The Pavillon Le Corbusier kicks off its new season on 9 June 2020. Le Corbusier’s last building is a vibrantly colored architectural masterwork that is open to the public as a museum. This year’s exhibition, Le Corbusier and Zurich, looks at the iconic Swiss architect’s relations with the city of Zurich.
The second exhibition mounted by the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (“Museum of Design Zurich”) at the Pavillon Le Corbusier focuses on the connections between the world-famous architect and the city of Zurich. Le Corbusier remarked in 1927 that he found Zurich to be an “inviting, lively, agreeable, and friendly city.” His exchanges with Zurich were not always untroubled, and yet a variety of projects and encounters testify to a long and productive relationship with this city.
Zurich projects and relations
Le Corbusier realized one of his early projects in Zurich, a dressing table for his cousin, as well as his last, the exhibition pavilion for his gallerist Heidi Weber. In between, he designed two large residential complexes and took part in a competition for a new administration building for the Rentenanstalt life insurance company. These construction projects were never realized for various reasons.
Nevertheless, Zurich was without a doubt an important reference point for Le Corbusier’s work between 1915 and 1965 and a major platform from which his ideas in the fields of architecture, urban planning, design, and the fine arts would spread worldwide. Two honorary doctorates awarded by the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, as well as two epoch-making solo exhibitions of his work at the Kunsthaus Zürich, provide plenty evidence of the prominent role played by this city.
Many people who would influence his life and help to shape his career were based in Zurich, among them the publisher Hans Girsberger, the architects Willy Boesiger and Alfred Roth, the art historian Sigfried Giedion, and the interior designer and gallerist Heidi Weber. The exhibition, which extends over all floors of the pavilion, chronicles these diverse relationships. Loans from the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris, the Institut gta at ETH Zurich, and important private collections enter into a visual and thematic dialogue with the pavilion.
On the lower level, Le Corbusier’s architectural projects in Zurich are presented based on photographs, plans, models, and furniture. A core exhibit here is the original model of the 1932 project for the Rentenanstalt life insurance company, on loan from the Fondation Le Corbusier. The dressing table Le Corbusier designed in 1915 for the Hauser-Jeanneret apartment has been contributed by the Design Collection of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.
The presentation is augmented by documents relating to the people in Zurich responsible for disseminating Le Corbusier’s ideas—including a cabinet on Bernhard Hoesli’s work at ETH Zurich, as well as films— including one made by Fredi Murer and Jürg Gasser about the construction phase of the pavilion. The legendary 1967 opening exhibition at the Centre Le Corbusier – Heidi Weber – Zürich is recreated in the high-ceilinged studio space on the ground floor. Reconstructed photo panels by Jürg Gasser bring to life the history of the pavilion’s construction, while Corbusier’s famous seating furniture invites visitors to have a seat and linger.
On the upper level, the focus is on the activities undertaken by the interior designer and gallerist Heidi Weber on behalf of Le Corbusier at her Galerie Mezzanin (1958—1967). On display are works of art, furniture, posters, and catalogues. Highlights include a large-format tapestry loaned by the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich and a never-before-seen enamel painting by Le Corbusier, as well as three original chairs from the early years of production initiated by Heidi Weber.
