#Swiss Architecture

[juliaknz]

HERZOG & DE MEURON HELVETIA, EXTENSION OF HEAD OFFICE, WEST WING, 2017 St. Gallen, Switzerland Image © Robert Hösl, Katalin Deér

[germanpostwarmodern]

Zurich‘s Doldertal boasts some of Switzerland‘s finest houses: the apartment house by Alfred & Emil Roth with Marcel Breuer, Alfred Roth’s Fellowship Home and also the house of Flora Steiger-Crawford and Rudolf Steiger, completed in 1959. The architect couple conceived the house over a two year period between 1956 and 1958 but some elements already present in Flora Steiger’s first sketch never changed, namely the hexagonal central space as the anchor point of the house and the three rooms radially grouped around it with recessed terraces set between them. That the architects nonetheless drafted many variations shows a recently released publication dedicated exclusively to the building: „The Steiger House. Doldertal, Zurich 1959“ by Marianne Burkhalter & Christian Sumi, published recently by Lars Müller Publishers, provides an all-encompassing history of this remarkable house. Around Leonardo Finotti’s brilliant photographs the book gathers texts by, among others, Arthur Rüegg and Dieter Kienast as well as plenty of archival material that highlight the sophistication of the Steigers’ design. Part of the former is the complex spatial relationship between the different rooms and the central space from where, when all doors are open, the outside green is visible. These vistas are made possible by an elaborate, visible and invisible structure that also accounts for the house’s seemingly floating appearance. Over the course of the design process the horizontal elements of the load-bearing structure were increasingly pronounced while their vertical counterparts faded into the background. Only in the mise-en-scène of the entrance do they appear as sculpturally formed Y-shaped columns oscillating between Corbusian pilotis and industrial mushroom columns.

The highly readable volume concludes with Arthur Rüegg’s essay about the „Living with Art“ in the Doldertal where on the one hand Sigfried Giedion and his wife Carola lived in an eclectic mix of furniture and art and on the other hand the Steigers carefully juxtaposed Flora’s sculptures with sleek modern and robust older furniture. A wonderful conclusion to a brilliant book that is warmly recommended!

[marix-photography]

[schau]

Kanye West and Jacques Herzog

[indigokashmir]

Reviving Valendas

Breathing new life into an old property in Valendas, Switzerland.

Photos via AD Germany.

[drsilasaslan]

Charming Swiss Facade A cozy urban building showcasing rich brown wooden siding and bright red shutters. The inviting design features white-framed windows adorned with decorative curtains, set against a warm, cheerful backdrop. silasAslan.com

[jasonguilbeau]

Sculpture - Schweiz

[arc-hus]

Housing Development in Wädenswil, Switzerland - Buchner Brundler

[bobcronkphotography]

Cabin in the Alps🇨🇭

Switzerland

Bob Cronk

[triflingthing]

Snowy St. Gallen

[illustratus]

Crusaders departing for the Holy Land, a Bishop blesses their Arms in the Courtyard of Vufflens Castle near Lake Geneva

by Lancelot-Théodore Turpin de Crissé

[juliaknz]

LEOPOLD BANCHINI ARCHITECTS VILLA M, 2024 Mies, Switzerland Image © Rory Gardiner

[germanpostwarmodern]

Despite its social media revival and an ever-growing number of aficionados around the world brutalist architecture still is frequently threatened with demolition. And even in a country like Switzerland where Le Corbusier’s portrait graces a banknote brutalist buildings aren’t immune to alteration or demolition. Against this backdrop the young architect Giacomo Paravicini decided to document the existing brutalist buildings in his home canton of Lucerne in order to inventory a rare species. Together with photographer Michael Scherer, not an architectural photographer by the way, Paravicini hit the road to capture a total of 53 buildings from single-family homes to churches, an undertaking that resulted in a truly marvelous book: „Brutales Luzern“, recently published by Quart Verlag. In contrast to other books dealing with architecture the present volume is more than a collection of stunning photographs but a true architecture book: while others solely focus on the visual appeal of brutalist architecture Paravicini also provides insightful texts on each building as well as an individual section collecting the plans of all buildings included in the book.

But in the first place it is Michael Scherer’s photographs that make up the appeal of the publication: taken in all sorts of weather conditions they visualize both the robust presence of the buildings and the marks the decades of use and weather influences have left on them. Accordingly the photographs paint realistic portraits of their subjects that are refreshingly unadorned. Among the portrayed buildings are better known ones like Marcel Breuer’s Baldegg Monastery or Walter Maria Förderer’s St Johannes Church in Lucerne but in the first place little-known gems, e.g. the Studienheim St Klemens in Ebikon by Max & Werner Ribéry, Ferdinand Mäder’s Schädrüti School in Lucerne or the Tanz-Truniger duplex by Ronald Gmür also in Lucerne. And although all buildings share the beauty of exposed concrete the different shapes, typologies and material combinations demonstrate the diversity of Brutalism in and around Lucerne.

With this said there’s no option than to highly recommend the book to literally anyone with a passion for Brutalism!

[docileeffects]

[schau]

Armando Ruinelli Architetti Architekten, Progetti Bauten 1984-2022

Leggere il tempo

Park Books

Buy here

[escapismsworld]

Die Toteninsel III (Isle of the Dead [third version])

1883

Arnold Böcklin (Swiss, 1827-1901)

📍Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery), Berlin.