Why Pavillon Le Corbusier in Zurich stands as a monument to contemporary design: Robin and Patricia Silver

It was designed by one of the twentieth century’s greatest architects, Le Corbusier (real name Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), and features a white modernist concrete building built on round steel pillars with a flat roof intended as a sun deck. The concierge told us that Mr Le Corbusier was truly a great designer but knew nothing about roofs.

In fact the original owners quickly realised that they could only use the house on sunny days when there was no chance of rain and soon turned it into a storage farm building.

Nearly 30 years later, in 1960, Heidi Weber, a Zurich gallery owner, proposed to Le Corbusier that he design a museum, which would turn out to be one of only a few buildings in his native Switzerland, to show his art work and in particular his tapestry designs of which he was particularly fond.

That building was initially to be made of concrete but she persuaded him to construct it out of steel and glass thus avoiding the problems previously experienced. She also suggested that the museum should be on a domestic scale, fitted out with a kitchen, bedrooms and living area, which would be large enough to handle his art work and house his furniture designs.

The building was eventually finished in 1967, sadly two years after Le Corbusier’s death, and stands as a monument to contemporary design that has been emulated all over the world but in many ways has never been bettered.

The roof is gently pitched and, in fact, is a completely separate structure that overhangs the building below so that the problem of any leaking is averted despite it having a flat roof.

It also provides shade in the summer and with its open roof top fireplace can still be used on cold wintery days. This structure was built first so it also provided a canopy for the builders on site working underneath it.

Internal walls are panels bolted to the steel pillars and beams which can be unfastened completely to vary room sizes and shapes and give great flexibility for displaying paintings and other works of art.

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Externally, they are made of enamelled sheets of steel with bright colours, symbols of modernity that remain as contemporary today as they were back in the 1960s.

All the electrical wiring and plumbing and heating pipes are surface mounted so that alterations and repairs can be directly accessed with ease. No need to break into plastered walls etc. and no requirement for unnecessary redecoration. Again, this provides great flexibility which is ideally what most homes need today.

This building was never intended to be used as a residential home but because of its domestic scale it looks as though a family has just moved out and is awaiting new owners to move in.

Those new occupiers could put their own mark on the building in exactly the same way that most of us choose to do but here it can be done simply and easily. A good lesson for all home builders.