Forms of Irina

Practice Davidovici
German-
Swiss
Architecture
1980—2000

gta Verlag
Contents

7 Introduction

Backgrounds I
21 The Background of Culture
41 The Background of Theory

Forms of Practice
81 Herzog & de Meuron
Stone House, Tavole, Italy, Project 1982, Realisation 1985–88

97 Peter Zumthor
Protective Housing for Roman Archaeological Excavations
Chur, Graubünden, 1985­–86

115 Gigon / Guyer
Kirchner Museum, Davos, Graubünden, 1989–92

133 Diener & Diener

Housing and Office Buildings, Warteck Brewery, Basel
Project 1991–93, Realisation 1994–96

155 Valerio Olgiati

School Extension, Paspels, Graubünden, 1996–98

171 Von Ballmoos Krucker

Stöckenacker Housing, Affoltern, Zurich
Project 1997, Realisation 2000–02

Backgrounds II
191 The Background of Practice

Thematic Interpretations
213 Towards a Swiss Model
227 Notions of Resistance
233 Degree Zero
241 The Paradox of Realism
253 A Landscape of Signs

263 Bibliography
277 Index
281 Acknowledgements
Introduction

The focus of this book is the architecture produced in the

German-speaking parts of Switzerland, in the last two decades
of the twentieth century. For the sake of brevity, in these pages
I refer to the architectural production of this place and time simply
as ‘Swiss architecture’. No particular label can do justice to the
heterogeneity of approaches and attitudes within this production;
and yet, they also achieve some kind of a priori identity. There
seems to be a tacit consensus of what contemporary “Swiss
architecture” comprises, as a term with international validity.
Nevertheless, Swiss architects are understandably reluctant
to align their work with one another as if they were part of one
artistic commune. They reject even more strongly the idea
of national identity as common denominator.

As more practices emerge and new buildings are completed,

it is ever more difficult to hold on to a sense of definition.
To an extent, the time frame from 1980 to 2000 gives a clearer
focus. As it becomes historically more remote, this period is
associated with certain practices and a specific intellectual
and professional climate. The work produced then acquired an
international reputation for the integrity of its construction and
the tight correlation of formal spareness, seductive materiality and
contextual readings, resulting in abstract yet sensuous buildings
specifically fitted to their surrounds. The first decade, the 1980s,
is associated with the architecture of Jacques Herzog, Pierre de
Meuron, Peter Zumthor, Roger Diener, Marcel Meili, Peter Märkli,
Marianne Burkhalter and Christian Sumi. In the 1990s they were
joined on the professional scene by a younger generation, among
them Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer, Valerio Olgiati, Valentin
Bearth and Andrea Deplazes, Gion A. Caminada, Quintus Miller
and Paola Maranta. These practices contributed to the creation
of a significant and multifaceted architectural discourse in which,
up until the late 1990s, collective traits could be identified.

While for the Swiss themselves the term “Swiss architecture”

is tainted by imprecision, for the international wider public it has
a rather clear meaning, once described by Kenneth Frampton
1 Frampton, “Minimal Moralia”, as a “basic minimalist parti pris”.1 For the participants themselves
2002, p. 326. this understanding is simplistic, grouping various practices
together as if they were significantly similar. This flattening is

7
 moreover problematic when based solely on an aesthetic This architecture seems primarily concerned with buildings
quality of formal restraint. The connoisseur is too aware as objects, as physical embodiments of a conceptual strategy.
of profound differences in the architects’ approach, and indeed At the cost of formal intricacies, it declares a fascination with
of their distinct artistic individualities, to feel comfortable with issues of physical presence and effect. This suggests on
one umbrella term. In this book I argue differently for the validity the one hand a contemplative dimension and, on the other,
of an idea of Swiss architecture. On no account am I attempting the unease with projecting iconographical content on concrete
to equate its protagonists; the plurality implied in the book’s matter. Rather, the focus on the material thing in itself aims to
title remains uncontested. This production is characterised by avoid subjective readings and leads to the creation of architectural
distinct forms of practice, expressing the different formation and 3 Zumthor, “A Way of Looking at objects that are primarily “self-evident”, simply “being”.3
artistic individuality of its authors. Why are they then grouped Things”, 2006, pp. 16–17.
together at all? An initial answer is because of their unintended Orientation towards objects fails, however, to account fully
connections. Their linkage is the practice of architecture at a for what the architecture communicates. This production claims
given historical time in a clearly defined culture. The point is not an integrity that extends beyond functionality, constructional
a shared “minimalist parti pris”, but the concrete circumstances coherence and aesthetic quality. It alludes to a kind of universal
in which this aesthetic emerged and became, for better or intelligibility. “Our observation of the object embraces a
worse, a common basis for assessment. presentiment of the world in all its wholeness because there is
4 Ibid., p. 17. nothing that cannot be understood”.4 Peter Zumthor’s statement
Before proceeding with what this book is about, I’d like first to illustrates this idea that the plain object embodies something
establish what it isn’t. It is not intended as a general introduction more profound. Instinctively, the work transcends its aesthetic
to recent Swiss architectural production, of which there have dimension through the appeal to the common ground of culture,
been several over the years, both more extensive and detailed. and the common conditions for design. At this deeper level, the
I have not compiled an exhaustive catalogue of this production, architecture ceases to be the heterogeneous result of individual
or a selection of “best” examples. Rather, this is an attempt imaginations and reaches a level of communication with the
to place a limited number of projects in a wider cultural, culture it emerged from in the first place. As such, the production
professional and theoretical context that goes deeper than transcends the strong minority of Swiss practices with which it is
their laconic formal appearance. The intention is to unravel the associated, and can be seen to attain a wider relevance.
cultural dimensions, both professional and social, to which
Swiss architecture is indebted. The spectrum of attitudes that sustain the Swiss production is
framed by the 1970s theoretical discourse imported, in the
My discussion focuses on the Eidgenössische Technische framework of ETH, from the neo-rationalism of Aldo Rossi and
Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich to discuss the training of architects the neo-realism of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.
and the main interchanges between teaching and practice. The work, however, communicates to its audience more than
Just as it does not cover all participating architects and significant what theoretical justifications – international in character – could
buildings, likewise the argument does not extend to the courses account for. The oscillations between abstraction and familiarity,
offered at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), between a focus on the artefact and a concern with its context,
at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, Ticino, founded in point to a more complex phenomenon: a deeply communicative
2 EPFL is the French-language 1996, or at any of the several technical colleges.2 While the resonance that transcends the formal simplicity of the work and
polytechnic counterpart of ETH architecture schools share ideas, students and teachers, they lays claim to more profound zones of understanding.
and therefore it is, officially, part
of the same federal institution. vary considerably in size and character. They reflect the cultural
and political differences between main linguistic regions, as well At this time, the Swiss discourse operated knowingly with the
as differences within the profession. Even though not all the tension between formal consistency and deeper intelligibility. This
participants trained in Zurich, ETH remains the focal point for the interest is manifest, for example, in Marcel Meili’s search for an
development and exchange of the ideas treated here. “authenticity” that “can be retrieved from the fabric of customary
activities secreted by actual modes of life in Switzerland, rather
Swiss architecture between form and decorum 5 Meili, “Ein paar Bauten, viele than from a typological tradition of architecture”.5 Elsewhere,
The “Forms of Practice” of the title outline a tension between Pläne”, 1991, p. 22. Translation Herzog & de Meuron aimed at the creation of “architecture
from the German text.
buildings as forms and as manifestations of the various practices, without any distinguishable figuration, but with a hesitant
professional and otherwise, that characterise Swiss architectural 6 Herzog and de Meuron, non-imitating analogy […] a hint of memory, of association”.6
production. What I would like to clarify here is what these forms 2002, p. 8.
of practice hold in common, and the extent to which they are Such formulations betray the concern for an elusive dimension
connected through underlying conditions. I am addressing the that resists conceptualisation and which strives to articulate
idea of Swiss architecture as a cultural phenomenon. the self-evident and familiar. In order to understand Swiss
architecture through the structure of its context, I appeal in this
book to a hermeneutic method of interpretation. Rather than

8 9
 trying to arrive at conclusions about buildings, this approach situation avoids turning the formal aspects of type into symbols
emphasises their backgrounds, and their orientation towards the of continuity. If type is understood visibly as the totality of
typical. What needs, programmatic, urban or metaphorical, does decisions regarding form, materiality, construction, appearance,
the project address? How do architectural ambition and social the typical can be used as a more fundamental designation of
convention balance out in the final design? Does the new 11 Ibid., p. 41. motifs of continuity, stability, and recurrence in human situations.11
intervention recover or subvert traditional forms of urban life,
and to what extent is it an alien presence? Type operates theoretically, and is sustained by media coverage
and professional expectations. However, the continuity that
These questions draw attention to an important quality of grants type its intelligibility remains grounded in praxis; typology
Swiss architecture: a sense of order that appears to bridge the is made possible by the more profound operation of common
customary conflict between form and decorum. Form is often or recurring themes in culture. As a basis for interpretation
considered a domain of aesthetic freedom, whereas decorum in design, what is typical opens a richer domain of analogy than
pertains to custom, tradition, all which is held in common. the formal variations of typology.
The notion of type and the correlative discipline of typology are
at the heart of the tension between originality and convention. The reaction against the dry determinism of formal analysis led
Recent Swiss architecture is profoundly indebted to this to Aldo Rossi’s revision of typology during the mid-1970s. His
theoretical discourse and typology remains, implicitly or explicitly, architettura analogica was grounded in Carl Gustav Jung’s model
one of its main concerns. of an archaic “analogical thought” in opposition to logos. This
model acknowledged the experiential, pre-reflective moment
Typology emerged in architectural theory during the eighteenth 12 Rossi, 1996, p. 349. during which we recognise and respond to something typical.12
century and was used to establish classifications of formal However, Rossi’s search for the communicative dimension of type
models, which in turn became the basis for variation in design. ultimately led inwards, to personal memories and associations,
The tempting promise of a comprehensive range of typical forms highlighting the subjective sphere. In contrast, the typical
resurfaced in the 1960s and 1970s, in reaction to the obliteration is embedded in a shared praxis, pointing to something that is
of historical types attempted by the modern movement. Through fundamentally held in common, and thus universally intelligible.
re-orientation to the historical city, type could be resurrected
7 See for example Argan, to provide a rationally controllable basis for architectural order.7 Swiss architecture between theory and praxis
1996; Rossi, 1982; Vidler, 1977. If the ambivalence of type refers to the field of tension between
The use of typological classification in architecture is, form and custom, Swiss architecture can be seen to operate
nevertheless, limited in scope. Type is an abstract construct in this same field. Its production of forms is embedded, perhaps
arising from the synthesis of precedents, and its replication allows more than elsewhere, in exchanges between theory and practice.
8 Argan, 1996, p. 243. only a partial articulation of historical reality.8 Types embody a Practitioners are enticed to teach, and their practice-focused
certain amount of design experience, and customarily address teaching impacts on the quality of professional training. Recent
recurring situations. However, as the original inspiration for types graduates are not impeded by their lack of experience and
grew out of natural science classification, already at the time of tend towards practice rather than theoretical speculation. In turn,
Quatremère de Quincy they formed the basis for a new mode they often work as teaching assistants, helping propagate and
of mimesis. His need to distinguish between type (as an abstract instil in younger students the ideas of their predecessors. Given
“image”) and model (as a concrete historical precedent) pointed the compactness of Swiss architectural operations, this model
9 Quatremère de Quincy, to a widespread confusion between the two.9 One no longer offers a rare opportunity to trace with some precision the relations
1999, pp. 255–256. interpreted architecture in terms of the concrete situation between protagonists, the origins and developments of their
it addressed, but used instead the fixed template of type-forms intellectual positions.
from typological manuals. The effect was that the conditions
for architecture, seen as immutable or predictable, came For a long time, the common theoretical base has been
to be increasingly ignored. Despite the residue of building propagated mainly through the architecture department of ETH
experience contained in type, typology turned buildings into in Zurich. Even for those trained outside it, the influence of this
concepts. Ever since, meaning has been associated less with theory is felt in practice: it seeps in through collaborations,
the context in which the building stands, than with the abstract informal discussions with colleagues, publications of built projects
10 Vesely, 1982, p. 9. type it represents.10 or competition entries. One sees phrases from this body of theory
in architects’ statements about their work; these projects later
One alternative is to view architecture as arising from its deeper become illustrations of the theory in subsequent teaching.
situation. As Dalibor Vesely proposed, the meaning of “house”
can be extracted firstly from notions and experiences of dwelling, The body of theory has a neutral, international character, which
secondly from its position in and relation to the town, and only only partially illuminates the regional specificity of the work. This
finally from matters of appearance. The interpretation of a typical suggests that the work communicates to architects and critics

10 11
 something beyond what the theory can account for, that is associated with the theoretical disposition of typology, and
either accidental or has its roots elsewhere in the culture. This inherited its limitations.
is one question that requires clarification.
The recourse to Francesco Milizia in Rossi’s Architettura della
The phenomenon of Swiss architecture also raises more general città (1966) is a case in point. Inserted in an argument for the
questions regarding the nature of architecture, its teaching and integrity of urban topography, Milizia’s architecture, like Durand’s,
understanding. Among its enduring ambiguities after the is clearest when exhibited against the blank page of didactic
Enlightenment is the problem of the city. The significant political demonstration. Rossi’s architecture advocated urban continuity
body of Switzerland is the commune, generally associated with through a similar reification of form. Peter Eisenman’s
the political sphere of villages and cities. This has inspired misunderstanding of autonomy to mean a kind of geometrical
a group of professors at ETH to undertake a study that sees emancipation is thus somewhat understandable. However, the
all of Switzerland as a continuous urban topography. This is term originally indicated the capacity of a type to support diverse,
seen on the one hand as an infrastructural network, accounted if related, activities in history. This meaning is closer to what
for statistically; on the other hand it invokes a more metaphorical 14 Steinmann, 1991. Martin Steinmann has called “general forms”.14
13 The programme Switzerland – understanding of the common context.13 This enables buildings
an Urban Portrait ran between that present themselves as autonomous works of art in the This generality does not imply a lack of specificity, but the
1999 and 2003 at ETH Studio
Basel under the direction of landscape to share something with others which, by contrast, rejection of arbitrary or subjective formalism. Since the
Roger Diener, Jacques Herzog, are so modest as to seem found in their place. advent of Modernism, the withdrawal from artistic will has
Pierre de Meuron, Marcel Meili
and Christian Schmid. See Diener
been debated at an ethical level. The renouncement of
et al., 2006. How do the claims made for these works stand up to scrutiny? gesture leaves architectural form to be determined by function
How is it that a body of works apparently indebted to Modernist and material performance, usually integrated within an overall
principles commands respect at a more profound region of conceptual discipline. This particular claim of integrity is
understanding? Proposing answers to such questions is the vulnerable to two wide misconceptions. Firstly, the veneration
vehicle for a more general theme, the way in which architecture of materials and their detailing implies the belief that a moral
might communicate with the depth of a culture. order can be constituted by the very medium of architecture.
Secondly, reliance on the intellectual resolution of all aspects
Swiss architecture between ethics and aesthetics of the architectural project places architectural order in the
Swiss architecture uses everyday situations as a background domain of comprehensive concepts.
for formal consistency. This in turn induces a need for the
work to attain a high degree of abstraction, in order that the Architects can hardly be blamed for this confusion. Belief in the
formal consistency is not only legible, but also positively power of concepts is a historical consequence of Enlightenment
emphasised. Exacting effort goes into the construction in order rationalism and an instrumental way of thinking, which have
to attain this visual ideal, although it is sometimes more readily affected all spheres of production and exchange. Andrew Bowie
represented in the graphic domain. The preference for an explains that ever since its emergence, rationalism has been
understated formalism has attracted, alongside the aesthetic accompanied by its dialectical opposite, the philosophy
attributes of “reductive” and “minimalist”, the ethical tags 15 Bowie, 1990, pp. 2–12. of subjectivity.15 The dissolution of stable structures of belief
of “modesty” and “appropriateness”. under the advancing power of scientific objectivity has allowed
art, seen as a new receptacle of meaning, to acquire a status
The aesthetic and moral dimensions of this architecture are in of aesthetic autonomy.
conflict. The former presumes absolute subjective control, the
latter discretion towards and openness to the architecture’s The dual concern in Swiss architecture, on the one hand with
context. A resolution is attempted through a reduction of both objectivity and on the other with art, is a manifestation of this
the aesthetic and moral aspects, leading to an expression inherently modern ambivalence. The return to material and the
of blankness or emptiness. The architecture’s laconic stance making of things, in the context of an increasingly rarefied
distances it from readable architectural statements; its silence theoretical climate, can be traced back to societal and economic
is its strongest statement. changes that have taken place since the eighteenth century.
At the same time, Swiss urban society has been deeply
As the following chapters show, this state of affairs is embedded influenced by the Protestant work ethic, connected, in Max
in architectural history, in Swiss and Western culture. However, 16 See Gossman, 1994, p. 67. Weber’s thinking, with the growth of capitalist culture.16 In this
one may note from the outset that German-Swiss architecture respect, the attitudes that characterise its architecture illustrate
begins to distinguish itself around 1980 on account of its debt to issues that have simmered in Western (particularly German)
the international discourse around architectural autonomy. philosophy throughout the modern age.
Established in the 1960s and 1970s in reaction to sociological and
scientific bases for design, the notion of autonomy was

12 13
 The only tenable position in this conundrum points to a dialectic essay “The Presence of Things” (1994) traced Swiss architecture’s
between theory and praxis. The former implies the adherence developments in the 1980s and early 1990s, linking projects
to the field of disciplinary knowledge cultivated by universities and 21 Steinmann, 1994, p. 10. through the elusive notion of a search for “presence”.21
supported in museums and publications. The latter stands for the
recovery of some form of civic society, rooted in a deep network In the late 1990s, under the conditions of a global building boom
of concrete relations operating across history, which theory in and and increasing economic freedom, the production diversified and
by itself is ill equipped to understand. The resulting conflict can over-arching statements became difficult to sustain. Following
be summarised as one between explicit knowledge and implicit Meili’s article “A Few Remarks Concerning German-Swiss
understanding, between progress and tradition, between an Architecture” (1996), the unity of discourse seems to have been
abstract global context and specific cultural circumstances. 22 Meili, 1996, pp. 24–25. silenced by the ramifications proposed in design.22 Martin
With regard to individual creative freedom, this translates as the Tschanz’s essay “Tendenzen und Konstruktionen” (1998) set
tension between the open field of arbitrary, personal choice and out the common theoretical parameters of contemporary Swiss
a socio-political field of responsibilities and dependencies. architecture in the 1970s and 1980s, but voiced the consensus
23 Tschanz, 1998, pp. 45–52. that one could no longer presume a unity of direction.23 Rather,
Sources Tschanz identified a range of parallel (or divergent) “tendencies”
The polarities of form and context, theory and praxis, originality in the work of the main practices, spelling the end of any
and convention attest to the dialectical nature of recent Swiss common ground.
production. This has generated a professional literature caught
between the desire for definition and the wariness of shallow For the present study these sources have been particularly
generalisation. The architects’ personal agendas and the variety valuable, indicating the terms of self-understanding within which
of micro-cultures in this small territory subvert any attempts at the Swiss theoretical and architectural discourse propagates
characterisation. Indeed, most instances where strong affiliations itself. In addition, the research benefited from informal
or criticisms are declared seem to overlook one aspect or another conversations and interviews with several architects and critics,
of the production. Conversely, where impartiality is pursued, including Martin Steinmann, Stanislaus von Moos, Marcel Meili,
arguments tend to be either open-ended, or restricted to historical Roger Diener, Valerio Olgiati, Peter Zumthor, Peter Märkli, Mike
enumerations of architects and buildings. The most reliable Guyer, Annette Gigon, Jürg Conzett and Valentin Bearth. Various
vehicle for in-depth discussions of Swiss work remains sources concur on the existence of certain common conditions
the monograph – whether it deals with a single author, building, at the origin of the Swiss phenomenon – the ETH discourse of the
building type, construction material etc. 1970s and early 1980s, the advanced industrialised society,
a particular federal and political structure. However, much of the
Most of the documentary material can be found in architectural written material grounds the discussion of Swiss architecture
journals. Archithese and werk, bauen+wohnen in the in and around the artefact. The architectural object is presented
German-speaking region and Faces in the French have played as the basis on which variation and heterogeneity are established.
important roles in the coverage and development of Swiss This approach risks overlooking the shared practical context,
17 Stauffer, 1998, pp. 93–94. ideas.17 Certain thematic issues act as signposts for changing and anchors the discussion in the aesthetic domain.
theoretical developments and provide an indication of their timing.
A similar role can be attributed to the catalogues attached The structure of the argument
to architecture exhibitions, which become documentary records This book explores in Swiss architecture the dialogue between
18 For example see Steinmann of the Swiss discourse.18 The more comprehensive publications two main themes: the motifs of cultural continuity arising from
and Boga, 1975. The Tendenzen on the topic gather specialised thematic essays, which tend praxis, and the theoretical discourse reflected in the architecture’s
exhibition, shown at ETH in
1975, marked the penetration to open the discursive range, rather than make a conclusive formal concerns. The first section defines the background
of Italian rationalist ideas into argument. Instead of formulating general truths, they display conditions for the built production. The first chapter addresses
German-speaking Switzerland
through the intermediary of
a heterogeneous collection of related attitudes co-existing without the specific cultural themes of Swiss identity, as arising
Ticinese architecture. conflict. At a remove, they could be seen as typologies of Swiss in philosophy, literature, and the architectural and urbanistic
architectures, projecting individual directions as formal variations domain. The second chapter provides the theoretical background,
19 See Gilbert and Alter, 1994; against defined sets of criteria.19 exploring the modernist heritage of ETH in the 1960s and its
Lucan, 2001; Meseure, Tschanz, developments up to the 1980s.
and Wang, 1998.
In the early 1990s several attempts were made at a valid
synthesis, most notably in the writings of Martin Steinmann The next section groups together six case studies, illustrating
20 See for example Marcel Meili’s and Marcel Meili.20 Foremost a practitioner, Meili constructed how the theoretical discourse was applied to the built production.
essay “Ein paar Bauten, viele a complex picture based on the shared theoretical background The buildings were deliberately chosen from among widely
Pläne” and Martin Steinmann’s
“Neuere Architektur in der but also on the practical conditions for design. The critic published projects that are familiar to most professionals and
Deutschen Schweiz”, both initially Steinmann discussed the conceptual substrate of the built to the larger public. This familiarity is itself important. Their impact
published in Disch, 1991.
production, focusing on iconography and perceptual effect. His on subsequent projects (in practice) and discourse (in theory)

14 15
constitutes material for the present argument. The case studies
are treated chronologically and the object analysis is tied into
each project’s general situation. This method seeks to recover
the depth of the phenomenon, rather than its material aspects.
My aim has been to identify the architecture’s recurrent themes,
its contradictions and ambiguities, and assess the deeper
promise of communication behind the artefacts’ accomplished
and seductive façades.

Architecture conflates the theoretical and the practical sphere;

designs constantly mediate between artistic and pragmatic
considerations. This dialogue with praxis is examined in the third
section, which aims to establish how the commissioning and
collaborative processes qualify the theoretical agendas. Here,
the barrier between theory and praxis is not so clearly defined.
On the one hand, the conceptual aspects of practice are passed
on subliminally within the culture through a range of situations,
from skilled training to casual discussions of professional
positions with clients or among architects. On the other hand,
the professional culture, born of a polytechnic tradition suspicious
of theory, is focused on solving practical problems.

The final section comprises a series of interpretative essays,

in which the common aspects of Swiss architecture are treated
thematically as theoretical propositions. These essays relate
back to the factual content of earlier sections. The ambiguities
that result from the investigation reveal, in the reciprocity of
form and practice, the tension between the claims of aesthetic
freedom and the necessity to engage with fundamental motifs
that otherwise resist conceptualisation.

During the late twentieth century, Swiss architecture touched

upon something more fundamental than its concentration
in a tiny ordered territory might suggest. The application of
a certain aesthetic sensibility to concrete situations, enabled
by specific cultural, economic and social conditions, lend the
practice of architecture a promise of integrity. Ethical claims
defined this memorable period of Swiss architecture more
than any of its stylistic predilections. An understanding of the
conditions that made such claims possible in the first place,
and less sustainable in the long run, is necessary.

16
Backgrounds I
 The Background
of Culture

We rarely originate, but we are skilful at adapting;

we are reluctant to push ahead and we prefer
to wait; we dislike to abandon the familiar and
we are sceptical of the new. The different is
suspect, the exceptional is not welcome and
1 Hoesli quoted in Oechslin, genius ignored.1 Bernhard Hoesli
1998, p. 55.
Through its reductive expression, emphatic materiality, and
conceptual self-sufficiency, the Swiss architectural production
of the 1980s and 1990s manifests its adherence to autonomous
principles that are international in character. At the same time,
in a number of implicit ways, the projects reflect a shared cultural
ground, determined by the architects’ formative experiences
and professional training. The insistence on “the significance of
the idea”, a characteristic dimension of this production, is shared
2 Breitschmid, 2008. with a more extensive modernist discourse.2 The dominance
of concepts is a trait of Western post-Enlightenment culture.
Yet for the Swiss, to a greater extent than for others, it remains
ingrained in local culture, interpretations of territory and ways
3 Spier, 2009. of approaching the creative act.3

Switzerland was not spontaneously constituted, but it is the

result of centuries of considered alliances between small political
and administrative units. In the absence of a single language and
religion, in the context of varying boundaries, at the intersection of
major commercial and artistic routes through Europe, the country
has had to justify itself conceptually. Historically, its position at the
junction of three major European cultures and territories – French,
German and Italian – made the matter acutely sensitive in
diplomatic terms. Switzerland’s attempts at self-definition can be
seen as deliberate, rational interpretations of European culture.

Few modern p­roblems have absorbed Swiss thinkers more

than their own cultural identity. The nation’s size, its cultural
and linguistic heterogeneity have generated, for most Swiss
intellectuals worth their name, the need to ponder and stretch
4 Pender, 1979, p. 1. the concept of Switzerland to its limits.4 This need for over-
articulation points to a heightened sensitivity regarding issues
of national and cultural character.

20 21
 The Swiss discourse around cultural identity has been returning 8 Ibid., p. 886. undistinguished by fortune”.8 These assessments exposed
to the same particulars that defined the country in its European the distance between the utopian principles used initially in
context: its democratic capitalism, the mentality of tolerance and building a new society, and its historical reality. The demeaning
enrichment through difference, and its neutrality. Critics generally use of higher principles as a cover for personal interests created
see these values as convenient idealisations, or myths, pointing confusion between political and administrative issues. This
to their distance from factual reality. Based on the assumption ambiguity had its advantages, as it assured the interested
that architecture is an emanation of its cultural context, this participation of all members of the community, while all civic
chapter proposes an overview of Swiss perspectives on territory, actions remained pervaded by material considerations.
culture, and Switzerland’s situation in Europe.
In redefining the idea of freedom as a means to financial gain,
Between idealism and materialism Rousseau anticipated a view that would grow in popularity with
and after Karl Marx – the association of the bourgeoisie with
The more I reflect on your civil and political the very opposite of liberty. The cycle of capital and investment,
arrangements, the less can I imagine that the 9 Ibid., p. 881. the certainty of possessions create a spiritual prison.9 On the
nature of human contrivance could produce other hand, Rousseau pointed out, the impulse to amass is led
5 Rousseau, 1984, p. 61. anything better.5 Jean-Jacques Rousseau by neither greed nor vanity; the people are subjugated by their
own interests to their self-imposed laws; the legal and economic
Swiss culture is indebted both to Protestantism and spheres rely on each other for support. This materialist
Enlightenment philosophy. Even though his thinking has largely democracy was seen to rob people of their right to be different.
been assimilated into French culture, Rousseau’s commentaries Its most dangerous disadvantage was the impulse to reduce
on Swiss Protestant civic culture are relevant to the German- all to the lowest common denominator at the expense of diversity,
Swiss cultural tableau. In particular, his ambivalence towards his cultural richness and artistic achievement.
birthplace reflects a recurrent theme of Swiss self-understanding:
the symbolic dilemma of idealism versus materialism. Rousseau assumed an outsider’s position in relation to this
state of affairs. By virtue of his disengagement, he articulated
In 1754, Rousseau dedicated his Discourse on Inequality to the some specific and recurring motifs in the way Switzerland has
citizens of Geneva. Akin to Plato’s ideal Republic, their Calvinistic been perceived, both from the outside and by its own people.
democracy was presented in his Dedication as reasonable and
transparent to reason, rationally conceived, justly regulated, and “Swiss polis”: the problematic of democracy
free. And yet, this lyrical invocation of freedom, advocating the
values of Enlightenment, represented in its historical context a One thing after another will have to be
6. Rosenblatt, 1997, pp. 85–86. hidden admonition.6 The insistence on equality and constitutional sacrificed – positions, possessions, religion,
principles was perceived by Genevan aristocracy as provocative civilised manners, higher learning – as long
and subversive, as indeed it was. Only ten years later, as as the masses can put pressure on their
Rousseau was forced to seek refuge from political controversy, 10 Jacob Burckhardt quoted in Flaig, Meneurs.10 Jacob Burckhardt
his criticism became vehemently explicit. In Letters from the 2003, pp. 10–11.
Mountains (1764), he concentrated on the differences between The criticism levelled at Switzerland by Swiss intellectuals during
classical principles and their actual application in Geneva: the nineteenth and twentieth centuries mirrors the central theme
of Rousseau’s disenchantment with Geneva: the discrepancy
Citizens of Geneva […] you are not Romans, nor between ideal models and their application. If Rousseau used
Spartans, not even Athenians. […] You are rhetorical detachment to assess the Calvinist model, a century
Merchants, Artisans, Burghers, always later Jacob Burckhardt used temporal distance to ponder the
preoccupied by your own private interests, your nascent Switzerland. Specifically, he used the historical study of
work, your turnover and gain; people for whom 11 Burckhardt, 1943, p. 21. Athens to develop an objective view of democracy and the State.11
freedom itself is nothing but the means to
acquire without obstacles and to possess Burckhardt belonged to Basel’s haute-bourgeoisie, a distinguished
7 Rousseau, 1964, p. 881. with certainty.7 social class rooted in Reformed and humanist values. Alongside
Translation from the great economic power, this patrician class enjoyed a prominent
French original
Rousseau presented here a society in which private economic 12 See Gossman, 1994. intellectual position in the city.12 As a member of this elite,
interest overshadowed public responsibility, and cultural ambition Burckhardt was acutely sensitive to the new political climate and
was hindered by provincial materialism. The burghers of Geneva 13 See Gossman, 2000. the tensions between federal and cantonal powers around 1848.13
were characterised as “hard working men, lovers of profit, The drama of classical democracy, a main theme in Burckhardt’s
submitted by their own interests to their ministers and Laws, History of Greek Culture (1898–1902), was indeed a reflection on
occupied by their trades and their crafts; all equal by rights and his own times.

22 23
 Comparisons between autonomous Swiss cantons and Greek Through the attack on the double standards of demagogy and
poleis were rife in contemporary political rhetoric. Burckhardt materialism, Burckhardt brought into question the isolationist
wanted to examine this analogy and “provide a more sober self-satisfaction of his compatriots:
and realistic evaluation of the polis than those who had
14 Ibid., p. 301. represented it as a model of liberty of culture”.14 Unlike Rousseau, Beyond the blind praise of our own country,
who had unfavourably measured his contemporaries against another and more onerous duty is incumbent
an unattainable classical model, he meant to show the defects upon us as citizens, namely to educate
inherent in the model itself. The Greek polis ideal, which ourselves to be comprehending human beings,
had proved especially lucrative for modern radicals, was for for whom truth and the kinship with things of
15 Burckhardt quoted in him “one of the greatest historical frauds ever perpetrated”.15 the spirit is the supreme good. In the realm
ibid., p. 302. of thought, it is supremely just and right that all
Burckhardt’s understanding of the polis echoed the writings frontiers should be swept away. There is too little
of Alexis de Tocqueville, Benjamin Constant and Fustel de of high spiritual value strewn over the earth for
16 Flaig, 2003, pp. 11–20. Coulanges.16 The drama of democracy lay in the conflict between any epoch to say: we are utterly self-sufficient;
For a summary of Burckhardt’s ideals and their application; the principle of political equality was 25 Ibid. or even: we prefer our own.25
conclusions on the polis
see Gossman, “Per me inevitably tied to dreams of social and material gain. Human
si va nella città dolente”, greed, vanity and ambition had undermined the social order of the This critique of isolationism presented a sceptical view of
2003, pp. 56–59.
Greek polis, leading to the loss of moral and cultural dimensions nineteenth-century Switzerland. Placing “the supreme good”
and, ultimately, to anarchy. In this bleak vision of democracy, above and beyond matters of political frontiers undermined the
the “downward spiral into the abyss of material interests saw political rhetoric of politicians, who presented being Swiss as a
the systematic suppression of exceptional public figures and the kind of moral ratification. By seeing the “masses” not as an
17 Flaig, 2003, p. 8. gradual corruption of the political process by petty interests”.17 abstract construct but as a collective, with responsibilities as well
as rights, Burckhardt brought the discussion to the level of
Burckhardt’s distaste for bombastic comparisons between polis individual civic action.
and canton shows the distinction he made between classical and
18 Gossman, 2000, pp. 318–321. modern histories.18 Nevertheless, he also sought to recover “the The Switzerland pondered by Burckhardt and Rousseau was
recurrent, constant and typical” patterns underlying past and urban, prosperous, and intrinsically bourgeois. In this context,
19 Burckhardt, p. 17. present.19 As explained in Reflections on History (1868–1871), his one may recall Max Weber’s argument that rational capitalism
analysis of the Athenian model provided an “Archimedean point as practiced here was shaped by the Protestant work ethic.
outside events”, a contemplative dimension allowing the true In Protestant society, material prosperity was no justification for
20 Ibid., p. 19. understanding of one’s own epoch.20 To this end Burckhardt idleness or public display of wealth. At personal level, incessant
all but erased the differences between Greek ancient and modern work held the promise of salvation. Thus the economic system
21 Flaig, 2003, p. 11. forms of democracy.21 was supported by a religious work ethic, in which the amassing
of capital was seen as a moral accomplishment, attracting even
In Burckhardt’s view, democracy involved the gamble of personal some sort of divine recognition:
interest over and against cultural values. Its fatal tendency
was to ostracize those, too talented or too charismatic, who With the consciousness of standing in the
contravened the egalitarian thrust of the masses. Moreover, fullness of God’s grace and being visibly blessed
modern democracy faced additional challenges: the mastery by Him, the bourgeois business man, as long as
of technological progress and rampant capitalism. he remained within the bounds of formal
correctness, as long as his moral conduct was
Despite his misgivings, the historian upheld the principles of spotless and the use to which he put his wealth
22 Gossman, “Comment”, personal freedom and humanism.22 He remained fully aware that not objectionable, could follow his pecuniary
2003, pp. 41–45. an alternative to democracy was unthinkable, and could “really interests as he would and feel he was fulfilling a
23 Flaig, 2003, p. 8. only emerge from the depth of evil”.23 Burckhardt’s anxiety 26 Weber, 2001, p. 120. duty in doing so.26
regarding the masses stemmed not from aristocratic contempt,
but from his revulsion towards populist demagogy. He warned Weber’s Protestant model offers a valuable indication of a deeply
against the misuse of historical ideals in order to harbour rooted work ethic, operating at a profound social and cultural
nationalism and ruthlessly promote private interests. “Intentions”, level. This ethic has underlined, at least in part, Switzerland’s
he wrote, “are particularly prone to make their appearance in successful economy in modern times. It is with this conflation
the guise of patriotism, so that true knowledge finds its chief rival of work, solvency and divine grace in mind that we move
24 Burckhardt, 1943, p. 22. in our preoccupation with the history of our own country”.24 from society to the citizen, and from classical ideals to a country
sustained by self-perpetuating myths.

24 25
 Myth building around 1848

At that time they had a plan. […] At that time

27 Frisch, 1982, p. 216. Switzerland had an historic present.27
Max Frisch

By virtue of its multilingual harmony, democracy and neutrality,

Switzerland has been described as a miniature “Vorbild Europa”
28 Hermann Weilenmann quoted (exemplary Europe),28 even as “the fullest expression of our
in Pender, 1979, p. 6. European civilisation”.29 To be sure, the attitude that Burckhardt
29 Siegfried, 1950, p. 12. denounced as self-satisfaction was conditioned by a deeper
political insecurity. In the historical context of the early
Confederation, the concept of a Swiss nation was put under
considerable pressure. The new state continuously sought
justification for the heterogeneity of its constituents. Switzerland
was at once the fledgling of a recently recognised constitution
and an archaic network of autonomous communes, the result of
centuries-old pragmatic alliances. Its precarious position required
reinforcement with all possible means, both ideological and
pragmatic. Among these, the most durably effective was the
appeal to technological progress.

Nineteenth-century Switzerland saw the development of

industry and infrastructure in parallel with the programmatic
development of a national identity. By enabling new connections,
modernisation came to be seen as the embodiment of a
metaphorical act of unification, conveniently bridging rhetoric and
pragmatic interests. A typical example of the symbolism emerging
from a modern materialist enterprise is the Swiss railway system.
Today, this national institution still represents values of precision,
efficiency, reliability and order. Programmatically, railway stations
were originally conceived as expressions of progress; the
mountain viaducts, as man’s romantic mastery over nature.
The railways established connections between previously isolated
entities, which made them means towards a literal unity, an
emblem of national pride. On the one hand, the remarkable skill
by which an efficient railway network overlaid a natural and hostile
topography validated the possibility of accomplishing spiritual
ends through technological means. On the other hand, the
railways were infrastructure: trains and tracks, purposeful for
business interests of whatever description, a lucrative investment
rather than symbol of salvation.

The railways’ dual status as infrastructure and national symbol

was paralleled by an educational system focused on problem
solving, but equally endowed with metaphorical qualities. Since
its foundation in 1855 the Zurich Polytechnikum, later to become
ETH, was conceived as a first expression of federal unity,
symbolising the process of modernisation. The earliest purpose (Page 20) Mesocco, Graubünden, ca.
1855. “Vorbild Europa”: the emergence
of the Polytechnikum was to train engineers who would deliver of a Swiss national “mythology” based
infrastructural development, an essential prerequisite to economic on scenic beauty
and political unity. A positivist discipline, engineering dominated
(Above) Landwasser viaduct on the
the polytechnic tradition well into the early twentieth century. Albula Railway, Filisur, Graubünden.
Postcard, 1914

26 27
 Modernisation, modernity and cultural identity were thus forged
in Switzerland in a particular manner, idealising praxis while
subjecting it to a strict process of rationalisation. Ultimately the
Neues Bauen’s fascination with construction over and against
a decorative architecture originated from the polytechnic tradition,
30 Tschanz, 2003, p. 236. whose effect can still be perceived.30 Meanwhile, the investment
of national ideologies in practical matters would come under
sharp attack during the second half of the twentieth century.

“Spiritual defence” and post-war demystification

Free! Free! Free! In vain I tried to make him tell

me, free from what? And above all, free for
31 Frisch, 1982, p. 289. what?31 Max Frisch

In order to forge a Swiss cultural identity, the country’s

topography, politics and history were all enlisted as strands
of a national mythology. The concept of Swissness has been
sustained by charging the landscape, the industry, and work
ethic with moral or spiritual qualities. This conceptual, even
“metaphysical” virtue of everything Swiss became apparent in
the phenomenon of Geistige Landesverteidigung (spiritual
self-defence), the nationalist propaganda that grew in parallel with
32 Dürrenmatt, 1982, p. 289. the Nazi threat before and during the Second World War.32
The pillars of this ideology were the defining particularities of
the Swiss political system: “federalism versus uniformity, equal
rights and respect for minorities versus arrogance of race,
tolerance and individual freedom versus state ideology, multi-
33 Jud, 2005. party democracy versus one-party dictatorship”.33 The official
line conflated these values with the topography, wrapping all
in an exalted terminology replete with religious overtones:

The idea of a Swiss state was born neither of

race nor of the flesh, it was born of the spirit.
There is something magnificent, something
awesome about the fact that this tremendous
idea should have led to the creation of a state
whose heart is the Gotthard, the mountain
that sunders and the pass that connects. It is
a European, a universal idea: the idea of a
spiritual community of peoples and Western
civilisations! [This is] nothing other than the
victory of the spirit over the flesh on the rugged
34 Philipp Etter, “Message of terrain of the state.34
the Federal Council Concerning
the Organisation and Duties
of Swiss Cultural Protection The sensitive link between messianic subtexts and the rise
and Publicity”, 1938. Quoted of nationalism ensured that Swiss moderate intellectuals
in Bergier, 2002, p. 85.
would later vehemently denounce such pronouncements.
The Second World War constituted a defining watershed
(Above) Alpine huts seen against the
for Swiss self- understanding, precisely because of its lack Matterhorn, ca. 1907–49. The Alps as a
of visible internal repercussions. symbol of national valour

(Right) Swiss soldier resting by a

traditional house, 1942. “Spiritual
defence” propaganda

28 29
 The contrast with a ravaged Europe distinguished the country We have got used to seeing Switzerland with the
in a new way. Peter Bichsel’s essay Des Schweizers Schweiz eyes of our tourists. […] Our notion of our country
(1969) records the initial boost of nationalist values during the war: is a foreign product. We live in a legend that was
41 Ibid., p .15. built around us.41
The war has strengthened our self-
consciousness. All we needed validating is This passage brings a new element into consideration: the
proven by the fact that we were spared: the concept of Switzerland as a formula imposed from the outside
power of our army, our probity, the strength of as much as from within. Bichsel raises awareness of the
our state, our democracy and devoutness. […] contemporary multi-layered understanding of Swiss territory,
We are convinced that it was our merit to have where the imposition of a postcard-image of Switzerland is
been spared, […] since we must have impressed equated with a vision of progressive and democratic prosperity.
God with our behaviour, our army and the This needs to be balanced with the possibility of evading national
35 Bichsel, 1969, pp. 12–13. beauty of our country.35 myths, with the individual’s right “not to live permanently in a state
Translation from 42 Ibid., p. 23. of delight”.42
the German original.
Bichsel’s sarcasm indicates the extent to which, by the 1960s,
the maintenance of neutrality had become a strain. In particular, The post-war generation condemned, together with the
the myth of unblemished morality ratified by honest work and nationalistic demagogy spurred by the war, the social passivity
devotion was brought into question by Switzerland’s role in engendered by an older sense of self-satisfaction. The convenient
the war. This caused an attitude shift towards “Bedürfnis nach use of neutrality as cover for personal interest during the war
Rechtfertigung” (need for justification), which undermined the had irretrievably compromised the idyllic image of Switzerland as
36 Karl Schmid quoted in Pender, accepted institutions of Swiss life.36 43 Albin Zollinger quoted in Pender, “a grassy province outside history”.43 Max Frisch, reprising
1979, p. 4. 1979, p. 5. Burckhardt’s problematic of political boundaries, identified this
Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Max Frisch held similar critical isolationist stance as an illusion:
positions. Dürrenmatt’s political satires concealed a deep
concern with national ideological constructs, especially the The myth, which Switzerland confers upon itself,
misalignment of fact and idealised vision. “Switzerland’s ideology and the fact that the myth solves no problems;
consists in Switzerland’s pretence of passivity”, he wrote. consequently, the hysteria of helplessness.
“Switzerland is a superwolf that, by proclaiming its neutrality, Every problem that we ourselves have to deal
37 Dürrenmatt, 1982, p. 288. declares itself a superlamb”.37 Its conceptual precariousness with means sending the concept of Switzerland
stemmed not from external factors, but from the pressure 44 Frisch, "Foreignization I", out for repair.44
imposed by its own self-constructed mythology. Switzerland had 1989, p. 339.
to maintain its unity in distinction from its neighbours; otherwise, Much of Max Frisch’s writing concerns the status of national
it might as well “go ahead and merge its economy with Southern symbols in post-war Switzerland, such as the army or the idea
38 Ibid., p. 289. Germany and its hotels with those in Tyrol”.38 45 Frisch, “Switzerland”, 1989. of Heimat.45 His generation faced the relativisation of those
very concepts that had stood for Swiss identity. It had reached
Like Rousseau and Burckhardt before him, Dürrenmatt maturity in the “awareness that terms like federalism, neutrality,
believed that Switzerland’s idealisation as “a metaphysical and independence represent an illusion in an age of the
entity, a shrine” had placed unwanted expectations on 46 Ibid., p. 346. rule of multinational corporations”.46 Frisch’s notion of Heimat
the behaviour of its citizens. The typical Swiss was required was synonymous not with comfort, but with the burden of
to “be free, obedient, capitalistic, social-minded; a democrat, 47 Ibid. “anger and shame”.47
a federalist, a believer, an anti-intellectual, a man ready to
39 Ibid. defend his country”.39 This faceless person represented yet This sense of indignation also permeates Frisch’s fiction, through
another generation of the bourgeois average, caught in a the bitter and ironic commentaries passed on 1950s Swiss society.
perpetual conflict with outstanding individuals. The eponymous anti-hero of I’m not Stiller (1954) is a Swiss artist
who, returning from the United States, refuses to reprise the identity
Bichsel noted that the sense of righteousness was connected, conferred upon him by social convention and by law. The denial
through a peculiar ideological strand, with Switzerland’s scenic of his own name permits Stiller a critical detachment, not unlike
beauty. The landscape itself was appropriated as a moral Rousseau’s, under whose cover he feels free to criticise. Swiss
achievement, leading to the conceptual chain of “beautiful order is presented as compulsion, neatness as psychological
Switzerland – good Switzerland – progressive Switzerland – compensation for mediocrity, and the boasts of democratic
40 Bichsel, 1969, p. 13. Translation humane Switzerland”.40 Bichsel hurried to dispel the myth: freedom as hollow formulas concealing the burden of social
from the German original. convention. The concept of Switzerland becomes an unnerving
paradox: “so clean that one can hardly breathe for hygiene, and
48 Frisch, 1982, pp. 12–13. oppressive precisely because everything is just right”.48

30 31
 To the pervading social rigidity, Frisch opposes the myth of the The debates regarding national character receded during
artist. Motifs of redemption and sacrifice, of genuine compassion, the last decades of the twentieth century. Switzerland’s cities
are only accessible through the acceptance of error and fallibility. have become more cosmopolitan than Frisch’s repressed
This acceptance is more readily available to the tormented artist vision of Zurich in the 1950s. Nevertheless, recent polemics
than to the upright citizen, instigating a painful inner confrontation on Swiss character retain the sense of irony as a mask for
instead of the self-justifying procedures of a moderate and helplessness. Werner Oechslin’s “Helvetia Docet” (1998), an
rational society. Frisch thus returns to a Romantic notion of updated portrait of Swiss self-understanding, paints a less ideal
original creativity, finding truth and freedom by turning inwards, picture than that of a reliably prosperous and cultivated country,
away from the external and “oppressively adequate” 57 Oechslin, 1998, pp. 55–59. actively supportive of its avant-garde architecture.57 He presents
49 Ibid., p. 13. manifestations of modern culture.49 Switzerland as still bound to its historical myths, reworking
them as brands for a successful tourist industry. The culture is
Reflections on architecture and urbanism trivialised by the passive acceptance of, and adaptability to,
external projections of a pastoral Switzerland. “The nation does
We stroll along for nearly an hour, […] not identify with the cultural achievements of its citizens, but its
undisturbed by outstanding works of 58 Ibid., p. 58. Translation from the artists and intellectuals are expected to identify with the nation”.58
architecture, which would have interrupted our German original.
50 Ibid., p. 68. conversation.50 Max Frisch With regard to contemporary architecture, Oechslin sees
the recent production as a heterogeneous collection of attitudes,
Frisch’s architectural training helped him consider the Swiss for which “Swiss” is little more than a disposable label. He
built environment, which he saw as culturally conditioned does identify a perceptible Swiss character, but as a set of
towards the average. In the novel I’m Not Stiller he presented the psychological traits, not as design features or building traditions.
obsession with constructional quality as a compensation Swiss culture, and by implication Swiss architecture, are defined
51 Ibid., pp. 213–215. for moral compromise.51 Zurich was described as a staid city, by exceptions and not by the general direction. The internationally
where adherence to norms was as compulsory in architecture recognised architects – Herzog & de Meuron, Peter Zumthor,
52 Ibid., p. 68. as it was in society at large.52 The essay “Cum Grano Salis” Diener & Diener, Mario Botta – follow autonomous agendas, only
(1953), written at about the same time, was geared specifically converging through first-hand experiences of Swiss culture.
towards construction and design, bringing this critique to the
architectural audience. For Frisch, the tendency to endow The consensus on difference conveys the idea that Swiss
practical actions with the gravity of moral choice was mirrored architecture is determined by handful of strong practices, each
by Swiss architecture’s “escape into detail, the dictatorship of the following its own artistic mission. Their suspicion towards the
53 Frisch, 1953, p. 329. Translation average”.53 He condemned the compromised Modernism that “Swiss” label indicates the careful avoidance of any dubious,
from the German original. marked the cities and the construction of “soft” neighbourhoods national-defining cultural desiderata. This tacit understanding
designed to give the forced impression of village life. Architecture indicates a psychological pattern, an anxiety regarding their
had to address the society’s real needs: “The neighbourhood intrinsic Swissness. The professional circles’ identification with
54 Ibid., p. 328. I need is mental-social, not a collection of dwellings”.54 an artistic agenda and their distaste for being read in terms of
cultural stereotypes betray an aspiration towards creative
Frisch called for a switch in the Swiss mind-set, from provincial independence. The architects’ willingness to participate in
pettiness to cosmopolitanism as the urban manifestation of a global discourse, away from the limitations of the national
individual freedom. The same concern motivated his participation character, suggests that the drama of Stiller is not finalised after
in the polemic achtung: die Schweiz (1955), a manifesto co-written 1968, but on the contrary, it is exacerbated. Authenticity is sought
with Lucius Burckhardt and Markus Kutter, arguing for new away from convention, in individual acts of artistic freedom.
55 Burckhardt, Frisch, and Kutter, solutions in urbanism.55 The pamphlet proposed, for the 1964
1955. national exhibition, the planning of a new city that would reflect At the same time, the evidence on the ground suggests a more
the changes imposed by technological and social advancements, complex reading. Just as Frisch oscillated between criticising the
56 Paquot, 1998. the role of the automobile, education developments etc.56 This system and acknowledging its comforts, so architecture relies
characteristically modernist manifesto reprised the link made by on a stable professional network for the dissemination of ideas,
the Neues Bauen in the 1920s and 1930s between technological and on a culturally established attitude towards construction
development, a rejection of tradition and the betterment for an appropriate materialisation of design. The cultural
of society. Achtung: die Schweiz was intended as a politically reverence manifested towards the act of building – even as a
radical statement, and it duly attracted conservative opprobrium. well-made thing, an investment apt for the value of the ground
In this respect, it anticipated the 1968 student movements, beneath – is incorporated in the Swiss production and reflected
announcing a change in attitudes towards the middle classes, the in the professional status of the architect. This is not a casual
bourgeoisie, and being Swiss. possession, but one that is permanently examined. It is
recognised that participation in a global culture puts at risk social

32 33
 and economic structures that, within Switzerland, can still be of planning law as an accurate reflection of collective, local
taken for granted. This vacillation characterises the tension cultural values.
between originality and the recourse to values within the culture,
between objects and the praxis in which they exist. Corboz’s resistance against a network of private interests
had a significant impact on the architectural generations at the
One way out of the dilemma is through recourse to the idea of the heart of this account. Of particular interest is the publication
city, a continuity in which differences can successfully co-exist. Switzerland – An Urban Portrait (2006), the result of a four-year
A frequently criticised Swiss trait is the “rural-romantic mentality” research project conducted in the framework of ETH Studio Basel
59 Diener et al., 2006, p. 157. of a picturesque agricultural territory.59 The discourse finds a by the architects Roger Diener, Jacques Herzog, Marcel Meili and
way out of the provincial mind-set through a cosmopolitanism 65 In this context I use ‘Studio Basel’ Pierre de Meuron, together with the sociologist Christian Schmid.65
largely identified with urbanisation. The sense that the Swiss to denote the collective authorship The study proposed a snapshot of Switzerland at the turn of the
of the study on Switzerland.
countryside is like false scenery, an anachronism supported by century, equally independent from prevalent planning theories
state subsidies for the sake of national pride, has led some to and the outdated myths of self-understanding. The information,
seek truth in the gritty, ordinary realm of cities. In this way, the based on actual evidence amassed from the built environment,
Swiss polemic is tied in with the possibility of urban formulations was gathered through first-hand surveys and interviews,
for Switzerland as a whole. 66 Herzog and Meili, supplemented with statistical data.66
2006, pp. 136–140.
Switzerland as urban territory The study intended to bridge the usual schism between research
and practical endeavour; its potential is political rather than
60 Ibid., p. 136. Switzerland is essentially known.60 Marcel Meili conventionally theoretical. One recognises in the enterprise the
leitmotif of an international theoretical hypothesis being applied
Comparisons between Switzerland and a city are not new. In to the Swiss context. The theory is grounded in Henri Lefebvre’s
1763 Rousseau likened its valleys, hills and mountains to the model of societal urbanisation, a phenomenon linked to the
districts of a continuous town; in 1932 the architect Armin Meili 67 Schmid, 2006, p. 165. The industrialisation and urban expansion of the last two centuries.67
61 Both quoted in Corboz, referred to Switzerland as a “traditionally decentralised city”.61 theoretical framework of Studio This concerns not just the cities as built agglomerations, but all
1988, p. 14. Basel was based on Lefebvre,
The influential writings of André Corboz called in the 1980s and 1991 and Lefebvre, 2003. phenomena resulting from the urban’s dominion over the rural.
1990s for an objective reappraisal of the historical distinctions The hypothesis of an urban Switzerland is not meant literally
between rural and urban territory, in the ever-changing context in the sense of conurbation, but as the site for complex, evolving
62 See Corboz and Marot, 2001. of industrialised society.62 By metropolis he did not mean territorial exchanges and cross-border interactions. A remote
literal urban growth, or a properly defined settlement, but village is urban inasmuch as supermarkets, Swiss Telecom phone
a conglomerate development determined by improvised market booths and second homes are universal expressions of city life.
63 Corboz, 1988, p. 15. interests rather than over-arching planning strategies.63
While Lefebvre deals with a global phenomenon, Switzerland’s
Corboz sought to reconcile international theory with concrete situation stands apart in certain respects. Its identity is grounded
conditions. He saw both the CIAM’s Athens Charter of 1933, and in conceptual thinking; its practices are permeated with a strong
the fierce 1960s urban conservationism it had caused, as equally sense of the rational. The Swiss nation is an artificial construct,
problematic. The nostalgic tendency of contemporary Swiss an umbrella-term covering different ethnicities, religions and
planning to implement an idealised “village culture” was the languages. Its political territory comprises small overlapping
undesirable consequence of this duality: territories, determined by different cultural patterns.

The Metropolis Switzerland, which is gradually According to Studio Basel, Swiss territory is subject to two
establishing itself in the collective consciousness, main ordering systems, the cultural and the administrative. Its
is again divided into microscopic pieces, offered character derives from a variety of social, linguistic and religious
as an accumulation of villages! After the war, orientations overlaid with national, cantonal, communal divisions.
the neighbourhood unit was proposed as a On the one hand the fine network of internal borders preserves
scientific interpretation of village, and now this and consolidates federal unity, like tree roots preserve and
regressive Utopia, representing a culture of consolidate the earth in which they are planted. On the other
64 Ibid., p. 19. Translation from escapism, has re-emerged.64 hand, it evokes a great metaphorical distance between people
the German original. and things, pointing to the fragility of this condition.
Corboz called for objectivity and concrete action against the
clichés of Swiss self-understanding. He proposed that planning The tension between autonomy and cohesion is acted out in
should deal with the improvised, unpredictable conditions the urban domain. “Switzerland is threatened less by a lack of
dictated on the ground by economic considerations. His belief solidarity between classes, social strata, or groups than by a lack
in the efficiency of planning is remarkable: it suggests a vision of shared identity among its towns, a kind of spatial class

34 35
68 Herzog and Meili, 2006, p. 148. struggle”.68 Urban development is impeded by communal
autonomy; the danger to Switzerland remains its political
structure, reflecting an entrenched “system of demarcation,
69 Ibid., p. 145. small-scale segmentation, small-mindedness, and egoism”.69
Studio Basel has envisaged that the country’s future will be
decided in a power play between communal decision-making
and an inescapable urbanisation, in alignment with a global
economic landscape.

The study characterises Swiss territory according to three

types of criteria: networks, borders and differences. Networks
of “trade, production, daily routine, communication, and
migration” provide the cohesive element in the idea of a uniformly
70 Schmid, 2006, p. 70. connected (democratic, federal) Switzerland.70 Borders are
a fundamental element in Swiss self-understanding, defining
the political elements of federation, canton, commune but
also the restrictions these imply. Finally, differences constitute
the potential energy that can be released from the interaction
of distinct territories. A measure of the urban is given by the way
in which cultural, social, economic differences are not only
recognised, but also capitalised.

Studio Basel’s research stopped short of concrete proposals

prone to misinterpretation. It intended to present the situation as it
stood at the time of the study – a temporal cross-section through
Swiss territory at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The
aim was to think through its potential in isolation from the
preconceptions and myths imprinted on operational policies in
practice. The attempt to identify the latent potential of differences
led to Studio Basel’s original contribution, the formulation of
a new urban typology. This was conceived not as a revisionist but
as a commonsensical reading of territory, reinforcing its existing
71 Diener et al., 2006, p. 154. economic, social and architectural potential.71

The study identified five types of territorial urbanisation, each with

its own socio-economic and cultural rhythm: the metropolitan
regions (Geneva-Lausanne, Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, and
Zurich), the networks of towns (in central Switzerland and around
Berne), quiet zones (intra-mountainous valleys, where agricultural
economy is either flourishing or still just about sustainable),
Alpine resorts (characterised by seasonal variations in economic
activity and inhabitant numbers) and Alpine fallow lands (those
uninhabitable or steadily depopulating).

These typologies were drawn on a zoning map, which shows

little correspondence with actual boundaries. Indeed, its most
striking feature is the “leopard-skin pattern” of relatively
autonomous patches with varying degrees of overlap. This (Top) ETH Studio Basel,
indicates the abstract nature of the project, the withdrawal from Switzerland – An Urban Portrait, 2006.
Sketch showing possible future
concrete planning as such; but it also indicates the limitations disintegration into linguistic, cultural
of the approach. The authors themselves express scepticism with and economic regions
regard to the dominant cartographic representation and aerial
(Bottom) ETH Studio Basel,
photography. Their communicative potential is partial in Switzerland – An Urban Portrait, 2006.
comparison to a more literary (and therefore less precise) Urban typology of Switzerland

36 37
72 Herzog and Meili, approach.72 The means of representation indicate the hold Studio Basel’s acceptance of reality as governed by economic
2006, pp. 137–140. of an epistemological approach on the actual thinking. One interest, and the reliance on objective data to understand this
senses the influence of Weltanschauung, described by Heidegger reality, reinforce the quantitative operative mode it otherwise
as the formation of a world-picture objectifying culture and criticises. The urban territory is seen as a dispersed network of
73 Heidegger, 1977, pp. 115–154. making it available as a project.73 The authors’ frustration at types. The recourse to a typology of the territory suggests that
the limits of communication recognises the detachment from the ethical dimensions of the need for concrete and meaningful
the “world”, its availability only as philosophical concept or action are translated into rational, controllable observations.
sets of statistical data.
At the same time, the dichotomy of reason and feeling implied
The implicit recognition that experience extends beyond rational by this reification is negated in practice by the commitment to
understanding, into a thicket of pre-reflective observations and understanding and imparting knowledge demonstrated by these
impulses, brings us to the limitations of typological thinking. architects. It is significant that practitioners who could easily
Once a type has been conceptualised through theoretical limit themselves to the design of autonomous projects have
demonstration and drawn up as a spatial configuration, it loses felt the political commitment, possibly the incentive, to engage
74 Vesely, 1982, p. 9. its deeper connection to the subconscious sphere.74 Similarly, a through research with a wider social and cultural polemic. This
territorial typology cannot fully convey the reality governed on the suggests a deeper claim, manifested not in built things, but in
ground by an urban order embedded in its institutional life. It is the possibility of action.
not accidental that a deeper understanding of what is typically
Swiss is not drawn up in maps or diagrams, but emerges most
clearly in the transcription of a conversation between authors:

Jacques Herzog: So you believe that

pragmatism basically defines the way Swiss
people live and the form of their cities?

Marcel Meili: Probably. The country

behaves in varied, surprising, and contradictory
ways, once its assets have been secured.
Pragmatism means negotiation between
relatively individualistic cells in order to foster
75 Herzog and Meili, 2006, p. 156. collective existence.75

Here and in various other passages, Switzerland – an

Urban Portrait testifies to the continuing intellectual debates
around Swiss identity. It provides valuable evidence of how
Switzerland is viewed by its architects, allowing some speculation
on how culture and territory are re-interpreted through the
built environment.

The study professes the unwillingness to subscribe to “myths”

that is characteristic of post-1968 generations. The cautious
ambivalence towards the established lore propagated in tourist
brochures has led Studio Basel towards cartographic numerical
analyses that make Switzerland into a generality. This would
seem to suggest that the capitalist global city has become
the paradigm, drawing on the economic procedure of statistically
described trends and variations to express what is typical
in culture.

One recognises in Studio Basel’s mode of enquiry the theoretical

discourse to which these practicing architects were exposed
during their training, which also informs their built work. The focus
on concrete structures and networks stands for a reification of
culture, the attempt to define typical experience through typology.

38 39
The Background
of Theory

ETH as Swiss emblem

As a technical university in a small country, the

ETH Zurich can only compete with the world’s
best by establishing international links […]. The
multicultural tradition of Switzerland, its cultural
heritage acquired over many generations,
provide in our view a strong base for this
1 ETH Executive Board, 2007. purpose.1 Mission Statement of ETH Zurich

The theory underpinning the late twentieth-century Swiss

production has mainly been disseminated through the
architecture department of the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. A prestigious school, ETH has
attracted the majority of contemporary German-Swiss
practitioners mentioned in the present study. Even those
who trained elsewhere were indirectly exposed, through the
professional scene, to ideas discussed in ETH in the 1970s and
1980s. ETH can be seen to provide a common theoretical ground,
which forms the basis of a generational self-understanding.
Therefore, a closer look at its scene after 1960 will help define
the formative background of the practitioners active in the 1980s
and 1990s.

Before examining the content of ETH architectural theory, the

school’s status as a political and cultural institution demands
clarification. For the Swiss, ETH is more than a higher education
facility. Government funded, acting as a significant political and
cultural power, ETH Zurich is a public institution in the widest
sense. It relates to the city, to industrial development and to the
2 The cultural and architectural political sphere.2 Its mission statement emphasises the political
value of the ETH is treated link to the government, commitment to the local and global
in Oechslin, 2005.
communities and its place in the international theoretical domain.

Within ETH, the architecture department has a high professional

and representational status. It reflects the value of architecture
as cultural and economic asset. The prestigious buildings
of the Polytechnikum, as it was known before 1913, dominate
the central cityscape of Zurich. Therefore, the re-location of the
architecture school in the 1970s to the peripheral Hönggerberg

41
 campus conveyed mixed messages. Officially a glittering,
expanding science campus, Hönggerberg represents
3 See Maurer, 2005, pp. 106–133. at the same time a colourless exile outside the city limits.3
The artificial environment of a high-tech campus, transposed
to a rural landscape, undermines the architecture school’s
interdependence with the urban realm.

The national significance of ETH is linked to Switzerland’s history.

The Polytechnikum was founded in 1855, the first institution
to be created after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Its
existence therefore had a political and didactic resonance as “the
4 Gubler, 1988, p. 22. Translation expression of the federal State”.4 ETH symbolises the political
from the French original. agenda of nation building through strategic modernisation. After
1848, the reinforcement of a sense of federal unity depended
economically and politically on the creation of advanced,
co-ordinated infrastructure. This occurred while, in the wider
European context, various modernising systems were
being implemented. Such measures, from centralised land
administration to polytechnic education, bore witness to the
wide-ranging effects of the French revolutionary ideals.

The new Switzerland needed a modern infrastructure in order

to reinforce its political unity. The federal law under which the
Polytechnikum originated gave priority to technical training for
civil and hydraulic engineering, mechanics and chemistry, in
particular to assist the connection and modernisation of remote
Alpine regions. The architecture curriculum reflected this
foundational ethos. Since its inception the school was shaped
by the “general tendency to insist on practice rather than pure
5 Ibid., p. 23. science” and the lesser role accorded to speculative theory.5
The school’s practical and technical bias provided an innovative
alternative to the established Beaux-Arts training of most Swiss
6 This was a relatively new concept architects of the time.6 This was propagated through the decades
in education, following in the to form a “polytechnic culture”, well integrated in the Swiss
steps of France with its Ecole
Polytechnique founded in 1794 for self-understanding.7 The present curricular structure still
military engineering training, and reflects this practical bias.
of Germany where such new
schools were provided as
“technical alternatives to the The architecture department has established a diffuse yet strong
liberal-arts-based academies”. network of alliances between generations, a micro-culture that
See Mallgrave, 1996, p. 229.
is sufficiently stable to preserve continuity and create a definite
7 Gubler, 1988, p. 22. Translation self-understanding. In comparison to other European schools,
from the French original. a large proportion of those teaching are involved in practice at the
highest level. Federal funding allows the school, through a
balance of set rules and flexibility, to accommodate established
practitioners on visiting professorships and tenures. The system
relies on assistants selected from among recent graduates and
young practitioners. With the implacable logic of a bio-system,
assistants provide the one-to-one teaching and find their own
footing in business life, while allowing professors to remain
engaged in practice. This creates not only a smooth transition
between training and practice, but also the direct, personal
contact between students and architects at several levels (Above) Polytechnikum, Zurich, ca.1880
of the profession. (Right) ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg.
Campus nowadays

42 43
 ETH culture has a strong historical sense – partly inherited, partly leading to CIAM’s dissolution in 1959 led to the fragmentation of
re-created through theoretical re-assessments during the late teaching positions. The 1960s introduced a spectrum of attitudes,
1960s and 1970s. Students have been encouraged to find ranging from Giedion’s unabated exploration of Modernist
culturally relevant referents in the prominent models of Swiss orthodoxy, to Aldo van Eyck’s structuralist critique of the same.
architectural history. Recognising the significance of culture has
shifted the legitimacy of design from practical competence to Bernhard Hoesli (1923–1984) ran the first year course at ETH from
typological interpretation. This kind of historical reference was 1959 until 1981. This Grundkurs became the common basis
intended to create and develop an objective, rather than against which the polemical positions of various studios would
individualist, approach to design. later develop. The idea of providing a shared ground was attuned
to the content of the course; rather than teaching basic skills,
This attitude is a linchpin of Swiss theory, providing a basic and Hoesli sought a universally valid basis for design through the
widely adaptable formula throughout the 1980s and 1990s. conceptualisation of “space”. This non-elective introductory
However, it constitutes just one moment in a continuing historical foundation module gave ETH pedagogy a strong systematic and
development, epitomised by openness towards practice and conceptual direction, whose influence on Swiss education and
fascination with a succession of significant figures. From Gottfried 11 Somol, 2003, p. 11. practice endures to this day.11
Semper, the first professor of architecture at the Polytechnikum,
to Karl Moser, Otto Salvisberg and Alfred Roth, the Chairs of ETH A graduate of ETH himself, Hoesli had worked for Le Corbusier
have been selected from among architects who could mediate before travelling to the US in the early 1950s. Alongside Colin
between practice and a theoretical or intellectual position. This Rowe, he became a central figure among the so-called Texas
series of protagonists has established a clearer architectural Rangers, who taught at University of Texas in Austin. The
8 See for example Allenspach,1999; genealogy than in most other countries.8 Grundkurs was fundamentally a transposition of the controversial
Gubler, 1975; Schmidt, 1972. Austin pedagogy, formulated between 1951 and 1957 and
At the heart of this professional lore there is a curious later disseminated in the US through Cornell and Cooper
ambivalence towards theory. On the one hand, one senses Union. The Texas approach was a critical synthesis of academic
a slight impatience with dense texts and suspicion as to their and modernist teaching, combining the Beaux Arts reliance
applicability, demonstrating a view of actual building as the 12 Caragonne, 1995, pp. 154–156. on tradition and the Bauhaus cultivation of innate creativity.12
9 See Kipnis, 1997, pp. 18–19. highest goal of architecture.9 The appointment of studio teachers Instead of the more orthodox rupture with architectural history,
is generally assessed in the light of their accomplishments in Hoesli and Rowe sought to place Modernism within an
practice. On the other hand, since the late 1960s a preference architectural continuum.
is perceptible for written discourse as supporting and
often justifying the built production, clarifying the conceptual This was firstly possible by defining space as the medium
dimensions of even the most object-oriented enterprise. The of architecture: “a visible and tangible thing, […] to be shaped
reliance on form to situate meaning has led to a situation where, 13 Pearlman, 1996, p. 128. according to the rules of formal composition”.13 The appeal
in order to separate style from substance, architects emphasise to the abstract notion of space, often associated with Modernism,
the work’s theoretical content in order to demonstrate the ethical originated nevertheless in Beaux-Arts teaching. “Space” belongs
dimension of their architecture. with an intuitive understanding of architecture, based on the
elimination of references to concrete historical models. This
ETH in the 1960s: the rise of theory modernist topos was preceded by Durand’s distillation of tradition
into a series of rules with universal application. The neutral use
(a) Bernhard Hoesli: Modernism as method of classical ornament in the later Beaux-Arts academy had
a timeless ambition; this was not, as modernists would have it,
I was convinced that Modern Architecture to operate in complete freedom from historical conventions,
had become teachable… I took it for granted but to freeze these into a de-historicised manner. The notion
that the WHAT and WHY of architecture could, of “space”, central to both attitudes, was indeed broader than
without saying, be assumed and that in my in Hoesli and Rowe’s use.
lessons, the main thing was to teach HOW one
10 Hoesli quoted in Jansen, p. 24. can design.10 Bernhard Hoesli Secondly, the Texas group revived the need for the idée, previously
central to Beaux-Arts method and discarded within the Bauhaus
The 1960s were a watershed moment for architecture teaching 14 Ibid., p. 127. as too restrictive.14 Hoesli and Rowe saw the necessity for
at ETH. Together with an increasing openness towards other concepts to structure the decision-making process and bring
disciplines, this period redefined the role of theory within the consistency to all aspects of the project. Finally, Austin design
school. During the 1950s, under the leadership of Alfred Roth teaching encouraged responses to the pre-existing urban context.
and the strong influence exercised by Sigfried Giedion, ETH had However, the city was understood primarily in spatial and formal
maintained a clear modernist direction. Nevertheless, the crisis terms, as a composition of sealed-off and free-flowing voids.

44 45
 After returning to ETH in 1959, Hoesli continued to develop
a systematic pedagogical programme for making modern
15 Seligmann, 1989, p. 9. architecture “teachable”.15 He sought to develop a general
method that would go beyond particular circumstances:

The method comprises: to start designing and

allow the individual design steps [to] alternate
with particular exercises which thereby serve
to overcome typical design situations and to
introduce and work on the necessary concepts
16 Hoesli quoted in Jansen, and procedures.16
1989, p. 26.

Design projects were set up as a controlled series of drawing-

and model-based formal exercises, accompanied by the parallel
study of avant-garde precedents. The course developed a
“taxonomy of modern buildings”, a kind of database that students
17 Seligmann, 1989. could rely on during the process of design.17 Several students
from the 1970s recall Hoesli’s lectures on modernist history,
combining procedure with a thorough knowledge of precedent,
as a formative experience of ETH pedagogy.

Hoesli believed “that the subject of teaching cannot be chosen

according to building types […] but must be identified as problem
types […]. Together with typical teaching subjects there must
be, then, typical procedural matters included in the teaching
18 Hoesli quoted in Jansen, content”.18 The challenge of “problem types” returns to
1989, p. 25. the modernist treatment of architecture as a spatial question. The
common denominator on which design could be assessed or
19 Hoesli, 1997, p. 92. produced was the notion of “continuous space”.19 This meant that
the city could only be studied in abstract, geometric terms, or as
20 For more on Hoesli’s an environmental experience of open and enclosed elements.20
“architectural space” see
ibid., pp. 89–97.
The wider architectural context required the control of design
through steps other than adherence to a formal canon. For
previous generations, the works of Le Corbusier, Mies and Wright
had provided a datum against which new positions could be
defined. Now, due to the growing relativism of contemporary
architecture, teaching had to develop the students’ ability to make
21 Hoesli quoted in Jansen informed decisions.21 In this framework design became less a
1989, pp. 38, 40. matter of individual creativity, as invited by the Bauhaus, than the
ability to justify decisions though the conceptualisation of
common architectural tasks.

The intellectualisation of design processes and their

transformation from “an empirical way of dealing with things”
to “a way of thinking” became Hoesli’s principle for studio (Top left) Hoesli Studio, Urban Study
22 Ibid., p.40. Also see Oechslin, teaching.22 Intellectual activity did not schematically transform of Lecce, ca. 1978–84. The urban network
1997, p. 11. of solids and voids is seen as the
intuitive and practical design processes into an intelligible concrete manifestation of communal
theoretical system, but had to apply this to practical and societal issues.
considerations. In other words, Hoesli communicated to (Top right) Grundkurs. Gerbert Robert,
students the need to mediate between the general, neutral student work, 1967. Spatial configurations
thrust of theory and the particulars of each situation. with non-specific functions.

(Right) Bernhard Hoesli. Untitled,

Collage, 1977

46 47
 The Grundkurs was the first learning experience for most
German-Swiss architects active between 1980 and 2000. Its
abstract methods, while confusing for many first-year students,
operated retrospectively; only later would they understand
the principles assimilated during this introductory course.
For example, Marcel Meili identified a formal and analytical
sensibility acquired from Hoesli’s Grundkurs, which he carried
on in practice:

Hoesli was an intellectually controlled,

didactically focused figure whose concerns
reflected mature, conceptual modernity.
At the time we were too young to comprehend
the importance of what he taught us but
in retrospect I can say this was a most important
course, perhaps internationally, because
it pursued modernity in a didactic manner.
Hoesli worked with the concept of “space”,
which to a first year student was not
understandableas such, but his course was
very good at developing design strategies in an
23 Meili, 2004. analytical way.23

Hoesli impacted on the Swiss architectural discourse in different

ways. After 1968 he came to represent a monolithic figure,
associated with historical Modernism. However, his Grundkurs
constituted an undisputed rite of passage; its design stipulations
merged with the material taught in subsequent years, helping to
formulate the tenets of contemporary Swiss architecture. The
primacy of concept as the central generating force in design, the
treatment of urban context as a mass of solids and voids, and the
reliance on the abstract notion of “space” can all be traced back
to Hoesli’s influence.

Moreover, Hoesli’s Grundkurs signalled the increasing

significance of theory for architectural production. The need for
an intellectual structure for design was a reaction against the
commercially efficient Modernism dominating the international
scene, the search for renewed social relevance. ETH in the 1960s
saw another re-assessment of 1920s Modernism, this time in the
conditions of an emerging political conscience, in the attempt to
re-connect practice with the reality of social concerns.

(b) Conceptualism

For a short while, at ETH we used to write more

24 Steinmann, “Neuere Architektur”, than draw.24 Martin Steinmann
2003, p. 93. Translation from the
German original.
During the post-war years, while ETH offered a routine modernist
education, a new school of architecture was set up in Ulm under
the direction of Max Bill. The Hochschule für Gestaltung was
founded in 1951 with the intention to re-establish Bauhaus
principles in design teaching. The Ulm school initiated a new kind Bernhard Hoesli working with students,
of sociological research for architecture. Bill’s successor, Tomás 5 February 1979

48 49
 Maldonado, oriented it towards the application of social sciences As students at the time, Roger Diener, Pierre de Meuron and
in design, connecting formal production, the critical theory of Jacques Herzog all benefited from this exposure to sociological
the Frankfurt School, and Hannes Meyer’s understanding discussions. In the first instance, instead of attending Hoesli’s
25 See Frampton, “Apropos Ulm”, of architecture as “environmental science”.25 The school sought Grundkurs, Herzog and de Meuron spent their first year at EPFL
2002, pp 47–55; Tafuri and Dal Co, methodological formulations for design, as illustrated by in Lausanne, the French-language subsidiary of the federal ETH.
1976, p. 42.
mathematician Horst Rittel’s research into decision-making Later, they joined Burckhardt’s “canapé”, where the study of early
procedures. Rittel’s work was a source of fascination for 31 Rüegg, 1998, p. 89. Modernism was conducted as an intellectual discourse.31 In his
sociologist Lucius Burckhardt, who taught briefly in Ulm before first year, Diener studied with sociologist Hermann Zinn in a pilot
joining ETH in 1961. Burckhardt brought process-focused unit, which placed emphasis on “interviews in the street, and not
26 See Paquot, 1998. impetus that would resonate in the school for over a decade.26 32 Diener, 2005. design”.32 Zinn’s involvement with the Metron group from Brugg,
which specialised in mass housing, provided another basis for
The theoretical spectrum of 1960s ETH stretches between the architectural expression of societal issues.
the poles set by Hoesli and Burckhardt. Hoesli intended to
overcome the “object-fixation” of Modernism by viewing form as Symptomatic of the growing need for intellectual examination
27 Hoesli quoted in Jansen, a means to an end and not an end in itself.27 Through set design within architecture was the creation within ETH Zurich, in 1967,
1989, p. 39. processes he intended to systematise an aesthetic of architecture of the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture
going beyond the mere issues of function. Burckhardt, influenced (Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur, widely known
by the positivism of Ulm, turned architecture into a different kind as gta). The formation of gta, under the direction of architectural
of system, modelled on the social sciences. The emphasis on historian Adolf Max Vogt, re-acknowledged the relevance of
process and sociological investigations led to the gradual historical study for contemporary design. The new department
transformation of studio projects into research of multi- had an interdisciplinary ethos, placing theory in the service
disciplinary processes. As a result, the ETH tendencies – much 33 Vogt, 1968, pp. 13–16. of studio teaching.33 Vogt’s inaugural speech deferred to the
like other European schools at the time – veered from the polytechnic spirit of ETH, stressing the need for theoretical
practical towards the abstract. Marcel Meili described this scene 34 Vogt, 1968, p. 18. research to fulfil itself through application.34 However, how this
as a “late modern climate of rampant conceptualism, in which was to be achieved was less clear. During the same inaugural
28 Meili, 2004. architecture was taught as a pragmatic science”.28 event, Paul Hofer presented a methodology for the archaeological
dating of medieval surfaces. This suggests that theory was
After 1968, the sociological impetus increased proportionally with understood at the time mainly as a corollary of historical studies.
the students’ political involvement. The more established teachers Architectural research leaned towards scientific positivism rather
were associated with the political establishment, causing a shift than the humanities.
away from Hoesli’s design processes and towards Burckhardt’s.
The lack of interest in formal resolution all but led to architecture Meanwhile, in practice, the inertia of 1960s architecture called for
being viewed as a branch of sociology. The studio that radical change – in design as much as in architectural criticism.
Burckhardt led together with architect Rolf Gutmann between Contributing the Swiss monograph to the international series
1971–73, nicknamed the “canapé”, was polemical and irreverent, New Directions in Architecture, Stanislaus von Moos began thus:
encouraging process-driven and open-ended projects: 35 Bachmann and von Moos, “New directions in Swiss architecture? There are none”.35 For von
1969, p. 11. Moos, contemporary production was divided into two equally
We used those methods of architectural dispiriting categories. The first was that of public commissions,
representation that could convey that one is driven by a permanent need for originality at all cost, and
insufficiently informed, that one can only find meaninglessly re-iterating tired modernist principles. The other
this much through research, and nevertheless was the trivial architecture of developers, inevitably resulting in
has to provide answers. [We tried] to remain 36 von Moos, 1971, p. 15. comfortable bourgeois pastiche.36
open to solutions, to their potential, and not
29 Paquot, 1998. Translation from impose a definite, confident, perfect solution.29 Von Moos effectively fought with words; criticism was for him
the French original. a means to bring about actual change. In 1971 he founded
Burckhardt’s students were encouraged to compare the archithese, a bimonthly journal which he edited until 1976,
avant-garde’s societal and formal ambitions against the actual and which he used as an opportunity to develop theoretical
use of modernist prototypes. They studied the manner in which 37 Commissioned by the Union of discourse beyond the early positivism of gta.37 After one year the
Neues Bauen projects had been appropriated and changed Swiss Freelance Architects (FSAI), journal settled into a consistent thematic format, focusing on
archithese came from von Moos’
over the decades – the impact of technological and social collaboration with FSAI president contemporary issues. Archithese invited writers from practice and
developments on the early Siedlungen, their adaptability Hans Reinhard and journalist various theoretical disciplines, acquiring an immediate relevance
Jean-Claude Widmer. For an
30 Burckhardt continued this to updated requirements.30 Such comparative studies led not archithese historiography see
and becoming an important vehicle for the articulation of theory.
research after leaving ETH only to the understanding of modernist social proposals, but Significantly, the first issues were conceived in Italy, where von
Stauffer, 1998, p. 93.
in 1973. See Burckhardt,
1977, pp. 94–101. also their adaptability to current conditions. Moos was exposed to the discourse of neo-rationalism.

50 51
 The example of journals like Casabella and Controspazio opened The import of autonomy in the ETH discourse has been attributed
archithese to the Italian debates on the historical city. to one person in particular, the Italian architect and theorist Aldo
Rossi (1931–1997). Rossi’s influence has been disproportionate to
Manfredo Tafuri’s reassessment of theory in Theories and History the briefness of his tenure at ETH. He mesmerised the Swiss with
of Architecture (1968) affected archithese’s style of criticism. For his “humanity and extraordinary cultural knowledge, enriched
Tafuri, theory meant first and foremost criticism, with the task 42 Fabio Reinhart quoted in "Viele by a sharp witted, active intelligence”.42 Students and teachers
38 Tafuri, 1980, p. 2. of providing a “historical assessment of present contradictions”.38 Mythen, ein Maestro II", 1998, still testify to his personal charisma, which compensated for the
p. 40. Translation from the
This stance was equally detached from the tame study of pre- German original. somewhat cryptic content of the teaching.43 Rossi’s adoption by
modern periods as it was from the capitalist system that current the school is related to his identification with the conceptual
43 See “Viele Mythen, ein Maestro I,
architecture reflected. Tafuri called for a re-examination of the II”, 1997 and 1998; Moravánszky
framework of autonomy. In truth, this agenda was implemented
foundations of Modernism, in the light of its more recent and Hopfengärtner, 2011. not by Rossi alone but by a group of like-minded architects from
fragmentation. He advanced structuralism and semiology as Ticino, where Italian Rationalism had already penetrated. Bruno
models for theoretical study, fulfilling the need for an objective Reichlin, Fabio Reinhart, Dolf Schnebli, Luigi Snozzi, Mario Campi,
39 Ibid., pp. 5–6. scientific basis for understanding the present crisis.39 and Eraldo Consolascio were among those who facilitated Rossi’s
44 Rossi was first invited by Dolf entry to ETH.44 Crucially, they stayed there long after his departure,
Rooted in public debates over the future of Italian architectural Schnebli to participate in an ETH ensuring the propagation of autonomous ideals.
seminar in February 1972. At the
heritage, Tafuri’s concept of theory had a political, nominally time, Reichlin and Reinhart wrote
Marxist perspective. At the same time, his theories about to the “all-powerful” Hoesli to Rossi’s position changed over his few years at ETH and three
announce Rossi’s visit and
ancient and modern architectures constituted debates within propose him as candidate for
separate phases can be discerned in his influence. The first
historiography, built upon the close study of artefacts, drawings, a visiting professorship at ETH. corresponds to Rossi’s own design studio with Bruno Reichlin
writings and secondary literature. He was less prone to rants They described Rossi as a and Fabio Reinhart as assistants (1972–74), largely based on the
“typical Italian academic in the
over how things ought to be, or even to conclusive formulations, best sense of the word, carrying theory of Architecture and the City (1966). The second coincides
than to identifying and characterising critical themes and their out didactic, design and painterly with the collaborative studio with Bernhard Hoesli and Paul Hofer
transformations in history. activities sustained by historical (1978–79), when Rossi formulated the subjective poetics of
and critical research”.
Moravánszky and Hopfengärtner, A Scientific Autobiography (1981). Finally the third stage, after
This change of tone, reflected in archithese, soon communicated 2011, pp. 23–28. Translation from Rossi’s departure, relates to the Analoge Architektur studio run
the Italian original.
to those working at gta, including Martin Steinmann and Bruno by Fabio Reinhart as professor with Miroslav Šik as main
Reichlin. Swiss theoretical discourse remains grounded in Tafuri’s assistant (1983–1991). Each of these stages has a definite
version of committed criticism, and shares its reliance on character, which is reflected in the self-understanding of those
systematic empirical thought. This goes some way towards 45 Although the precise extent of studying at the time.45
explaining the hold of typological thinking on the Swiss Rossi’s legacy is a matter of
controversy, he undoubtedly
architectural imagination. contributed to the formation of a Rossi’s on-off teaching at ETH during the 1970s gradually built up
generational professional into a veritable pedagogical machine, operating in several studios
self-understanding. Several
ETH in the 1970s: between typology and Realism architects, while close in age,
and further propagated through exhibitions, seminars, and
define their different positions in thematic articles in the professional press. The subjective element
Aldo [Rossi]’s profound knowledge, coupled relation to having studied with, in he always acknowledged meant that the conceptual basis of his
parallel to, or after Rossi. A first
with an artistic perspective on things, was such generation includes Jacques methods remained open to interpretation. This accounts in part
tied into his charismatic personality. The Herzog, Pierre de Meuron and for the heterogeneity of Swiss positions influenced by it. The
students, spoiled by the habit of rebellion, were Roger Diener, who graduated continuity of this heritage emerges not only from Rossi’s own
from ETH in 1975. Herzog and de
so surprised by Rossi’s ways that they didn’t Meuron were Rossi’s students, intellectual development, but also from its assimilation and
notice how authoritarian his much-loved Diener studied with Luigi Snozzi. transformation in the Swiss discourse.46
The second generation, including
40 "Viele Mythen, ein Maestro I", teaching was.40 Dolf Schnebli Marcel Meili and Miroslav Šik,
1997, p. 39. Translation from the (a) 1972—1974: Typological studio
studied with the Rossi Hofer
German original.
After 1968, the school’s left-wing orientation resulted in the Hoesli urban studio of 1978–79.
Rossian ideas continued to be
desire to expand its curriculum further towards issues of social explored in Mario Campi’s studio Rossi’s first teaching period at ETH was determined by his early
relevance, including history and the city. At the same time, the with Eraldo Consolascio as theoretical position. His answer to the dissolution of architecture
department staff and students were advised to leave politics assistant (1975–76). The early into sociological and systematic methodologies had been to seek,
1980s are seen as an intermediary
41 Paquot, 1998. alone and concentrate on design once again.41 The framework period, with graduates (Annette once again, the meaning of architecture through reference to its
that resolved these contradictory requirements was the dialectical Gigon, Mike Guyer among others) own values. The question of architectural autonomy was first
finding role models in practice
proposition of autonomous architecture. rather than studio. In the mid- to
addressed in the Rationalist discourse developed by Ernesto
late 1980s, Valerio Olgiati, Andrea Nathan Rogers and the Casabella editorial team during the 1950s
Deplazes, Christian Kerez, and 60s. This discourse rejected the tabula rasa principles of
Quintus Miller and Paola Maranta
studied with Reinhart and Šik in functionalist planning and proposed to bring architecture back to
the Analoge Architektur studio. the historical and social context of the city. The Rationalist

46 For a detailed examination of

52 Rossi’s Swiss legacy see 53
Moravánszky and Hopfengärtner,
2011.
 message was perceived as timely and consequential, at a time 53 Quatremère de Quincy, Giulio Carlo Argan.53 For Argan type was an idea, the “common
of unprecedented destruction and alteration of European cities. 1999, pp.254–256. root” of formal variations pertaining to a given principle. Type was
not a contingent category; its meaning was stable in history,
It wasn’t until 1973, when Massimo Scolari coined the term pertaining to “more profound problems which […] are thought
Tendenza on the occasion of the fifteenth Milan Triennale, that 54 Argan, 1996, p.244. fundamental and constant”.54 Argan’s distinction between the
discrete Rationalist strands came together under the common typological and original aspects of design recalls the relation
47 See Hays, 1998, pp. 124–125. rubric of an architectural programme.47 Scolari presented between theory and its application: a given repository with
architectural autonomy as a necessity: not as withdrawing constant content that is creatively adapted to the actual
from economical and social considerations, but as reclaiming conditions of design. Nevertheless, the inventive aspect of design,
architecture for itself, re-stating its specific means and sphere while “continuous and interlaced” with typological reference,
of action: 55 Ibid., pp. 245–246. constituted a critique of the precedents integrated in the type.55

For the Tendenza, architecture is a Rossi’s interpretation of type preserved the same ambiguities
cognitive process that in and of itself, in the regarding history. Whilst it is true to say that the architectural
acknowledgment of its own autonomy, is types Rossi studied embodied years, even centuries, of
today necessitating a re-founding of the refinement in practice, history itself cannot be decanted into
discipline; that refuses interdisciplinary solutions building form. History is made up of phenomena that change
to its own crisis; that does not pursue and at different rates. A reliance on Milizia suggests that Rossi
immerse itself in political, economic, social, understood types as almost-abstract configurations of specific
and technological events […] but rather desires forms, a taxonomy of buildings legitimised independently of their
to understand them so as to be able to intervene urban situation. His critique replaced functionalism, concerned
48 Scolari, 1998, pp. 131–132. in them with lucidity.48 with the schematisation of living under the defined limits of
Existenzminimum, with typology as another instrumental system,
L’ architettura della città, the book Rossi published in 1966, has equally removed from praxis.
been recognised as the clearest and most potent manifestation of
49 Ibid., p. 133. this discourse.49 Rossi put architecture in relation to the historical In ETH, Rossi and his assistants sought to apply the discourse
city, defined as a network of urban artefacts, connected by latent of autonomous architecture to studio teaching. This translated
collective memory. He saw “individual” art and “collective” forms through the insistence on design’s primacy over theoretical and
as equivalent manifestations of the deeper strata of commonality: interdisciplinary courses:

All great manifestations of social life have in The specific goal of any architecture school is
common with the work of art the fact that they the set up of a design strategy: its priority over
are born in unconscious life. This life is collective all other investigations is indisputable. Design
in the former, individual in the latter; but this is theory represents all architectures’ most
only a secondary difference because […] the important and basic moment; [it] should be seen
50 Rossi, 1982, p. 33. public provides the common denominator.50 56 Rossi, 1974, p. 28. Translation as the main axis of every architecture school.56
from the German original.
Rossi believed that what is typical in culture could be identified Rossi not only reinstated the supremacy of the design studio, but
through systematic analysis and classification. He saw in typology legitimised project-making through adherence to a set method:
a method for organising the imprecise moments of transformation
and difference that characterise the city at any given time. For To find a basis for architecture as a science,
him, the enduring street topography pointed to the reciprocity of we need the highest level of precision. We have
stability and change that a city represents. He sought to uncover to identify the principles, from where to start.
the constant function between the urban realm and the elements […] We (the architects) must know how and
constituting it, “always considering buildings as moments and why we design, what models to refer to, what
51 Ibid., p. 35. parts of the whole that is the city”.51 57 Ibid., p 3. Translation from the our aims are.57
German original.
Rossi defined type as “permanent and complex, a logical Rossi’s design theory structured the project as the logical
52 Ibid., p. 40. principle that is prior to form and that constitutes it”.52 This development of three stages: analysis, architectural idea,
formulation suggests that “type” enshrined a manifestation of the 58 Rossi, 1974, pp .1–2. Translation and design.58 Until then, contextual studies had mostly been
collective memory condensed into form, a dimension of continuity from the German original. conducted either statistically, as part of the socio-economic
and mediation. This understanding was indebted to Quatremère approach, or morphologically, in terms of elevational
de Quincy’s distinction between abstract type and concrete 59 Max Bosshard interviewed in physiognomies, positive and negative space etc.59 According to
model, and its twentieth-century interpretation by the historian Maspoli and Spreyermann, Hoesli, the project entered a relationship of give-and-take with the
1993, p. 19.

54 55
 site, accepting its morphological features after the manner of At the same time, Rossi recognised that “scientific” legitimisation
60 Hoesli, 1997. phenomenal transparency articulated by Rowe and Slutzky.60 was not the sole agent in the decision-making process. He
For Rossi, understanding a given place covered not only increasingly considered issues of subjectivity, using his own
its morphology, but also its history. The process of historical projects in lectures to illustrate the sources and consequences
change could provide the key to design strategies. The analysis 66 Ibid., p. 13. of more personal choices in design.66 This acknowledgement
was therefore “a critical record of the essential aspects of of autobiographical elements in architecture was the linchpin of
61 Rossi, 1974, p. 2. Translation from the existing architecture”.61 The studio emphasised the reading his theory, circumscribing its rationality and later developing
the German original. of urban plans, juxtaposing the contemporary city with its into the dreamlike thinking of architettura analoga.
historical records.
Rossi’s early insistence on the formal aspects of types relegated
The students conducted in Zurich comprehensive surveys personal experience to a secondary position, emphasising an
of predominant residential types. The reading was primarily abstract version of the city. This is to be opposed to a situational
typological and morphological, with personal (subjective) understanding, in which the city becomes legible at a pre-
experiences and impressions given less importance. The 67 The application of situational reflective level as an expression of institutional order.67 In spite
drawings focused on the repetition of “basic, permanent understanding was attempted at of allegations to the contrary, the autonomous statement of
the AA in London in the late 1970s
elements” represented in the controlled, detached manner in Dalibor Vesely’s studio. See architecture found it hard to escape isolation, leading to its
62 Maspoli and Spreyermann, 1993. of urban plans.62 These studies sought to establish a rational Vesely, 1982. remoteness from practical life.
basis for form. Once the mechanics of change were revealed,
the students could import their knowledge into the design. (b) Swiss interpretations

The second and third stages – the development of idea and In the project for the Palazzo della Ragione in
design – were less deterministic. Having secured a city whose Trieste, I realised that I had simply recounted
historical body resisted arbitrary form-making or economic through architecture certain mornings when I
relativism, its analysis became the basis for interpretation. read the newspaper in the great Lichthof of the
The project’s suitability and value could be deduced from the University of Zurich. I had assimilated the light
dialogue between original creativity and the interpretation of of the pyramidal, glassed covering of the
existing conditions. Kunsthaus […]. Seeing this element repeated
in many student projects which I had not
In reality, architecture gets its form through personally supervised – a form derived from my
debate with its entire history. It grows based on work and not from the lives of these students or
its own motivations, and only through this their education in the city – I noted how it only
process does it merge with the existing built returned to being its own place, that is, to that
world as it did in with the natural one. It is 68 Rossi, 1979, p. 17. place they passed every day.68 Aldo Rossi
correct only if it established a dialectic relation
63 Rossi, 1974, p. 24. Translation with its originality.63 Rossi’s teaching approach, described by contemporaries
from the German original. as “authoritarian” or “orthodox”, was adopted as a formula
The “debate with history” failed however to acknowledge the 69 Dolf Schnebli in "Viele Mythen, across the ETH.69 In a parallel studio, Luigi Snozzi maintained
differences in the rate and nature of change since the nineteenth ein Maestro I", 1997, p. 39. Fabio the orientation towards form as a reflection of pragmatic
Reinhart in "Viele Mythen, ein
century. Ultimately the production of form was grounded Maestro. II", 1998, p. 41. conditions, its significance relayed through recourse to history
neither in function, nor in the wider conditions of capitalist and collective memory.70 Mario Campi’s studio between 1975–76,
70 Steinmann, “Neuere Architektur”,
industrialisation. Rather, it was based on type and its 2003, p. 94.
with Eraldo Consolascio as assistant, closely followed Rossi’s
modifications under the pressure of historically determined typological method.
conditions. The study of history was seen as a precondition
of Realism, guaranteeing the connection between individual A natural consequence of the general fascination with Rossi was
64 Ibid., p. 18. creativity and the surrounding culture.64 Bruno Reichlin that, alongside design method, his formal approach was likewise
testifies that: replicated. The geometric purism and repetitive, stark elements
of Rossi’s early period were adopted as a style. Student projects
By architettura razionale he [Rossi] meant the read like versions of Rossi’s Gallaratese apartment block, Milan
attempt to establish a system of legitimisation (1969–70), Palazzo della Ragione, Trieste (1974), or early designs
within the traditions of architecture, some kind for the Modena cemetery (1971). While Rossi viewed the students’
65 Bruno Reichlin interviewed of transparency between theory and praxis.65 tributes benignly as part of a mimetic education process, their
in Maspoli and Spreyermann, episodic appearance in the Swiss architecture of the late 70s
1993, p. 15. Translation from
the German original. and early 80s was less welcome. As Meili would later note, Italian
71 Meili, 1996, p. 24. urban typologies were barely legible in the local context.71

56 57
 The tension that developed between the claims of regional
cultural conditions and the expectations of a Rationalist
vocabulary was first addressed in the early 1970s in the Ticino.
Closer to the theoretical currents from Italy, Ticinese architecture
maintained a distinctive cultural relevance to its own heritage. This
creative interpretation of Italian neo-rationalism was presented at
ETH in 1975 in the exhibition Tendenzen – Neuere Architektur im
Tessin, curated by Martin Steinmann and Thomas Boga. The
plural title was deliberate – Ticinese “tendencies” were not
identifiable with the Tendenza. They reflected specific cultural
circumstances, proposing a variety of interpretations of the local
72 Steinmann, 2004. vernacular and modernist traditions.72

Steinmann’s introductory essay to the catalogue, later

re-published under the title “Reality as History”, identified
in the Ticinese work the strategy of reinterpreting the modernist
73 Steinmann, 1998, pp. 248–253. tradition.73 Starting from the dialectical proposition of architectural
autonomy, Steinmann reiterated the contradiction inherent in its
nature: that form is developed in relation to history and society,
and yet the determining principles must be legible within the
works themselves. For the Ticinese, he argued, the relation to
tradition was a deliberate referential strategy:

Tradition is more than a relationship we may or

may not have to history. It is an epistemological
category; it dictates that a new meaning can
only be derived from a familiar one, a new norm
74 Ibid., p. 249. only from the old one that it replaces.74

This understanding of tradition had allowed Ticinese architects

to refer, in their work, both to the historical models of Neues
Bauen and the local vernacular. The buildings were legible as
translations of inherently familiar architectural motifs and forms.
Ticino architecture offered the example of a widely adaptable
modus operandi.

The idea of variations on the historical models of vernacular

or indigenous Modernism had a strong impact on the developing
German-Swiss discourse. Besides clarity of method, this self-
referential strategy had another advantage: it came readily
associated with a sense of political involvement. It brought
architecture close to social concerns, constituting itself as a moral
proposition. “The notion of tradition as a progressive category […]
has to be saved each moment anew from becoming a tool of the
75 Ibid., p. 250. ruling powers”.75 Architectural autonomy could, or had the
obligation to, profess its independence from consumerist goals,
and from endorsing political authority.

Beyond a certain expressive austerity, there is little continuity

of appearance between 1970s Ticino architecture and what
occurred in Northern Switzerland in the 1980s and 1990s.
However, the idea of architecture as the interpretation of existing
familiar forms and the understanding of this strategy as an act Aldo Rossi. La Casa dello studente
of political resistance were assimilated into the German-Swiss di Chieti, 1976

58 59
 production. This can be explained at some level through cultural
exchanges between Ticino and ETH, one-off events like the
Tendenzen exhibition and day-to-day studio teaching.

While it is tempting to identify the Ticinese production with a kind

of subconscious armature for subsequent Swiss architecture,
it is important to recognise that autonomy was only one element
of this growing structure. It was itself built on a deeper layer of
modernist investigations, and was soon joined by another motif
of the avant-garde re-surfacing in the contemporary discourse:
the issue of Realism.

(c) 1975–80: From Città analoga to Las Vegas

Around 1975, in parallel to the continued interest in typology,

a new focus of concern emerged: the realist research of Robert
Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, disseminated through thematic
archithese issues. To be sure, this new strand was supported
by the socially conscious Realism pervading Italian culture, which
76 See for example Šik’s testimony resonated at the time among the students.76 The new estates and
in “Viele Mythen, ein Maestro I”, industries in the films of Fellini and Antonioni, featuring deserted
1997, p.44. Many other students,
including Jacques Herzog, refer environments away from the historical city, corresponded to
for example to Rossi’s admiration Venturi and Scott Brown’s landscapes of the American periphery.
for Fellini’s films, as if they
constituted part of his curriculum.
For the Swiss students, the so-called “popular culture”
encompassed an implicit and relevant commentary on bourgeois
cultural values. As the question of complex realities pervaded
the Rationalist discourse, Realism came into its own not as
a theoretical question but, as archithese claimed, “in the concrete
77 Von Moos, Editorial, “Realismus context of contemporary professional practice”.77
in der Architektur”, archithese
no. 19 (1976), p. 2. As a barometer
of Swiss architectural debate At the same time, Rossi’s investigations of collective memory
since 1971, archithese devoted led to a paradoxical concern with the inner triggers of artistic
two issues to Realism in
architecture (no.13 / 1975 and
creativity. By the mid-1970s, the search for a more subjective
19 / 1976) both featuring Venturi approach was gaining ground over the rigid methods of
and Scott Brown contributions. typological investigation. Characteristically, Massimo Scolari
renounced “the idea of treating history, type, and monument with
the methods of historical and formal analysis” in favor of “a theory
of architecture in which the theoretical principles guide the formal
78 Scolari, 1998, p. 142. choices through a genealogy of reference”.78 For Rossi, such
a genealogy was made available through analogical thought.

Rossi’s “analogical architecture” expanded the Rationalist

discourse to include a poetic dimension, somewhere “between
79 See Rossi, 1996, pp. 348–352. inventory and memory”.79 The new argument was based on Carl
Gustav Jung’s distinction between logos and “analogical thought”
as a deeper level of consciousness: “archaic, unexpressed, and
80 Ibid., p. 349. practically inexpressible in words”.80 Fittingly, this notion eluded
clear definition, operating through associations and references.

Rossi’s projects in the late 1970s used the same geometric (Top) Aldo Rossi. Gallaratese housing,
elements as his earlier buildings; what had shifted was the Milan, 1969–73. Façade
perception that their meaning is not fixed a priori, but each time
(Bottom) Residential project in Letten,
reiterated according to actual conditions. This allowed him to Zurich. Max Bosshard, student work,
reuse the stark repetitive elements of the Gallaratese apartment 1973. Façade detail

60 61
 building in the Modena cemetery to different ends – suggesting
the transition from the functional attributes of types towards their
use as referential images. A condition for this possibility, Rossi
contended, was the focus on familiar or ordinary objects. These
would place the architectonic object in a common referential
sphere, linking the autobiographical moment of personal
memories to a collective dimension. This subjectivity
characterised Rossi’s second period of ETH teaching in 1977–78,
81 Hoesli intended to compare his in the course of a collaborative studio with Hofer and Hoesli.81
own urban research (influenced
by Rowe’s Collage City) and
didactic method with Rossi’s, but At this stage, Rossi already enjoyed a quasi-mythical status,
the latter’s interests had already receding behind a growing mass of designs, drawings and
shifted. Contrary to the
expectations of ETH professors
writings. His charismatic but nebulous discourse signalled the
and students, many of whom had need for followers to clarify their own position. Miroslav Šik and
previously studied with Campi Marcel Meili, students of the Rossi Hoesli Hofer studio, organised
and Consolascio, Rossi now
focused less on method and type in the winter of 1977–78 a seminar on the theme Realismus. This
than on cryptic, if evocative, became a framework for discussions about Realism in the arts
notions like image and and literature, which were then adapted to architecture as a
atmosphere. See Maspoli and
Spreyermann, 1993, pp. 28–32. manner of legitimising design procedures. This seminar was
conceptually structured around an article published in archithese
in 1976 entitled “Zum Problem der innerarchitektonischen
Wirklichkeit” (“On architecture’s inherent reality”). Its authors,
Steinmann and Reichlin, advocated an architecture that could
reflect social reality while enjoying its own, sensuous and
intellectual nature:

The displacement of its own concrete reality

has resulted in architecture’s reduction to being
a “useful item”. This relates to the general
tendency to separate the contemplative life from
the practical, and to limit it to a compensatory,
consolatory function. The practical life only
admits desire, as the motor of capitalist
processes, but excludes the self-sufficient
pleasure […]. The pleasure in architecture is one
of these forsaken desires. In the name of
Realism, we must demand the right to pleasure
82 Reichlin and Steinmann, in architecture.82
1976, p. 10. Translation from
the German original.
By demanding “le droit au plaisir”, Reichlin and Steinmann
legitimised a departure from the pure Rationalisms of the Neues
Bauen and of Rossi’s early scientific proclamations, in order to
recognise the sensuous nature of the discipline. K. Michael Hays
later saw in this proposition a practical understanding of
architecture as an “experimental, transformative activity that ties
an ideal of practice to concrete production” – or, rather, to
83 Hays, 1998, p. 246. concrete experience.83

Isolated from a hermeneutical understanding of situation, this kind

(Left) archithese no. 13, Realismus in der
of experience has echoes of subjectivity, like being aesthetically Architektur, 1975. The cover shows a
contemplative. Rossi’s development since the mid-1970s, photograph of Venturi and Rauch’s Guild
articulated in A Scientific Autobiography in 1981, took analogy House, Philadelphia, 1960–63.
into the subjective sphere, implying an experience of the object (Right) archithese no. 19,
through perceptions and associations that were haptic rather than Realismus, 1976. Cover

62 63
 purely visual. However, this shift to subjective experience and Three points characterised Šik’s definition of Analoge Architektur:
associations transferred authority from the nominally objective
typological history to that of the designer-auteur, an exchange i. a particular referential sphere (the so-called “classics”)
that lay latent in the formalism of typology itself. This sensual comprising, in opposition to Bauhaus Modernism, the alternative
understanding of architecture appears as a leitmotif in traditions of British and American Arts and Crafts, Viennese
subsequent Swiss production, in particular in the work of Secession, the “Scandinavian reformism” of Gunnar Asplund
Herzog & de Meuron and Peter Zumthor. or Kay Fisker;

(d) 1983—1991 Analoge Architektur ii. a redefinition of “regionalism” through the focus on ordinary
locations (industrial periphery, working-class residential districts)
The third Rossian stage in ETH coincides with the Analoge and small-scale architectures (conversions, sheds), revealing the
Architektur studio that Fabio Reinhart ran between 1983–91, with beauty inherent in everyday environments, as opposed to
assistants Luca Ortelli, Santiago Calatrava, and Miroslav Šik, who monuments and landmarks;
in the end became the Analogues’ driving force. As the studio’s
German name suggests, Reinhart and Šik effected a translation iii. a continuity with the city, achieved through a mimetic language,
of Rossi’s notion of analogous architecture. Following the impact resulted from the combination of distorted versions of forgotten
of Learning from Las Vegas (1976), the studio applied it to a 86 See for example Šik, 2000; Šik, “classics” and deference to local types and atmospheres.86
reading of reality imported from Venturi and Scott Brown: 1987; Šik, 2002.
In opposition to Postmodernist collage techniques, this
Contrary to Rossi’s teaching, we located architecture operated less through the evocative power
our projects in different places (the Zurich of fragments than through the melancholy, continuous erosion
periphery) using different architectural 87 Šik quoted in Lucan, 2001, p. 47. of “subtle allusions […] slightly obscure yet strongly emotional”.87
references (the trivial forms of everyday life) The Analogues proposed an elaborate, assiduous knitting of
84 Fabio Reinhart in “Viele and different design processes.84 architecture in its setting, a relationship to context understood
Mythen, ein Maestro II”, as a kind of hyperrealism.
1998, p. 41. Translation
from the German original. Ultimately, the Analogue studio has come to represent
Šik’s position. By the time his approach was fully defined around Šik’s notion of altneu (“oldnew”) is representative of this
1987, a new generation of students (including Valerio Olgiati, merger. Its relation to tradition was equally opposed to pastiche
Andrea Deplazes, Quintus Miller and Paola Maranta) was conservation and to modernist innovation:
affected by this teaching as much as by the emerging projects
and writing of the previous ETH generation. Whether embraced My aim is to create a world that is neither old nor
or contested, Analoge Architektur provided a new attitude new. I want the various types of atmosphere to
towards context, which remains deeply imprinted on subsequent cancel one another out, blurring the social and
debates and production. 88 Ibid., p. 49. temporal framework.88

Described by Ákos Moravánszky as “an Oedipal reaction to This relationship to context is perhaps the Analogues’ most
Rossi’s città analoga”, the Analogue method rejected Rossi’s provocative proposition. It brings into relief the tensions between
typological taxonomies while adapting the poetic sensitivity at architecture as autonomous object and typical urban order,
85 Moravánszky, 2005, p. 27. work in his analogies.85 Šik set up the studio, which soon became between individual artistic expression and the universality of
a school within the school, as a self-sufficient apprenticeship unmediated, concrete reality. The proposal questions the limits
system, with the younger students helping their elders while of architecture as a self-conscious enterprise, and tries to
learning the studio’s characteristic representational techniques. approximate the unconsciousness of “trivial” architecture,
Architectural ideas were conveyed through large perspectival understood as a social, functional and economic act without
drawings, conceived primarily in terms of images and artistic pretensions. However, precisely because of its conceptual
atmospheres. Rather than idealised architectural representations nature, this claim is not realistic. The contradiction inherent in the
like plans and sections, rendered as geometric configurations Analogue proposition is noticeable in the tension between the
on the white space of the paper, the students were encouraged limits of the architectural object and its continuation of a given
to render the project in its context. The heavy chalk lines and setting. While part of the city to the point of indistinctness, the
surfaces, depicting deep shadows and deserted interiors, were, proposal also demands self-definition, coherence, and unity:
however, more reminiscent of dream-like settings than of any
concrete situation. Everything that originally lay on the project table,
everything that has found its way into a new
composition, must in the end have the effect of
89 Ibid. unity, an indivisible wholeness, as a monad.89

64 65
 This need for internal order opposes the outer urban order, as the
autonomous “monad” negates the very idea of the unobtrusive
project blending with its background. The Analogues’ artistic
mimesis of typical settings is, ultimately, as unrealisable a project
as the CIAM Modernism it rejected.

ETH in the 1980s and 1990s: the content of theory

(a) Between form and culture

Our incursions into the world of the ordinary and

the everyday constitute a search for collective
meanings. Following the collapse of national
mythologies and territorial arrangements, this
research attempts to recover the traces of an
identity in the affected mobility of our
90 Meili, “Ein paar Bauten”, contemporary culture.90 Marcel Meili
1991, p. 22. Translation
from the German original.
While all individual manifestations of German-Swiss architecture
should be seen as distinct forms of practice, several elements
from Rossi’s theories seem to underpin their deep common
ground. The typological and Analogue moments share the hope
for a collective level, at which architects could make sense of
a perplexing reality. The insistence on form as the concrete
manifestation of universal meaning, an architecture legitimised
through a conceptual framework, the tension between buildings
as individual artefacts and their relationship to urban order, the
recycling of primary, stark forms for contingent circumstances –
all these constitute a cloud of propositions, to which architects
return to define their own approach.

Implicitly or explicitly in use, such ideas form the conceptual

armature of the recent Swiss production. Before its divergence
became apparent in the mid-1990s, several attempts were made
to formalise a common programme, based less on regionalist
concerns than on the collective cultural conditions to which
regionalism responded. The critics who attempted regionalist
definitions found their argument straining under the marked
cultural and socio-economic differences between zones like the
Graubünden and the Basel–Zurich metropolitan areas. The
architects, more alert to differences rather than to similarities,
proved a sceptical audience. Nevertheless, some texts produced
with this shared agenda had an important effect on Swiss
self-understanding, galvanising these fragments in constructs of
great currency. Marcel Meili’s “Ein paar Bauten, viele Pläne” and
Martin Steinmann’s “La forme forte” (published together in 1991)
are particularly significant in this context.

Meili renewed the discourse around history and Realism

articulated during the previous decade. Connecting Rossi’s
pronouncements to the contemporary ones of Analoge
Architektur, Meili organised the various ideas into a critique of
Analoge Architektur. Project for Affoltern
functionalist Modernism. This was directed at the production Railway Station, Zurich. Rene Bosshard
of an intelligible architecture, resonating with social meaning: student work, 1989

66 67
 We seek a kind of “authenticity of usage” […]
we are no longer interested in the optimisation
of the modes of usage in buildings but in the
process of sedimentation of meanings into
forms, such as results through the incessant
repetition of everyday use. […] An architecture
that could embody more general significations
[…] could be realized through a focus of design
on the problem of form, provided that our
proposals would achieve a more comprehensive
understanding of “use” than their scorned
modernist predecessors. […] We start with the
supposition that such identity resides less in
traditional building types than in the everyday
activities of contemporary modes of life in
Switzerland. […] Our position is not aimed at the
reconstruction of places or urban repair, but
towards explaining the images and atmospheres
91 Ibid. Translation behind a general, “typical” character.91
from the German original.
Meili put the principles of architectural autonomy into the context
of the Swiss “everyday”. The argument maintained the dialectic
of autonomy as if, by holding onto form, architecture was more
capable of saying something about the world than by losing itself
92 For more on autonomy dialectic in an other-than-formal description of that world.92 The aim was to
see Hays, 2001, p. 102. re-establish the communicative potential of the discipline through
forms, grounded neither in artistic subjectivity nor in geometric
regularity, but in the residues of collective meaning left by routine
activities. This attempt to understand type as the manifestation
of universal meaning remained, therefore, based on form.

Meili’s implicit reliance on autonomous architecture is

symptomatic both of the Swiss discourse’s promise and of its
limitations. The problematic of autonomy, as Alan Colquhoun has
argued, is the way it displaces meaning from everyday activities
related to dwelling toward matters of formal consistency:

The “autonomy” of architecture [is] a

meaningless phrase, since any principles of
architecture are empty until embodied in an
action, in the reality of a situation. […]
Architecture itself, considered as a culturally
defined concept, is merely a “situation” at a
deeper level than immediate contingency. It is
therefore neither necessary nor possible to
establish it as a transcendental entity outside
93 Alan Colquhoun, and beyond contingency.93
1989, pp. 198–199.
The design’s dependence on both architectural idea and site
builds a tension between the wholeness of the perfected concept
and its debts to a multifaceted and complex reality. In concrete
terms, this gives rise to the tension between artefact and the
Analoge Architektur. Project for Rowing
situation it inhabits; its legibility as an isolated work of art in and of Club, Wollishofen, Zurich. Luca Antorini
itself, and the urban realm in which it is positioned. Diploma project, 1989

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 The promise of the Swiss project, if one may refer to such a unity, “the presentness and plenitude that modern art pursues carry
could then be found in architecture’s participation in the urban 99 Harries, 1989, p. 31. the aura of man’s deepest concerns and hopes”.99 It represents
order. In insisting on the relevance of form as a concretisation of the attempt to compensate, in the aesthetic field, for the loss
practical modes of life, Meili’s interpretation almost pre-empted of (cosmic) order granted traditionally.
Colquhoun’s criticism. “Almost”, because he still allowed form to
substitute for architecture, and placed his energies in legitimising The search for effect ultimately suggests the remoteness of
formal production. A consequence of the all-too-eager advocacy “strong forms” from the praxis they should enable. The problem
of form was, and remains, the reliance on artefacts to substitute lies with blurring the boundary between art and architecture,
for the activities they are supposed to shelter. which threatens precisely the architectural autonomy these
projects are supposed to convey. There is little left for a
Little of Meili’s legitimisation of forms as residues of usage is discussion of how buildings are inhabited or used, modalities that
found in Steinmann’s notion of “strong forms”. With the following are almost taken for granted during design. The notion of “strong
words, Steinmann introduced one of the most prominent forms” suggests that Swiss architecture has focused, instead of
paradigms of recent Swiss architecture: participation in orders of social and urban reality, on the visual
and material factors of its presence.
There is a trend in contemporary architecture
to design buildings as simple, lucid geometric (b) Theory within history
bodies – bodies whose simplicity spotlights
shape, material and colour, without relating to If theory’s real subject is history, theory must also
any other building. […] These schemes are constantly historicise itself. Theory, as much as
94 Steinmann, “La forme forte”, characterised by a quest for forceful forms.94 architecture, has to be grasped in the place and
2003. Translation in Lucan and 100 Hays, 1998, p. 506. time out of which it emerges.100 K. Michael Hays
Steinmann, 2001, pp. 15–16.
In this paragraph, the discussion of the projects’ situation gives
way to a heightened examination of their physical characteristics. The content of Swiss theory can be seen as a spectrum ranging
“Strong” buildings are those whose armature of form and material from the search for typical aspects of the culture to the formal
95 Martin Steinmann in conversation places them in a specific relation to the site.95 They belong there manifestations of this search. The history of ETH suggests this
with Jacques Lucan in Lucan not by means of contextual quotation but by revealing, through oscillation emerged from a series of factors. Firstly, the
and Steinmann, 2001, pp. 15–18.
their positioning and effect, the site’s organisational structure, by “polytechnic culture” instilled a suspicion of theory without
making its order intelligible in confrontation with their own, applicability, thus implying the primacy of building. Secondly, the
independent order. This is not the mediatory construct proposed 1920s avant-garde demonstrated the need to adhere to an
by Šik, but one that states the self-sufficiency of artefacts in ideology in order to give validity to the project. Its understanding
relation to urban order. of a “theory” behind the project was qualified by the necessity of
political involvement, the possibility of social action. Thirdly, as a
In focusing on issues of presence, the “strong form” approximates continuation of this, theory became a means to control decision-
the “objecthood” territory claimed by Minimalism in art during the making processes in design, counteracting with intellectual
96 Fried, 1968, pp. 116–147. 1960s.96 In opposition to illusionistic representation, Minimal discipline the eclecticism engendered by the market. This third
(literalist) art forced itself upon the observer, as a thing-in-itself notion of theory was marked by Tafuri’s re-assessment of the
protruding in the viewer’s actual territory. Michael Fried ascribed theoretical task as an “objective and unprejudiced historical
transcendentalist connotations to this “theatrical” confrontation 101 Tafuri, 1980, p. 3. diagnosis”.101 The production covered in this book finds itself
97 Ibid., p. 147. between observer and object. For him, “presentness is grace”.97 bracketed in this final understanding of theory, with echoes of
Similarly, strong forms lay claim to an architectural order the previous interpretations.
miraculously established through their presence in the city.
If nothing else, the material presented here shows the extent to
The notion of “strong form” is as tempting as it obdurately refuses which theory is a praxis in itself. It is not an abstract, global
to open towards a more concrete understanding of what it entails. discourse but one permanently concretised in the theatres of its
What does it mean, to quote for example Roger Diener, “to bring operation: in ETH studios, project reviews and lectures; in formal
98 Quoted in Steinmann, a place into order with one house”?98 A possible answer might be debates, exhibitions and gta publications; within professional
1995, p. 10. offered, again, through recourse to Minimalism. Karsten Harries journals; and finally in the translation of seminal publications by,
has argued that minimalist objects do not bring about among others, Tafuri, Rossi or Venturi. These events impact
“presentness”, but merely convey it. “Presentness” is in itself an directly on what happens in design, establishing a dialogue
ideal, a representation of an unrealisable sense of sensual between different areas of praxis.
plenitude. The objects cannot be separated from meaning, and
their so-called self-referentiality refers to a “secularised grace”: Conveyed mainly through written or spoken text, the theory is
seen as the contemplative part of praxis. There is a constant

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 exchange between international theory and local discourse. And dimensions of culture, manifest in architecture as in art, holds
here Tafuri’s location of theoretical investigations within the flow attention as the attempt to uncover their communicative potential.
of history reveals the necessity for their constant reinterpretation. If this was a programme for most of the 1980s, in the 1990s
The transfer from Italy to Switzerland was made with the effort a turn towards the increased autonomy of artefacts was
of translation, specifically in order to grasp the typical aspects already perceptible.
of the new context.
The ETH discourse stands for two distinct notions. Firstly its
The theoretical discourse tends to limit the vocabulary to a few history, in parallel with the history of Modernism as a whole,
key words, but this vocabulary is then overstretched to convey a shows the reflections of a changing theoretical body upon
variety of particular meanings. The words of theory are asked to practice. To reprise a point made at the outset of this chapter:
do too much. In the Swiss discourse, watchwords like “Realism” from Gottfried Semper onwards, a succession of illustrative
or “Typology” became a currency that flattened the depth of architectural figures within ETH have initiated new directions in
issues, making them an object for design. This ambivalent Swiss practice. To the names of Karl Moser, Otto Salvisberg or
terminology means that the apparent consensus regarding form Alfred Roth, we can add Bernhard Hoesli and Aldo Rossi as
conceals a variety of understandings, ranging from geometrical protagonists of this history.
configuration to Gestalt.
Secondly, with respect to the architecture produced between
This relativism is counteracted by the attempt to materialise 1980 and 2000, ETH theory consists of the use of this history
theoretical notions in design. The result is similar to that identified itself in order to create a common reservoir of images and
by Jean-Louis Cohen regarding the adoption of Italian references, the lexicon for a collective language. This language
Rationalism in France: is linked not only to recent educational history, but also to
the earlier modern architectures that gave shape to the Swiss
Typology is seen in many French texts from environment, under the galvanising effect of a political agenda
the late Seventies not as a classificatory of modernisation.
operation allowing for the isolation of distinct
types, but instead as a synonym for the notion Despite its commitment to history, the Swiss architectural
of type. A given type identified in an urban discourse remains strongly indebted to scientific paradigms, and
analysis becomes une typologie remarquable: strives to be demonstrated empirically in works actually built. The
the analytic exercise lends its name to the emphasis on concrete constructs converts the deep claims of the
102 Cohen, 1998, p. 517. empirical object.102 situations in which architecture operates into clear judgements
regarding its correctness. Theoretical descriptions are primarily
In other words, a double process occurs: under the pressure of concerned with creating an epistemology through which the
theoretical justification, typology becomes equivalent to type, and designer exercises control over city, architecture and the lives
type is concretised into form. they sustain.

Swiss theory in its late manifestation (which in fact has

changed least over the years) is intrinsically connected with
the emphasis on form. The creative effort is oriented towards
a stance outside praxis, outside the cultural claims, for which
form is the appropriate object. Form is, and as such it becomes
factual, a measure of objectivity. The fact that form conveys
different meanings arises from its presumed innocence of all
meanings. This explains the appeal of “strong forms”, which
formulate an absolute version of architecture, an architecture
103 Steinmann, “La forme forte”, “beyond signs”.103
2003, p. 189.
While the perception from within the Swiss professional scene is
focused on differences between practices rather than similarities,
this chapter has attempted to set out the theoretical background
against which these differences can be articulated. Can there be
such a thing as a “Zurich school”, or indeed “Swiss architecture”?
While such a common denominator can only be vague, its
generality permits an assessment of what is held in common.
Swiss architecture’s initial orientation towards the collective

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Forms of
Practice
Forms of
Practice

To let reality be felt and intellectually confronted

1 Herzog and de Meuron, […] we feel this to be a political necessity.1
1992, p. 144. Herzog & de Meuron

In 1998, Martin Tschanz headed an overview of contemporary

German-Swiss architecture with the plural “Tendenzen und
2 Tschanz, 1998. Konstruktionen”.2 This title, adopted from the 1975 gta exhibition
of Ticinese architecture, acknowledged the heterogeneity of
Swiss production, its closeness to Italian neo-rationalism, as well
as its own reliance on the tangibility of constructions. Tschanz
argued that, while the works shared a theoretical and cultural
space, they reflected the participants’ individual concerns and
biographical circumstances. The apparent unity of a Swiss model
was not to be exclusively associated with the Zurich school, nor
did it represent a deliberate decision to instigate an architectural
movement. This position is representative of the Swiss architects’
consensus regarding Swiss architecture.

The works’ scope, however, extends beyond the authors’

intentions. Firstly, regardless of their positions, the participants
are reliant on common cultural and professional structures
specific to Switzerland. Secondly, even if the projects of a strong
minority of practices were developed in isolation, they cease
to be completely autonomous from the moment of their
completion. Publications, exhibitions, lectures and visits mould
them into a consistent wider discourse, which then becomes
a referent for subsequent architectural generations, Swiss
or foreign. This chain of causality allows Swiss production
to be addressed as a collection of forms of practice, illustrated
by a series of case studies.

The formal production is linked both to a theoretical field

and to deeper cultural structures. Swiss architecture interprets
established, recognisable typologies, either by incorporating
direct quotations into the design or by submitting them to
3 See Steinmann, various degrees of abstraction.3 However, Marcel Meili identified
1994, pp. 11–12. a shared preoccupation with the “self-evident and precise
4 Meili, 1996, p. 25. architectural interpretation of current modes of life”.4 This
suggests that Swiss production is more than a set of formal
variations on common typologies.

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