Max Ernst Haefeli

Haefeli studied architecture at ETH Zurich from 1919 to 1923, under Karl Moser. His graduation project was a design for the Zurich Enge railway station, developed along with fellow students Flora Crawford and Rudolf Steiger.

After completing his training, Haefeli moved to Berlin for a year at the office of Otto Bartning. He returned to Switzerland and worked with his father (Swiss architect Max Haefeli) at the firm of Pfleghard & Haefeli from 1924 to 1925.

Haefeli opened his own office in 1925, with his first commission being the design of a lakeside house for his aunt Maria Ritter in Erlenbach. In the late 1920s, he collaborated with Ernst Kadler–Vögeli and Swiss manufacturer Möbelfabrik Horgen-Glarus AG on furniture design. He outfitted part of publisher Hans Girsberger's bookshop in 1926. Haefeli set up six model apartments in the Weissenhof estate for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's apartment building in 1927.

In 1928, Haefeli and 28 prominent European architects of the time formed the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in La Sarraz, Switzerland. The co-founders included Le Corbusier, Sigfried Giedion, Hendrik Berlage, Karl Moser, and his future business partner Werner M. Moser.

From 1938 to 1939, Haefeli, Werner Moser, and garden architect Gustav Ammann designed the Allenmoos open-air swimming pool in Zurich (dubbed Parkbad). With other CIAM members, Haefeli designed the Neubühl housing estate in Wollishofen. He contributed numerous furniture pieces to Wohnbedarf AG, a showroom run by Werner Moser, Rudolf Graber, and Sigfried Giedion from 1931 onwards.