Zurich’s ‘architectural jewel’ Pavillon Le Corbusier is reopening

The newly renovated Pavillon Le Corbusier by Lake Zurich will finally reopen on  11 May after it has been closed for two years due to reconstruction work.

The colourful and filigree building by Lake Zurich was the final construction of famous architect Le Corbusier, and it was inaugurated in 1967.  It was designed as an exhibition space for his art and has been used as a museum. After extensive renovation, the structure now shines in new splendour and invites visitors to take a unique “architectural promenade” through its various floors. “The project achieved a balance between conserving as much as possible of the historic building structure on one side and allowing to organise exhibitions in a contemporary way on the other side”, the project team told Lonely Planet.

The museum is now run by the Museum für Gestaltung on behalf of the city of Zurich, who are keen to make this “architectural jewel”, as the pavilion is known, accessible to a public beyond expert circles. “We want the house to be used by the visitors. Try out the lounge chair in the fourth floor, relax in the leather cushioned signature Le-Corbusier-chairs”, encourages museum director Christian Brändle.

The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich is dedicating its first temporary exhibition to the Swiss architect’s passion for collecting. The Swiss-French architect, architectural theorist, and urban planner was also active as a painter, draftsman, sculptor, and furniture designer, and left behind a highly diverse and extremely influential body of work. The display provides insight into his creative cosmos. Throughout his life, Le Corbusier pursued the vision of a synthesis of the arts and brought together objects and trouvailles from art, industry, folklore and nature in his assemblages, such as conch shells, ceramics from the Balkans, flotsam and industrial glass: These served his various artistic practices both as points of reference and as sources of inspiration. The exhibition brings together originals from Le Corbusier’s private collection, historical photographs, casts and paintings as well as found natural objects and places them in a visual and content-related dialogue.

Furthermore, a small permanent exhibition consisting of 17 original photographs is dedicated to Swiss photographer René Burri (1933-2014), who became Le Corbusier’s visual chronicler and explored his oeuvre in-depth.

The main exhibit, however, is the pavilion itself. Visitors can wander through the rooms and discover the pavilion at their own pace. Across some 600 sq m and four storeys, the pavilion offers various perspectives and vantage points. The pavilion is open six days a week from May to November. It is closed in winter, however, for a simple reason, as the project team explains: “It is simply too cold – and we couldn’t renovate the heating without interfering too much with the original structure of the building.”

Information: Pavillon Le Corbusier

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