Designed by Le Corbusier in 1923 for a Swiss art collector, this house shows the architect's ideas in practice, with its stilts, strip windows, roof terraces and balconies, built-in furniture and an unsuspected use of colour inside: sludge green, blue and pinky beige. A sculptural cylindrical staircase and split volumes create a variety of geometrical vistas; inside, Le Corbusier's own neo-Cubist paintings and furniture sit alongside pieces by Perriand. Adjoining Villa Jeanneret houses the foundation's library.
After the First World War, architecture in Paris (like in other great cities across the world) turned away from the asymmetrical, sinuous forms of art nouveau, (made famous in Paris by architects like Hector Guimard, who designed the iconic Métro entrances) to embrace the angular, modernist and often symmetrical forms of cubism and neoclassicism. This aesthetic transformation reflected the nation's desire (during the Roaring Twenties and 1930s) to embrace modernity and leave behind the hardship of the Great War. In Paris, it left the city with some true architectural gems, from art deco palaces at the Trocadéro to modernist constructions by Le Corbusier and stunning municipal swimming pools. Even a handful of parks and gardens were landscaped according to art deco aesthetics.