Almost a decade after his death, the pavilion designed by Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012) for the Château La Coste vineyard in the French region of Provence has been inaugurated. Opened to the public in 2011, this hidden estate is also home to one of the world’s most important private collections of art and architecture. Scattered amongst the grapevines are works by Tadao Ando, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Frank Gehry, Jenny Holzer, Kengo Kuma, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, Jean Prouvé, Richard Rogers, Richard Serra, Ai Weiwei, and more.

With curving lines reflected in a pool, the building contains a 380-square-meter exhibition gallery and a 140-square-meter auditorium seating an audience of 80. The project was designed in the period between 2010 to 2013, from the time Niemeyer received the invitation to build the pavilion and especially from 2011 on, after his team had made several technical visits to the site.

Fotos: Stéphane Aboudaram, WE ARE CONTENT(S), 2022