Inside Le Corbusier’s Philips Pavilion

Le Corbusier designed the Philips Pavilion for the World’s Fair in Brussels in 1958. It is his only building for a Dutch client. The unconventional pavilion was the setting for the experimental performance Le poème électronique. Using film, light, colour, space and music, and seen by one and a half million visitors, this event is regarded as the first multimedia performance for the general public.

After its demolition in 1959, the pavilion became an icon of the twentieth century. The Rijksmuseum has a scale model of the pavilion and the soundtrack of Le poème électronique. EYE Filmmuseum keeps the film footage of the performance.

The book is the complete overview of the Philips Pavilion. It also reproduces the total experience produced by Le poème électronique. One visitor to the performance eloquently described the experience as ‘like an ant in a hurricane’.