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Pavillon Suisse - Paris
Boulevad Jourdan 7, Paris
1930 - 1931
In 1930 the construction of this pavilion was entrusted to Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret without a competition by the Committee of Swiss Universities.
But the two architects refused to do this work. They still felt hurt by the way their project for the Palais des Nations was received by federal authorities
and a large part of the Swiss or at least Swiss Romande opinion. However, at the insistence of Swiss Universities, they got to work and built the Pavilion,
with a budget (3 millions) that deemed insufficient by the President of the Cité Universitaire, the Senator Honnorat. They were unaware that a previous draft,
prepared by one of their Parisian colleagues, had been abandoned as a consequence of the considerable expenses (six and a half million).
The construction of this pavilion, realized under exceptionally difficult circumstances (finances and soil type), constituted a veritable laboratory of modern architecture:
the most urgent issues to be discussed were particularly the dry construction and the soundproofing. This Pavilion, which is not like a Swiss chalet,
was an opportunity for reactions of an up to now unheard violence in publications in the Swiss Romande.