There are two general types of Le Corbusier's museum designs.

The first museum he worked on was the Mundaneum in 1929. This large-scale Genevan project for housing the great works of humanity, was designed with a concept of “infinite museum.” A spiraling parti, with the exhibits emanating from the center, the building can expand infinitely around its perimeter. After the Mundaneum project was abandoned, Le Corbusier tested this concept in number of his subsequent proposals, however the opportunity was deemed scarce. His realized projects were limited to Sanskar Kendra Museum in Ahmedabad, The Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh, and The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.

The second typology of Le Corbusier's exhibition spaces can be seen in the proposal for the Liege Expo pavilion, a circulating space underneath a large roof. This idea can also be seen in the proposal for Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux for the1937 Paris Expo, which used a tent structure. This concept was brought to the table by the architect in number of occasions, but the opportunity did not arise until much later in his career. Le Corbusier designed Palais Ahrenberg and the Exhibition Pavilion at the National Western Art Museum, and finally realizing this concept in his Centre Le Corbusier in Zurich.