Photo exhibition at the Pavillon Le Corbusier in Zurich

At the Pavillon Le Corbusier in Zurich, the exhibition “Architectural icons seen anew” is showing photographic portraits of the architect’s masterpieces in individual perspectives and interpretations by seven photographers until November 27, 2022: from the mystical, mist-filled chapel in Ronchamp to the almost original-sized photographic twin of the pavilion’s roof terrace on Lake Zurich.

Le Corbusier’s exhibition pavilion

An architectural icon in the city park – Le Corbusier’s last posthumous work has stood between villas and a playground on the shores of Lake Zurich since 1967. It was created on the initiative of interior designer and gallery owner Heidi Weber. She persuaded the architect to design an exhibition pavilion and negotiated the location and the fifty-year building and usage rights with the city of Zurich. Until 2014, the dedicated client presented exhibitions, discussions and lectures on Le Corbusier’s artistic work here – in a lightweight steel structure that is, of course, the exhibit itself.

Typical architectural elements of Le Corbusier

Freely positioned under two large convex-concave roof umbrellas, the art container is composed of prefabricated room modules. The system construction is based on the Modulor dimensions and was realized with very slim steel profiles bolted together. As compact as the cubature appears from the outside, the complex spatial composition inside is just as surprising as the multitude of typical Le Corbusier architectural elements. On around 600 square meters and three levels, there is the promenade architecturale as an exciting sequence of rooms, the external ramp made of exposed concrete to the roof terrace, the revolving door partition wall to the studio, the minimized chrome kitchen as a control desk, narrow doors from boat building …

Individual approach to Le Corbusier’s buildings

However, corrosion was gnawing away at the delicate structure: rust holes were found in sheet metal and profiles, the building envelope was no longer watertight, the roof was coated with toxic PCB paint and the building services were in a desolate state. Following careful renovation and restoration, the pavilion has been accessible again since 2019 and is now managed by the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, which hosts temporary exhibitions. Until the end of November, the current exhibition “Architectural icons seen anew”, curated by Simon Marius Zehnder, shows the individual approach and perspective of seven photographers who have portrayed seven of Le Corbusier’s buildings.

Some works document the building by means of a sequence of images from the long shot to the detail, which are composed in the eye of the beholder, such as Jürg Gasser’s Villa Le Lac. Others convey the existing atmosphere more strongly, such as Lea Meienberg, who captures the almost mystical lighting moods of the chapel in Ronchamp, or work out the complexity and transparency of the architecture, such as Arthur Zalewski, who explores the Villa Savoye.

Various interpretations

Erica Overmeer’s wall-sized painting in the two-storey studio is impressive, depicting the roof terrace above almost in its original size. Rasmus Norlander focuses on the plasticity of the exposed concrete building Sainte-Marie de La Tourette near Lyon and how it interacts with the landscape. Katharina Bayer searched for a little-photographed location at the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille. So it is not the typical motifs, such as the roof terrace, that can be seen, but the gigantic central heating plant. The tiny cabanon in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin can be experienced in Seraina Wirz’s series of pictures in the tension between interior and exterior space. And for those who take the time: It’s worth watching the short video interviews with the photographers, which explain their approach to and interpretation of Le Corbusier’s buildings just as insightfully as their working methods and visual language.

The exhibition “Architectural Icons Seen anew” can be viewed until November 27, 2022 in the Pavillon Le Corbusier at Höschgasse 8 in Zurich. You can find more information here.

More architecture by Le Corbusier can be found in Marseille, where the Hôtel Le Corbusier is located.