Conch shells, ceramics from the Balkans, flotsam and industrial glass: the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich is dedicating its first exhibition in the newly renovated Pavillon Le Corbusier to the Swiss architect of the century’s passion for collecting, in a display providing insight into his creative cosmos.

Throughout his life, Le Corbusier pursued the vision of a synthesis of the arts and brought together objects and trouvailles from art, industry, folklore and nature in his assemblages. These served his various artistic practices both as points of reference and as sources of inspiration.

The exhibition brings together originals from Le Corbusier’s private collection, historical photographs, casts and paintings as well as found natural objects and places them in a visual and content-related dialogue.