Le Corbusier: Pavillon Suisse

At the beginning of the 20th century, Paris had 11,0000 students, of whom 10%
were foreigners.
The Cit Universitaire is a student village, founded in the 1920s and located in
the southern part of Paris.
The director of the pavilion must be Swiss by nationality and is expected to be
familiar with issues relating to university life and study.
The necessity to build a pavilion for students comes from the hygienic
conditions that students had to face during that period. They could no longer
be accommodated in the garrets and unsanitary quarters of the metropolis.
The Cit Universitaire is located on the terrain of the old fortifications, as a
continuation of Haussmanns dream. The area is very big: 37 hectares
containing 39 residential buildings (5,500 beds), 2 stadiums, a swimming pool,
8 tennis courts, several performance halls, the largest restaurant in Paris and
its own post office.
The Swiss Pavilion is the first modern pavilion of the Cit Universitaire, dated
1933.
Project: 1930-1931. Realisation 1931-1933.
Built by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret.
There is a duality of the facades, depending on the position of the observer.
To enter you must pass between the pilotis, and you get in the hall surrounded
by glass windows.
The pavilion represents all the innovations of the time: the collective residence
built in elevation, low construction costs thanks to the yard industrialization,
the low use of terrain allowing more green areas outside thanks to the use of
pilotis, the use of roof-terrace.
NO TRENCHES FOUNDATIONS BUT ON PILASTERS.
Rooms with 1 bed, furniture, basin and shower. Common WCs at the end of the
corridor.
Requirements for the preliminary design:
- 42 single rooms
- 1 hall for breakfast and meeting room
- 1 entrance hall
- Bathrooms, showers and toilets for students
- Kitchen
- 1 apartment with 4 rooms, kitchen, bathroom and toilet for the director
- 1 apartment with 3 rooms, kitchen and toilet for the concierge
- 3 rooms for service personnel
- Central heating room
- Cellar laundry, drying room and other services
In the first design:
- 4 steel pilotis to support a four-story slab.
- Roof garden
- Glass stairs

Walls of the stairs covered by squared pictures and images of natural

organisms and landscapes
- 1 whole faade in glass
Second design:
- Introduction of curved lines and a ground floor hall/refectory.
- 6 concrete pilotis (4 at the corners, 2 in the middle)
- Removed the glass facade
Third design:
- Entrance from west to south
- The 2 middle pilotis have an M shape
Fourth design:
- Added pilotis with different shapes
- Introduced a music room
- Removed the gym
Fifth/final design:
- Sound-isolated rooms
- Reduction of material costs
- Really deep foundations due to underground ancient tunnels
- Final capacity: 50 students
July 7, 1933: inauguration in presence of the president of French Republic
Albert Lebrun.
During the WW2 the building was damaged and the main items reported that
needed immediate attention were:
- Roof terrace
- Fourth floor rooms
- Ground floor hall
- The entire building had to be repainted
LeCorbusier was asked to repair the building, and in a few years (with some
changes in the colours and in the hall) the building was ready for a new life.
After many years, in the 90s, other architects brought some modifications in
the Swiss Pavilion repainting the rooms with brighter colours, renewing all the
beds and the furniture and changing LeCorbusiers public space on the ground
floor near the pilotis into a private space.
Some data:
Standard rooms measures: 5.33 x 2.72 m
Main building: 45 x 8 x 10 m