Building games A walk in Max Bill’s Pavilion-Sculpture on the Bahnhofstrasse

Abstract

The article analyzes the Pavilion sculture that the architect Max Bill built in Zurich in 1983. The objective of the research is to confirm that all the decisions that Max Bill makes during the elaboration of the design serve so that this element, a priori sculptural, becomes an architectural proposal. The article is developed on the basis of the original documentation, the reworking of new plans and an exhaustive bibliography. The text is divided into four sections: the first reflects on the use of mathematics and geometry to generate the project; in the second, the construction of a project that never materialized is analyzed; in the trith, the rules of the system and its possible variations are studied; finally, in the fourth and final section, it is studied the relationship between the Pavilion sculpture and the New Architectural Simplicity, that was born in Zurich at thar time. This comparison is fundamental to verify the starting hypothesis: the Pavilion sculture is not only a sculpture but it is transformed, thanks to the work of Max Bill , in an inhabited architecture.