The newly renovated Pavillon Le Corbusier in Zurich reopen its doors to the public. Le Corbusier’s last building is a colorful architectural masterpiece that is run as a public museum.

Originally opened in 1967, the Pavillon Le Corbusier was used as an exhibition venue for presenting Le Corbusier’s work and ideas to a wide audience. In keeping with this spirit, the pavilion is now open as a public museum operated by the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich on behalf of the owner, the City of Zurich.

The Pavillon Le Corbusier came about thanks to the initiative and great dedication of the interior designer, gallery owner, and patron Heidi Weber. She won over Le Corbusier for the project, obtained building rights for fifty years for the land on the Blatterwiese meadow from the City of Zurich, and drove forward the construction with patience and perseverance despite many difficulties. Work on the building began in 1964, but came to a stop with Le Corbusier’s death in August 1965. Afterwards, a new project team had to be put together to successfully complete the building.

The pavilion was inaugurated in 1967 as the last design by Le Corbusier. When the lease on the land expired, ownership passed to the City of Zurich in 2014. Eva Wagner was hired to manage the museum for four years, after which the pavilion was extensively renovated and repaired from October 2017 to February 2019. For this purpose, the architects Silvio Schmed and Arthur Rüegg meticulously analyzed the landmarked building in order to restore it with consummate expertise and great attention to detail. Today, the Pavillon Le Corbusier shines forth again with the same freshness, elegance, and bright colors as when it was first built.

Le Corbusier designed the pavilion with the goal of building the ideal exhibition venue. Art, architecture, and the life infusing them were to be merged in a new symbiosis. With this exhibition space in the form of a pavilion, Le Corbusier thus realized his vision of a “synthesis of the arts.” Numerous sketches and plans attest to a prolonged development period that began in the mid- 1950s.

The ship-like construction is based on Le Corbusier’s Modulor system of proportions, and the building embodies a number of his other design principles as well-as a kind of architectural legacy. These tenets include prefabrication, elements such as the access ramp and the small roof garden that recur throughout his oeuvre, and the “promenade architecturale,” a carefully conceived route through the building to enable the visitor to optimally view and experience the architecture. The structure is the last completed design by the influential architect and his only building made of steel and glass. The colorful pavilion with its filigree look is renowned worldwide as an architectural gem and gives Zurich a new cultural and tourist highlight as a walk-through work of art.

Visitors can wander through the rooms and discover the pavilion at their own pace. Across some 600 square meters and four stories, the pavilion offers various perspectives and vantage points. Le Corbusier’s furniture, some of it permanently installed, is spread throughout the pavilion, demonstrating its second designation as a residence and inviting visitors to linger. Even the small roof terrace is now open to the public, affording unobstructed views of the Zürichhorn river delta and the lake.

The building was built after the death of Le Corbusier based on drawings made by the architect just before he died.

Restored in 2017-2019.

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