Écluse de Kembs-Niffer by Le Corbousier
The Kembs-Niffer lock (Écluse de Kembs-Niffer in French) is located in Upper Alsace, at the eastern end of the Rhine-Rhône Canal at its transition into the Rhine Lateral Canal. It is owned by the state waterway authority Voies navigables de France. The lock is a historical monument, listed since 2005.
The outer buildings were designed by the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier. He designed two buildings: an observation and control tower and an administration and customs building. The tower shaft has two offset, cube-like, enclosed rooms. The control room is at the top, constructed in the shape of an isosceles triangle and accessible via an external staircase. The roof of the office building is designed in the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid shell, while the exterior walls of all the buildings are made of exposed concrete.
Le Corbusier held initial discussions with the clients in spring 1960, and the lock was officially opened in April 1961 in the presence of the then French Minister of Economy and Finance, Wilfrid Baumgartner. Construction was completed the following year in 1962.
