Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret

Pavillon Suisse, Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1997

Private collection, France

Ivan Zaknik, Le Corbusier, Pavillon Suisse, biographie d'un bâtiment, Basel, 2004, p. 336, 339-340

Jacques Barsac, Charlotte Perriand, Un art d'habiter, Paris 2005, p. 118

José Baltanas, Le Corbusier parcours, 2005, the models referenced under n°20-21 n. p.

In 1931, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret were commissioned to build the Swiss Pavilion at the Cité Universitaire in Paris, which opened in 1933. The interior was designed with Charlotte Perriand. The building houses forty-six individual 16 m² rooms, designed to optimise space and functionality. Each south-facing room is equipped with a bed, a cupboard, a bookcase, an oak wall shelf and a tubular metal table.

The furnishings are arranged according to a rigorous plan: at the entrance, a sanitary unit is separated from the rest of the room by a cupboard, with the bed leaning against it. The desk faces the window, flanked on either side by storage units.

An invaluable witness to experiments in modern furniture in collective housing in the 1930s, our ensemble is identical to the furnishings now preserved in the showroom of the Swiss Pavilion at the Cité Universitaire, which is open to visitors. It is part of a history of sober, functional modernity, designed to meet everyday needs.