Tailor Made Concrete Structures – Walraven & Stoelhorst (eds)© 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-47535-8

Rebuilding Le Corbusier’s World Exhibition Pavilion; The PoèmeElectronique in Brussels, 1958

R. NijsseABT, University of Delft, Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: The mythical building Le Corbusier has designed for the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels wasthe first building to combine a light and sound show with Architecture. It was demolished after the Exhibitionbut the wish to rebuild this Pavilion is vivid. In 2006 a study was made how the Pavilion was built and how itcould be done more efficient in our times.

1 HISTORY OF THE BUILDING OF THEPAVILION; THE POÈME ELECTRONIQUE

All started with the wish of the Philips company tomake an impressive presentation on the occasion of the1958 World Exhibition in Brussels (B). The directorof artistic affairs of Philips, mr. L.C. Kallf was maderesponsible for the process and the results. He decidedto give the commission to the most famous architectof that period Mr. Le Corbusier from Paris (F) . Thisman saw the commission as a chance to create as itis called in German so well a “Gesamt Kunstwerk”. Atotal work ofArt appealing to all. Senses. He designed,assisted by Iannis Xenakis the building, took care of

Figure 1. Le Corbusier (the man with the hat) visits thepavilion Poème Electronique in 1958.

the creation of the light, images and sound show andinvolved the composer Edgard Varèse for the (verymodern) music.

Le Corbusier created a shape dictated by a serie ofhyperparaboloïd (hyppar) shells put against each otheras wall and roof.

Study was made, amongst others by the Eiffel com-pany and the TU Delft how to built this unusualbuilding. As time went on, the need to have a contrac-tor to built it (and have to know for what price……)lead to negotiations with the Belgian firm Strabed,represented by it head engineer H.C. Duyster. He tookthe decision to make the building in a very straight-forward but complicated method. In a workshop oncemented sand hills in the correct shape the hypparpanels of the building were built, on this concretewas casted and divide in small elements. We haveto realise that labour in those days was cheap. Thethickness of the concrete elements was only 50 mm!On the place were two hyppar planes met a con-crete tube, diameter 400 mm was placed as connectingelement.

The elements were transported to the building siteand assembled od a steel structure also in the correctshape. By means of steel cables (on the inside and theoutside) the elements were clamped together to makea monolith plate (= one hyppar).

Later on the concrete was painted with silvercoloured paint and the interior was covered by aasbestos (sic) ceiling.

About 2000 prefabricated elements were made inthis way. The work started in July 1957 and was com-pleted in June 1958, one month after the opening ofthe World Exhibition on the 2nd of May, but they werenot the only ones to be too late. The Pavilion Le PoèmeElectronique was a gigantic success.Although the ultramodern music and art lead to some disgusted reactions

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Figure 2. Sketches of the architect explaining the structure of the pavilion.

Figure 3. Casting the concrete panels of the pavilion oncemented sand hills.

by the public the total spectacle lured about 300,000people to visit the Pavilion.

One could say it was the first building in the Worldthat combined architecture, music and images to a totalExperience. In fact the video-clips that we see now ontelevision find their pioneer in Le Poème Electronique.

Figure 4. Assembling the pavilion on a steel scaffolding.

The Pavilion was meant to broken down andalthough a few attempts were made to keep the Pavilionon 30 of January 1959 at 14.00 the Pavilion was blownup by dynamite. Since then the building started to lead

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Figure 5. Images projected inside the pavilion and Varèseat the Philips laboratory making the music.

a mythical live in books and publications as being anicon for the Modern Architecture (see ref. 1).

2 STUDY INTO THE POSSIBLE REBUILDINGOF LE POÈME ELECTRONIQUE

In 2004 initiatives were taken to reconstruct the LeCorbusier Pavilion in Eindhoven. On the occasion of

Figure 6. FEM computer model of the pavilion.

creating a city part of Eindhoven; the Strip, were cre-ative industries could settle, it was found appropriatedthat the iconic Philips Pavilion would be rebuilt hereas Eindhoven is the capital of Philips Industries sinceits founding early 1900. The Dutch architect Wes-sel de Jonge and ABT as structural engineer weregiven commission to investigate the possibility, and,not unimportant to calculate the costs, of the rebuildingof the Poème Electronique in Eindhoven.

First study was made how the original Pavilion wasbuilt. With the help of archives, spread out currentlyover the World, we were able to reconstruct the way itwas built, see chapter 1.

Secondly, The intended shape of the Pavilion wasstudied and calculated to be able to suggest methodsby which the pavilion could be built more efficientlynowadays. To this purpose a finite element computermodel was made.

Interesting to mention is that way back in the50-ties only calculation by hand and testing of mod-els was available to get a grip on such a complicatedstructure.

The results of the calculation were that the stressesin the concrete shells on some places did reach highlevels, especially were the roof is more or less flat. Inreality, during the Exhibition it was noted that this parthad a tendency to deform, leading to serious leakage ofthe building.Therefore it was decided that the concretecould not be made in the 50 mm thickness but that100 mm was required.

Now that we knew the stresses and deformations ofthe building as a structure we were able to think aboutmethods to rebuild the pavilion in a more economicway since the original building method was very labourintensive.

Of course this had to be done with respect for thearchitectural appearance of the building. After studythree ways were selected in which the building could

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Figure 7. Deformations and stress levels calculated by thecomputer.

be rebuilt, with respect for the Architecture of LeCorbusier.

Alternative 1: Cast on site concrete shellsStarting with the wish to create the curved and com-plex shapes of the hyppar shells in cast on site concreteit proved to be necessary to make a double set of form-work elements. In between these two formworks theconcrete can be cast with a good structural integrityand a good surface quality. However it is evident thatthe constructing of two layers of formwork is a costlyoperation and it are structures that are only temporar-ily, later on only the then hardened concrete must dothe job. The required concrete thickness is 100 mm,reinforced and at the edges/ corners cast on sit con-crete tubes (D = 400 mm) were installed to give thesame appearance as the original pavilion.

Alternative 2: Prefabricated concrete shellsThe various hyppar shells of which the Pavilion wascomposed can be made as prefabricated concrete

elements. Due to their sizes they must be made, hor-izontally, on the ground, on site. The possibility tomake sand cemented hills again was reconsidered but awooden curved floor proved to be more efficient. Theprefabricated shells were to be hoisted in place andconnected by a so called “wet node” with concreteto the prefabricated concrete tubes that were alreadyplaced in position. Dimension did not divert from thecast on site alternative 1.

Alternative 3: Steel frame to be covered by shotcrete(also known as gunnite)In this building method a steel frame was made by plac-ing steel tubes (D = 300 mm) in the correct positionfollowing the lines of the original Poème Electron-ique pavilion. Between the tubes steel HE beams wereplaced in the shape of the required hyperparaboloidplane. As it is well known a hyppar shells can bedescribed as two sets of crossing straight lines, so it isrelatively simple to make from straight HE beams. Onthe steel beams a steel mesh was placed against whichthe shotcrete was blown in a layer of 50 mm.

It is interesting to mention that the Eiffel engineersin the 50-ties already made a proposal for the Pavilionin which steel and shotcrete were used.

From these four possible ways to reconconstructthe Poème Electronique pavilion the current buildingscost were calculated. This lead to the following list.

a. as built in 1958, small prefab elements andpre-tensioning. 5.400.000 euro

b. cast on site concrete, double formwork.4.200.000 euro

c. prefabricated panels, cast on formwork on theground, on site 4.800.000 euro

d. steel hyppar frames, shotcrete 3.100.000 euro.

(costs included a complete building without the looseinterior , price level may 2006).

In June 2007 a conference was held in Eindhovenwere the results of the study were presented to the clientand the audience. After the presentation there was apanel discussion in which various involved partners

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and a representative of the Foundation Le Corbusier,that watches over the interest of the architect, werepresent (ref. 2).

Rebuilding was basically allowed if the shape andthe view of the building were not changed, for boththe outside and the inside. The client is currently busytrying to raise the money needed to rebuild the long lostPoème Electronique, so hopefully we can in a few yearsrevive the unique experience that thousands of peoplehad during the 1958 World Exhibition in Brusels.

REFERENCES

Space calculated in seconds – Marc Treiber 1996 – PrincetonUniversity Press – Princeton (USA)

Make it new: Le Poéme Electronique – Alex van der Hulste.a. – Stichting Alice – Eindhoven (NL)

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