A Residence Designed for Exhibitions

The “Maison d’homme”—as Le Corbusier called the Zurich pavilion—is a demonstration object built on the scale of a residence using his Modulor anthropometric scale of proportions. He explored in this building the potential benefits of prefabricated elements, as well as the possibilities offered by sculpture, painting, tapestries, graphics, photography, and furniture.
The pavilion, seemingly composed of several colored blocks, is more than just an exhibition building; the sculptural volume topped by two steel umbrellas is a free-form version of the paradigmatic duplex home that Le Corbusier first conceived in 1920 under the name Maison Citrohan and then created variations on, culminating in the 1950s with the Unités d’habitation. Today, the small open kitchen and low-ceilinged living area, as well as the pavilion’s two-story hall, call to mind the topos of the Paris artist’s studio on which Maison Citrohan was based. In an early planning stage, there were to be two fully furnished bedrooms on the upper floor.