The Immeuble Clarté stands on rue Saint-Laurent, a short walk from the lake, and is one of the early masterpieces of European Modernism — and one of the least visited. Le Corbusier completed it in 1932 using a steel skeleton that allowed him to cover the entire facade in glass curtain walls, eliminating the traditional relationship between structure and skin. The building is small by current standards — six storeys, around 48 apartments — but it reads as a clear statement of principle.
The building is still entirely residential. You cannot enter without a resident's invitation, but the exterior is immediately legible: the glass and steel frame, the pilotis, the horizontal emphasis that Corbusier would develop through his career. It stands next to traditional Geneva apartment blocks of the same period, and the contrast between the two approaches is instructive. It is on UNESCO's World Heritage list of Le Corbusier buildings.