet represents far more than an architectural alliance — it is a testament to the 20th century’s spiritual evolution.
Each of these houses was born from a different continent, yet all share the same universal question:

How can the human being inhabit the Earth with intelligence, beauty, and respect?

Le Corbusier sought reason through geometry;
Wright sought harmony through nature;
Johnson sought transparency through structure;
Williams sought the bridge — the union between spirit, matter, and landscape.

Together, they form a global syntax of modern consciousness, a constellation of built ideas that express the dignity of thought and the poetry of space.
They do not compete — they complete each other.

At a time when humanity faces disconnection and environmental imbalance, these houses remind us that architecture is not only shelter but also conscience.
They stand as four living symbols of equilibrium — between invention and humility, progress and preservation, logic and emotion.

This nomination therefore seeks not only to protect four masterpieces,
but to reaffirm a universal message:

To build is to remember that the Earth is our first home — and our shared responsibility.

Proyect: Arch. RGG