Pavillon Suisse

The Pavillon Suisse stands apart with its massive concrete pilotis, the heavy stilts that lift the main residential block high above the grassy ground. Designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in the early nineteen thirties, this building provided housing for Swiss students in the Cité Internationale Universitaire. When the budget collapsed during construction, the architects stripped away traditional partitions, opting for an open plan. The structure relied on industrial steel and concrete, a radical departure from the surrounding collegiate brick dormitories.