Understanding Swiss national identity through recent architecture in the Graubunden

Thinking Outside The Box Reading ‘Swissness’ through recent residential architecture architecture in the Graubünden A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of M.Arch 2010

RALPH KENT

Thinking Outside The Box :

Reading ‘Swissness’ through recent residential residential architecture in the Graubünden

ABSTRACT Through the analysis of Swiss literature and art, this dissertation paints a cultural, political and socioeconomic picture of ‘Swissness’ that goes beyond the standard national stereotype of precision and austerity. After identifying a broader set of distinguishing national and regional traits, the dissertation explains how those factors manifest themselves in contemporary Swiss architecture. To test the hypothesis that ‘Swissness’ exists and is perceptible in architecture, eight recent residential case study projects in the Graubünden region have been analysed. The dissertation concludes by questioning whether Swiss architecture deserves to be so widely lauded, once the platform on which it is predicated has been fully taken into consideration.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Rhian Thomas of DRU-w for her guidance, insights and encouragement throughout this study. Thank you also: –

The Brothers of the Monastery of Disentis, particularly Brother Martin and Brother Niklaus, who generously gave their time in August 2009 to show my girlfriend and me around the Girls’ Dormitory by Gion Caminada and their new stable block, currently under construction;

–

The publisher Quart in Lucerne, for their excellent quality publications on recent and emerging Swiss architects; and

–

The Swiss Embassy in London for the series of DVDs on Swiss Architecture and accompanying book.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................................2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ ......................................................................................................................... .........................33 TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................................ ............................ 4 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ .................................................................................................................................. .................................. 7 1.1 Statement of Aim............................................................................................................................7 1.2 Structure and Methodology ................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................ ............77 1.3 Topic rationale................................................................................................................................8 2. DEFINING CRITICAL REGIONALISM .................................................................................................10 2.1 Regionalism cf. critical regionalism................................................................................................10 2.2 Critical Regionalism in Switzerland................................................................................................11 3. ESSENCES AND ORIGINS OF ‘SWISSNESS’....................................................................................12 3.1 The formation of the Swiss Confederation ....................................................................................12 3.2 United in diversity .........................................................................................................................12 3.3 The Swiss as a ‘special case’ ................................................................................................ ....................................................................................................... .......13 13 3.4 Neutrality, World War II and bunker mentality................................................................................14 3.5 Continuity: The Swiss as custodians of tradition ...........................................................................16 3.6 ‘Spielwitz’ as a counterpoint to law-abidingness...........................................................................18 3.7 Conclusions on ‘Swissness’ ................................................................................................ ......................................................................................................... .........19 19 4. GRAUBUNDEN LIVING.....................................................................................................................20 4.1 Background to the Graubünden ................................................................................................ ................................................................................................... ...20 20 4.2 Self-sufficiency and introversion....................................................................................................22 4.3 Religion, Mysticism & Folklore.......................................................................................................24 4.4 Conclusions on Graubünden Living ..............................................................................................25

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5. THE MANIFESTATION MANIFESTATION OF ‘SWISSNESS’ AND ‘GRAUBÜNDERNESS’ ‘GRAUBÜNDERNESS’ AS ARCHITECTURE ............ .............. 26 5.1 Beyond The Swiss Box.................................................................................................................26 5.2 Continuity: Modernism as a continuation of tradition.....................................................................27 5.3 Forme Forte – the architectural manifestation of a need for security..............................................30 5.4 Gestalt – wholeness and indivisibility.............................................................................................33 5.6 Spielwitz & Mysticism ...................................................................................................................36 5.7 Education: ETH Zurich reinforcing reinforcing Swissness ............................................................................... 37 5.8 Conclusions on the manifestation of ‘Swissness’ and ‘Graubünderness’ as architecture ..............40 6. APPRAISING ARCHITECTURE AS IDENTITY: METHODOLOGY........................................................41 6.1 Analysis Framework......................................................................................................................41 6.2 The Case Study Buildings.............................................................................................................43 6.3 Basis for selection ........................................................................................................................45 7A. HAUS MEULI IN FLASCH BY BEARTH & DEPLAZES ...................................................................... 46 7A.1 Description.................................................................................................................................46 7A.2 Analysis......................................................................................................................................48 7B. HAUS WILLIMANN-LOTSCHER WILLIMANN-LOTS CHER IN SEVGEIN BY BEARTH & DEPLAZES ........................................ 51 7B.1Description..................................................................................................................................51 7B.2 Analysis......................................................................................................................................53 7C. HOUSE FOR A MUSICIAN, SCHARANS BY VALERIO OLGIATI ......................................................55 7C.1 Description ................................................................................................................................55 7C.2 Analysis .....................................................................................................................................57 7D. GIRLS’ BOARDING HOUSE IN DISENTIS BY GION CAMINADA .....................................................60 7D.1 Description.................................................................................................................................60 7D.2 Analysis .....................................................................................................................................62

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7E. HAUS LUZI IN JENAZ BY PETER ZUMTHOR ..................................................................................64 7E.1 Description.................................................................................................................................64 7E.2 Analysis......................................................................................................................................66 7F. GARTMAN HOUSE IN CHUR BY PATRICK GARTMANN.................................................................68 7F.1 Description ................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................. ................................. 68 7F.2 Analysis......................................................................................................................................69 7G. HAUS RASELLI-KALT IN POSCHIAVO BY CONRADIN CLAVUOT ................................................. 71 7G.1 Description ................................................................................................................................71 7G.2 Analysis .....................................................................................................................................72 7H. EXTENSION TO VILLA GARBALD IN CASTASEGNA BY MILLER & MARANTA ............................... 74 7H.1 Description ................................................................................................................................74 7H.2 Analysis .....................................................................................................................................77 8. CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................................................80 BIBLIOGRAPHY.....................................................................................................................................82 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................................89 Sketchbook notes, Vrin, 14 August 2009 ...........................................................................................89 Biographies of the architects of the case study houses ......................................................................90 Font....................................................................................................................................................93

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1. INTRODUCTION Like many architecture students, since early in my undergraduate studies I have admired the jewel-like buildings by Swiss architects such as Bearth & Deplazes, Caminada and Olgiati. Spending a portion of my year living in France within 50 kilometres of the Swiss border, I journeyed to these Alpine architectural gems, lying hidden in the deep valleys of the Graubünden. I became interested in the factors that had acted as inspiration for these quiet, well-detailed buildings: what had the generators of their elemental forms been? How had topography and climate influenced the design? Above all, how had socio-economic, educational, and cultural influences contributed to their genesis - what is it about these buildings that makes them read as undeniably Swiss? 1.1 Statement of Aim

The title of this dissertation alludes to the intention to paint a picture of ‘Swissness’ beyond the ‘Swiss Box’ – that is, a deeper understanding of Swiss society through examining its architecture than simply equating well-detailed, reliable, efficient, orthogonal volumes as an easy metaphor for Swiss precision and austerity. The hypothesis is that the quality and ‘quietness’ – even their external form and internal organisation of the case study buildings owes a significant amount to Switzerland’s peculiar political status - particularly in the field of foreign policy.

This has been brought to the fore in mainstream news in recent months

following the Swiss people’s vote on 27 November 2009 to ban any further construction of minarets. 1 Once the complex and largely unique nature of Switzerland’s socio-economic framework is understood as a key driver for these residential designs, it may lead the reader to reappraise these buildings – not for what they are as well-detailed, standalone buildings - but for what values that they might be reaffirming. 1.2 Structure and Methodology

This dissertation starts by briefly explaining the theory and significance of critical regionalism. In chapter 3, it identifies cultural, social and economic characteristics that are largely unique to Switzerland ‘Swissness’. This is largely achieved through the analysis of quotes from Swiss literature - how the Swiss critique themselves. Consequently, there are – deliberately - a significant number of citations by Swiss luminaries about Swiss life in order to provide a rich, varied, and balanced portrayal of ‘Swissness’ through Swiss eyes.

1

Imogen Foulkes, Swiss Voters Back Ban On Minarets (London: BBC News, 29 November 2009)

> [accessed 1 December 2009].

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Regional factors influencing life in the Graubünden are then introduced in chapter 4; topography and climate bring real physical demands to residential designs, whilst its alpine location, at the meeting point between Northern European Protestantism and Mediterranean Catholicism introduces other social and cultural implications. Chapter 5 explores the architectural consequences of ‘Swissness' and ‘Graubünderness’. This chapter also explains the influence of education at ETH Zurich, Switzerland’s preeminent school of architecture. Figure 1. Methodology – diagram

The analysis framework against which eight recent residential projects in the Graubünden are tested for evidence of national

and regional identity is set out in chapter 6, and the case study buildings are analysed in turn against these criteria in chapter 7. As part of the research for this dissertation, the author visited six out of the eight case study buildings during the summer of 2009. 1.3 Topic rationale 1.3.1 Rationale for Residential Architecture

Martin Heidegger asserted in his lecture on the concept and essence of architecture: ‘The way that you are and I am, the way that we as human beings are on this earth, is architecture, is dwelling’. 3 This dissertation focuses on commissioned, architecturally designed, residential architecture as it is, generally, more personal and expressive of an individual’s needs and character traits than a public or commercial building. This should potentially, therefore, allow for a cultural reading of nation and region. 1.3.2 Rationale for Switzerland: Heidi & Homesickness

Switzerland lies at the heart of Europe but is not a EU member state. It is a ‘neutral’ confederation of 26 cantons, a nation of 7.6 million people 4 that still moves to its own rhythm. In a globalising world keen to embrace the latest innovation capturing the zeitgeist, Steven Spier, in his book ‘Swiss Made’, points out that Switzerland is one of a handful of countries that appear to have taken a conscious decision to

2

Author’s illustration.

3

Bettina Schlorhaufer and Gion A. Caminada, Cul zuffel e l'aura dado (Lucern: Quart, 2005), p.7.

4

Geography: Facts and Figures (Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland)

[accessed 23 October 2009].

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approach modernity within a framework of continuity from history. 5 Accordingly, it seems appropriate to analyse cultural and social themes in Switzerland than in other countries that have found their identities more forcefully disrupted by the ravages of war or rapid technological progress and globalisation. In ‘Vernacular Modernism’ Huppauf and Umback define ‘Heimat’ as ‘the longing for a home’. 6 With Heidi, Johanna Spyri created a monument to the Helvetian myth of nature and homeland… Heimat, the physical and spiritual home of the Swiss… naïveté and simplicity, religion and nature, health and fresh clean air – the withdrawal of these fundamental values exposes Heidi to a disease that was practically invented by the Swiss – homesickness or “Maladie Suisse”.7 The architects of the case study buildings were born and raised within Switzerland. The hypothesis is that the idiosyncrasies and peculiarities of ‘Swissness’ will have left some mark on them as they grew up and received their professional training, and that this may be evidenced in their architecture. 1.3.3 Rationale for the Graubünden

The Graubünden canton (also called the Grisons) is a rugged, otherworldly region, situated in the Swiss Alps. The historian Erwin Poeschel, in his study of town houses in the Graubünden, wrote: ‘The Grisons [is] a reflection of Switzerland in miniature, the types, the economic conditions, the local sensitivities and their expression’.8 The Graubünden is the meeting point of German-speaking Switzerland and the Italian-speaking Ticino, a junction of nations and religions. It is ‘united in mystical communion thanks to the genius loci’9 but is gradually becoming increasingly well connected to a globalised world through improved road networks, mobile telephony and the Internet. Many Alpine regions now have become heavily reliant on tourism, meaning traditional skills are lost and culture becomes influenced by global factors. The Graubünden, however, with its deep, narrow valleys, with a single main road in and out, remains a rare example within Continental Europe where small communities still exist largely unfettered and uninfluenced by the wider world and mass consumerism.

5

Steven Spier with Martin Tschanz, Swiss Made: New Architecture from Switzerland (London: Thames & Hudson, 2003), p.7.

6

Umbach and Huppauf (eds.), Vernacular Modernism, Stanford, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), p.11.

7

Peter Zumthor with Plinio Bachmann ... [et al.], edited by Roderick Hönig, Swiss Sound Box (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2000), p.107.

8

Valentin Bearth, Andrea Deplazes, and Heinz Wirz (ed.), Bearth & Deplazes, Konstrukte / Constructs (Lucern, Quart, 2005), p.155.

9

Bruno Reichlin. ‘When Architects Build In the Mountains’, in 2G: Construir en las montañas : arquitectura reciente en los Grisones

= Building in the mountains : recent architecture in Graubünden, ed. by Moises Puente and Lluis Ortega, vol. 2, no. 14 (Barcelona,

Gustavo Gili, 2000), pp.132-146 (p.132).

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2. DEFINING CRITICAL REGIONALISM This dissertation is interested in the architectural consequences of cultural, political and social identity within a nation (Switzerland) and a region (the Graubünden). These are key tenets within the theory of critical regionalism. The term ‘critical regionalism’ appears to have been first employed by Kenneth Frampton in 1983 in his text ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance’. 2.1 Regionalism cf. critical regionalism

Critical regionalism evolved out of a response to Brutalist Modernism in the 1960s and 1970s and other architecture regarded as anonymous, or ‘place-less’. Critical regionalism seeks to attain an architecture that is sensitive to its region, both in terms of physical factors, and also cultural, socio-economic and political influences. Importantly, critical regionalism is not the replication of traditional local vernacular typologies. In this sense, ‘critical regionalism’ is different to ‘regionalism’. Regionalism emphasises the vernacular, without any engagement with external, or global factors – what the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur in his text ‘History and Truth’ refers to as the ‘universal’.

Frampton believes that the unquestioning

emulation of vernacular styles, without any form of critical appraisal or adaptation will ultimately lead to a ‘scenographic’ 10 representation of place. Critical regionalism involves reflection and self-analysis, meaning that ‘placeness’ is not perpetuated in a pastiche or sentimental fashion, but through continuous appraisal of what a region and its people represent. Critical regionalism involves adopting the relevant parts of ‘universal’ society whilst at the same time respecting lessons from local culture, traditions and topography. Frampton frames it thus: ‘critical regionalism will mediate the spectrum between universal civilization and the particularities of place’. 11 Ricoeur surmises the essence of the problem posed by critical regionalism as: ‘how to become modern and to return to sources; how to revive an old, dormant civilization and take part in universal civilization’. 12

10

Kenneth Frampton, ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance’, in The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays

on Postmodern Culture, ed. by Hal Foster (New York: New Press, 1983), pp. 17-34 (p.19). 11

Scott Patterson, A Critical Analysis of “Towards a Critical Regionalism”

> [accessed 18 October 2009]. 12

Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1965), pp. 276-7.

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architecture in the Graubünden Thinking Outside The Box : Reading ‘Swissness’ through recent residential architecture

2.2 Critical Regionalism in Switzerland In ‘Prospects for a Critical Regionalism’, Frampton explains how the intricate linguistic and cultural borders of Switzerland means that it ‘has always displayed strong regionalist tendencies, ones which have often assumed a critical nature’.13

He goes on to say that ‘one of the mainsprings of regionalist

culture is an anti-centrist sentiment – an aspiration for some kind of cultural, economic and political independence’.14 Paul Ricoeur argues that regional culture has become ‘something which [must] be selfconsciously cultivated’.15 In the following chapter, this dissertation will attempt to demonstrate that by virtue of its foreign policy and its alpine topography, Switzerland operates as a ‘quasi-island state’ within Europe; meaning that no such ‘conscious cultivation’ is required to sustain Swiss critical regionalism.

Later, in the case studies, studies,

this dissertation will demonstrate how this regional culture is being continually reinforced through the feedback mechanism of architecture.

13

Kenneth Frampton, ‘Prospects for a Critical Regionalism’ in Perspecta 20 (1983), pp. 147-162 (p.156).

14

Ibid., p.148.

15

Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History , (London, Thames & Hudson, 1992), p.315.

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3. ESSENCES AND ORIGINS OF ‘SWISSNESS’ This chapter identifies unifying qualities that distinguish the Swiss from other nations and cultures through the analysis of Swiss literature, philosophy and art. 3.1 The formation of the Swiss Confederation

The foundation of modern Switzerland – the Confederation of Switzerland - was laid down in the 1848 constitution, with the formation of a centralised government and creation of a single economic area. 17 Since the creation of the Canton of Jura in 1978, Switzerland has comprised 20 full cantons and six halfcantons (states). Each canton retains its own government, parliament and law courts. The confederation is only responsible for foreign affairs, security, and finances.18 The four national languages are German (63.3%), French (19.2%), Italian (7.6%) and RhaetoRomanic, also known as Romansch (0.6%). 19 Romansch speakers live mainly in the region where the case study houses are located. 3.2 United in diversity

During the Seville World Expo, word-artist Ben Vautier wrote on the wall of the Swiss Pavilion: Figure 2. Switzerland lies at the heart of Europe but is not an EU member 16

‘La Suisse n’éxiste pas!... Switzerland does not exist!’.20 This phrase quintessentially sums up the

problems of a nation not historically united by culture or topography but by political will.

As a

confederation of regions, some commentators believe that it is difficult – or even impossible - to identify ‘Swissness’.

16

Roger Diener ... [et al.], Switzerland : An Urban Portrait (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006), p.54.

17

History: General Overview of the Federal State , (Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland)

[accessed 12 October 2009]. 18

Peter Zumthor with Plinio Bachmann ... [et al.], edited by Roderick Hönig, Corps Sonore Suisse (Basel: Birkhauser, 2000), p.39.

19

Zumthor, Swiss Sound Box, p.169.

20

Ibid., p.127.

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Figure 3. Languages spoken in Switzerland by commune 21 - green represents French, red for German, blue Italian and the yellow, Romansch.

The Swiss themselves are sometimes puzzled about what they have in common apart from their passport, what it is that makes them Swiss. Government agencies like Swissworld say the Swiss are held together by the desire to stay united - the general attitude is summed up as: ‘unity, but not uniformity’. 22 3.3 The Swiss as a ‘special case’ As part of their educational material on their website to help non-Swiss understand the national mindset,

Swissworld published: [The Swiss] have long seen themselves as a "special case". No one who discusses the Swiss national identity can escape from this idea. It is attacked and mocked by left-wing intellectuals, who accuse their fellow-countrymen of being self-satisfied and backward-looking, and having what they call a "hedgehog mentality" – rolling up into a ball to protect themselves against the outside world, which they would rather ignore. When such intellectuals call into question some of Switzerland's actions and attitudes, they are frequently accused by their opponents of "soiling the nest”.23

21

Swiss Statistics (Federal Department of Statistics)


Culture: What is Swissness? (Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland)


Culture: Mountains and Hedgehogs (Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland)

[accessed 8 August 2009].

13



It therefore seems that the Swiss generally do view themselves as possessing unique, privileged character traits, which are further explored and explained below. 3.4 Neutrality, World War II and bunker mentality

Switzerland's saint, Nicholas of Flüe (1417-87) said: ‘Don't get involved in other people's affairs’, and this has been the hallmark of Swiss policy for nearly 500 years. The country has been neutral since 1515. 24 Consecutive Swiss Governments have argued that this neutrality is a pre-requisite for a nation that is the home to many organisations such as the Red Cross and the WHO. Others accuse Switzerland of cowardice, hiding behind the veil of neutrality to protect its own interests. Swissworld recounts a quote by Heinz Helbling (1928 - ), who worked as a Swiss dairyman in New Zealand between 1951-54: We got to talking about Switzerland, the Second World War and our neutrality... “I don't know anything about politics,” said our host, “but there's something not right. New Zealand went voluntarily to the aid of the mother country, England, to save Europe from destruction. Switzerland was there in the middle. What happened? My two boys were killed, one at Al Alamein, and one in Italy, on your doorstep, 12,000 miles from home. And now you have come from the middle of Europe to work in our dairy and on my farm, where my two sons should be working. There's something not right about that.” Later, whenever talk in Switzerland got round to our neutrality, I always remembered this scene, and I can still hear the New Zealander saying: “There's something not right about that”.26 When travelling around Switzerland, visitors may be surprised by the number of Swiss who still maintain that the reason Hitler never invaded Switzerland was due to the mountainous terrain and the Swiss territorial army.

Figure 4. Are Swiss sons to be sacrificed in other people's affairs? asked this poster in a 2001 referendum 25

Many Swiss are proud that in spite of their small numbers, they have always been ready to resist powerful neighbours, from the Habsburgs to Hitler. Had the Germans invaded during World War II the Swiss had contingency plans to destroy bridges, block tunnels, and conduct resistance from an impregnable redoubt in the central mountains. 27 The reality is generally accepted that Switzerland was far more useful to Germany as a ‘neutral’ communications route, allowing goods to pass through from Italy and Jewish money to be secreted in

24

Politics – Foreign Policy: Neutrality and Isolationalism (Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland )

[accessed 7 September 2009]. 25

Ibid.

26

Ibid.

27



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numbered Swiss bank accounts by the Nazis. 28 45% of Swiss exports between 1940 and 1942 went to Italy or Germany, 29 helping those countries continue their war efforts. There was no reason for Hitler to increase his war front by invading Switzerland. The extent to which Switzerland was spared [the destruction of World War 2]… is miraculous. This belief in miracles is also the elixir of life nourishing the national myth of Switzerland as a “special case”; only the Swiss consider the miracle their just reward for superior industriousness. One could have realised that not only were considerable political and tactical skill on the part of the national government in play during the war…. But this insight did not come until… it was laid open for all to see by the Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland – Second World War.30 Testimony to the extent that the Swiss believe that they could carry on without the rest of the world, since 1960, under Swiss law, local governments are required to provide nuclear bunker shelter spaces for everyone. 31 Reflecting the ‘the Swiss people’s highly developed need for security’ 32 there are now over a quarter of a million nuclear bunkers across Switzerland,33 incredible, really, when compared to its population of 7.6 million people. In the vast Sonnenberg shelter, with capacity for 20,000 in the event of a thermo-nuclear apocalypse; there are vast sleeping quarters, with bunk beds four layers deep. There is an operating theatre, a command post, and as Mr Fischer points out, a prison. ‘ Just because there's a nuclear war outside doesn't mean we won't have any social problems in here ’.34 Remarkably, during early designs for the shelter, a post office had been included in the plans, until someone helpfully raised the question of who the recipients would actually be.

28

< http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/travel/world/destination/history/switzerland> > Switzerland (Australia: The Daily Telegraph)

Politics – Foreign Policy – The Swiss Economy in World War II: Neutrality and Isolationalism (Swissworld: Your Gateway to

Switzerland) [accessed 10 October 2009]. 30

Claude Lichtenstein, Playfully Rigid: Swiss architecture, graphic design, product design 1950-2006 (Baden : Lars Müller, 2007),

p.18. 31

Imogen Foulkes, Swiss still braced for nuclear war (London: BBC News, 10 February 2007)


Lichtenstein, p.11.

33

Foulkes, ‘Swiss still braced for nuclear war ’’..

34

Ibid.

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3.5 Continuity: The Swiss as custodians of tradition

One of the key advantages of Switzerland’s neutrality is that it has remained largely unscathed by the ravages of war. As such, there is a clear, uninterrupted lineage between history and the present day, something the majority of other European countries cannot boast. There is a sense that today is part of future history from the moment you arrive in Switzerland, from the advertising hoardings at the airport politely reminding you that: ‘You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation’.36 This continuity and tradition has been fostered by three key factors: 1. Discretion – avant-gardism and egocentricity are frowned

Figure 5. Patek Phillipe advertisement 35

upon in Switzerland. Regardless of status or wealth, there is a strong desire to blend in, to not rock the boat. In a letter to his nephew, and old Genevan banker describes the refined peculiarity of Swissness: Et quand tu auras trois Bentley, comme ton père maintenant, nul, à part ton garagiste, ne devra être au courant de la chose: c’est pourquoi tu achèteras trois fois le même modèle. 37 Which translates as: ‘When you have three Bentleys, like your father does now, no one, apart from your mechanic, should know this; that’s why you should buy three of exactly the same specification’. 2. Wealth - A corollary of its foreign policy and neutrality, and discretion, Switzerland has flourished as a haven for private banking. Clearly high wealth makes it easier to preserve traditional techniques and promote continuity, than when skills are being outsourced in a bid for lowest cost possible production. Claude Lichtenstein says: ‘Switzerland [is] one of the richest countries in the world [and] does not have to struggle with making things work’. 38 The Italian writer Marcello d’Orta wrote in a newspaper article in 1990:

35

Patek Phillippe corporate website

[accessed 2 December 2009]. 36

Ibid.

37

Zumthor, Corps Sonore Suisse, p.101.

38

Lichtenstein, p.11.

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Switzerland sells weapons to all over the world so it can gun them all down, but it never starts even a little war. With this money it builds the banks, But not good banks, the banks of the evil people... especially the ones addicted to drugs. The gangsters from Sicily and China bring their money there, their millions. The police go there, say whose money is this, I don’t know, I won’t tell you, that’s none of your bloody business, the bank is closed... the hospitals are wonderful, the carpet, the flowers, the clean stairs, not even a rat. But it is expensive, if you don’t smuggle you can’t go there.39

Figure 6. Switzerland as one of the world’s richest nations: GDP per capita (US$) 40

3. Correctitude and austerity – In contrast to its laissez-faire approach to private banking, the Swiss have an international reputation as being law-abiding. It could be argued that the respect for the law is a by-product of Switzerland as a direct-democracy, with legislation able to be directly influenced by its citizens.41 Sobriety, sense of order, control, mastery, correctitude, incorruptibility – these are, perhaps, several of the defining characteristics attributed to Switzerland (and it could be elaborated: to all parts of the country and to all four linguistics regions – French, Italian, Romansh, and German speaking Switzerland).42

39


40

World Economic Outlook Database April 2009 , (IMF Data and Statistics)

a=#download > [accessed 1 October 2009]. 41

Politics: Indirect and direct democracy (Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland)


Lichtenstein, p.7.

17



The influence of legislation is wide-reaching, and occasionally verges on the absurd – in Switzerland you need a permit to install a TV antenna, you cannot mow your lawn on a Sunday, and there are even rules about when men are allowed to use the toilet standing up in older blocks of flats with poor acoustic insulation – lest the noise disturb those in neighbouring properties! 43 Despite the numerous and prescriptive regulations about social conduct in Switzerland, they are rarely called upon. Civility towards fellow man abounds across Switzerland and citizens appear highly attuned to not offending their neighbours. ‘Permitted is what doesn't bother’ is the new motto of the Zurich police’. 44 In ‘I’m Not Stiller’, the Swiss writer Max Frisch describes Stiller’s imprisonment in Switzerland: My cell… is small, like everything in this country, so clean one can hardly breath for hygiene, and oppressively precise because everything is just right. No more, no less. Everything in this country is oppressively adequate. The cell is 10 feet long, 7 feet 10 inches wide and 8 feet 3 inches high. A humane prison, there’s no denying it, and that’s what makes it so unbearable. Not a cobweb, not a trace of mildew on the walls, nothing to justify indignation. Some prisons get stormed when people learn about them; here there’s nothing to storm. 45 3.6 ‘Spielwitz’ as a counterpoint to law-abidingness

In his book ‘Playfully Rigid’, Lichtenstein identifies an interesting element of ‘Swissness’, for which he coins the term ‘Spielwitz’. Spielwitz…. contains the important elements of perspicacity, of discovering that which is hidden, of controlling circumstances, and of adeptness at dealing with rules… Spielwitz [is] a serum against pure correctitude. The French ‘ésprit’ comes close in meaning. It has to do with play and with the rules that designers give themselves. 46 So whilst the Swiss generally are law-abiding and fastidious, occasionally they like to play games within the framework of rules. Occasionally we encounter [spielwitz] in classical concert[s]…. when the musicians are able to free themselves of the musical score and not simply play the music as written but give it personal coloration and bring it to life. 47

43

Ronan McGreevy, Don't kiss the girlfriend in Dubai, don't flush a Swiss loo after 10pm and, whatever you do, don't insult the Thai

king (Dublin: Irish Independent, 17 March 2007) < http://www.independent.ie/travel/travel-advice/dont-kiss-the-girlfriend-in-dubai-

dont-flush-a-swiss-loo-after-10pm-and-wha dont-flush-a-swiss-loo-a fter-10pm-and-whatever-you-do-dont-insu tever-you-do-dont-insult-the-thai-king-50357.h lt-the-thai-king-50357.html tml > [accessed 17 October 2009]. 44

Ákos Moravánszky, ‘Ten Architects in Switzerland’, a+u 410 (November 2004), 12-17 (p.12).

45

Max Frisch, I’m Not Stiller (San Diego: Harcourt Publishers, 1994), p.13.

46

Lichtenstein, p.8.

47

Ibid.

18



3.7 Conclusions on ‘Swissness’

Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz (1878-1947), one of the most important authors from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, wrote the following in a letter to Denis de Rougemont, published in the journal L'Esprit on 1st October 1937: The "Swiss" (if that word makes any sense, and I am using it solely to refer to the sum of individuals who belong to the political entity of Switzerland) are certainly orderly, careful and conscientious, but they are also petty-minded. They are active, but only within their own territory; they cut themselves off from the rest of the world for the sake of peace and quiet. And it could even be said that for this peace and quiet, which enables them to go about their own domestic affairs with such diligence and punctiliousness, they have sacrificed all those things which have brought renown to other nations.48 The origins of ‘Swissness’ stem from its peculiar status as a neutral ‘island state’.

This neutrality has

engendered a bunker mentality amongst it citizens, a detachment from the outside world. It has also therefore served to promote continuity and tradition. Continuity has been able to flourish due to discretion – which has promoted private banking and wealth which allows for traditional crafts and high quality materials to remain viable - which in turn feeds back to reinforce continuity. Continuity is further strengthened by general law-abidingness, albeit occasionally mitigated by some playful ‘spielwitz’. Finally, regarding the whole validity of ‘Swissness’ as a concept for a confederation of regions - the above analysis of what the Swiss have said about themselves suggest that despite the variety, the common national traits, underlined, apply across all the cantons and regions of Switzerland. This unity in diversity, wholeness or gestalt, is explored further in chapter 5, followed by an analysis of the architectural consequences of the above, emboldened, characteristics of ‘Swissness’.

48



19



4. GRAUBUNDEN LIVING Owing to its remoteness and topography, on the scale of critical regionalism as set out by Paul Ricouer between local craft and total universal civilisation, the Graubünden remains very much towards the local end.

In the middle of the 19th century, author and politician Heinrich Zschokke remarked that

Graubünden was ‘Switzerland within Switzerland’.49

Figure 7. The Graubünden in relation to Switzerland 50

4.1 Background to the Graubünden

The Graubünden is the largest Canton of Switzerland by area and is located to the east of the country, adjoining Liechtenstein, Austria and Italy.

Its population is only around 190,000, of which 15% are

foreigners. 51 The name is derived from ‘Drey Grawen Pundt’, referring to the grey garments of sheep’s

49

http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/01116/01118/01421/index.html?lang=en> > [accessed Canton Graubünden (ch.ch The Swiss Portal) < http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/01116/01118/01421/index.html?lang=en

8 December 2009]. 50

Large Map of the Graubünden (Wikimedia Commons)

> [accessed 2 December 2009]. 51

http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/01116/01118/01421/index.html?lang=en> > [accessed Canton Graubünden (ch.ch The Swiss Portal) < http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/01116/01118/01421/index.html?lang=en

8 December 2009].

20



wool worn by famers there. 52

It is almost entirely mountainous, with some of the deepest valleys in

Europe. Forests cover about a fifth of the area of the canton.53 Consequently, timber and stone are the most prevalent building elements. The purpose of the canton, as set out in its constitution, is to: …safeguard freedom, peace, and human dignity, […] promote prosperity and social justice and preserve a sane environment for the future generations, with the intention of promoting trilingualism and cultural variety and conserving them as part of our historical heritage. 54

Figure 8. Map showing the languages spoken in the Graubünden by area. Yellow represents Germ an, Light purple represents Italian, Dark Purple, Romansch and hatched, bilingual communes 55

68% of the residents of the Graubünden speak German, largely around the cantonal capital of Chur, 15% speak Romansch (centred around Disentis / Munster and Engadine) with the remainder to the south speaking Italian.

52

Daniel Bosshard, Miguel Kreisler, Myriam Sterling and Meritxell Vaquer, ‘Graubünden, Anthology of data of place, things, and

people’, in 2G: Construir en las montañas : arquitectura reciente en los Grisones = Building in the mountains : recent architecture in Graubünden, ed. by Moises Puente and Lluis Ortega, vol. 2, no.14 (Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, 2000), pp. 4-29 (p.19). 53

Regional Statistics for Graubünden (Federal Department of Statistics, 2008)

[accessed 23 November 2009]. 54

Constitution of the canton of Graubünden (Federal Authority of the Swiss Confederation)

Languages spoken in the Graubünden Canton (Wikimedia Commons)

> [accessed 8 December 2009].

21



4.2 Self-sufficiency and introversion

Owing to the alpine climate, Graubündeners have adapted to live alongside fierce nature, including freezing conditions with heavy snow with the risk of avalanches in winter and intense sun in summer. Although agriculture now only accounts for 8.5% 57 of all jobs in the Graubünden region, it remains a cultural mainstay.

One of the most noticeable

things about the Swiss Alps is how well maintained the pastures in Switzerland are compared to neighbouring France. Mark Twain wrote in ‘A Tramp Abroad’ in 1879, ‘Switzerland is simply a large, humpy, solid rock with a thin skin of grass stretched over it’.58 The reason for the manicured mountainsides in the Graubünden is the highly attuned need for selfsufficiency in farming and a strongly developed organic / macrobiotic emphasis (cows are to be fed using natural materials that are locally sourced). Whilst the road network is being upgraded in the Graubünden, there remains the very real risk of Figure 9. Manual haymaking on steep slopes of the Graubünden in the height of summer 56

being cut off or snowed-in. Consequently, there is a need to harvest winter hay, regardless if this means going out on slopes at an angle of almost 45

degrees on an August afternoon in temperatures of over 30° Celsius with only manual implements to perform this duty. Such self-sufficiency would appear to mirror in microcosm the point made in chapter 3 about Switzerland as an island state and notions of independence and neutrality.

56

Author’s photograph, taken near Vrin in August 2009.

57

Key Data for the Graubünden (Federal Department for Statistics)



22



4.2.1 Nearness yet distance

Related to this need for self-sufficiency, the settlements are tightly packed. The reason is twofold – firstly to provide security and proximity during the cold winter months, and secondly, so that the properties do not encroach on the valuable productive agricultural land – a pattern which is reinforced by planning legislation restricting the growth of villages to within a defined boundary. The influence of law, as set out in chapter 3, surfaces again here. The pattern that emerges in the Graubünden is a hamlet or small village, tightly grouped, typically at intervals of 2-5 kilometres from the next. They are frequently located on the slope of the mountain, not the valley floor, owing to the depth of the valleys running from south to north, which would mean the settlement would receive little sunlight in winter.

Figure 10. Typical village patterns in the Graubünden 59

59

Schlorhaufer and Caminada, pp.12-13.

23



4.3 Religion, Mysticism & Folklore

The architectural theorist Ákos Moravánszky has written: Today, Swiss architectural theoreticians review their frameworks of interpretation [of Swiss German architecture] between Protestant and Mediterranean versions of rationality one being scientific and economic, the other more spiritual or innate.60 The meeting point of these two influences in Switzerland lies in the Graubünden, with Calvinist Protestant influences from German-speaking Switzerland to the north interfacing with and the Roman Catholic Church from the Italian-speaking Ticino, to the south.

Figure 11. Religion in the Graubünden 61 Red represents predominantly Roman Catholic; Blue predominantly Protestant; Yellow, no dominant religion.

The awe-inspiring landscape of the Alps has also generated a significant element of myth and mysticism. In the Graubünden region gnomes, trolls and other carvings and statues feature prominently in the front gardens of many houses.

60

Ákos Moravánszky, ‘Concrete Constructs: The Limits of Rationalism in Swiss Architecture’, Architectural Design, Vol. 77 Issue 5

(September/October 2005), pp. 30-35 (pp. 31-32). 61

Religions in the communes in 2000 (Federal Department of Statistics)


24



Figure 12. Gnomes in Andeer 62

This whimsicalness appears to have direct links with the idea of ‘spielwitz’. 4.4 Conclusions on Graubünden Living

In a very real sense, the Graubünden could be viewed as a ‘Switzerland in microcosm’ – its harsh climate and remoteness means that its people have adapted to patterns of living that are self-sufficient. The land is valuable and the population unites to till it, but prefers to amalgamate into small, intimate hamlets and villages in the evenings – close enough to protect each other, but distant enough not to be intrusive. The ‘spielwitz’ or playfulness that was identified in chapter 3 remains in evidence, albeit in a slightly different guise, through the strong mystical iconography on display around these alpine villages.

62

Author’s photograph, August 2009.

25



5. THE MANIFESTATION OF ‘SWISSNESS’ AND ‘GRAUBÜNDERNESS’ AS ARCHITECTURE This chapter explains how the character traits identified in chapter 3, on Swissness and chapter 4, on Graubünden living, are reflected in architecture. 5.1 Beyond The Swiss Box

The title of this dissertation alludes to ‘Swiss Boxes’ - the manifestation of 1990s image of Switzerland to the external, architectural world as efficient, well-detailed, austere, regular, static buildings, typically delivered on time and on budget. Swiss architecture has inherited the austerity of Calvinism. The sobriety and even hardness of works produced in Switzerland derive from culture and character.63 An example of a ‘Swiss Box’ would include Herzog & de Meuron’s Eberswalde Library in Germany, completed in 1999, which demonstrates the way in which the typology of this era was largely focused on the treatment of the building’s skin.

Figure 13. An example of a Swiss Box – Herzog & de Meuron’s Eberswalde Library 64

63

Francisco Asensio Cerver, The Architecture of Minimalism (New York: Arco, 1997), p.13.

64

> [accessed 2 December 2009]. 2009]. Eberswalde Library (Panoramio)
26



This dissertation has thus far attempted to profile the Swiss more widely than just sober and fastidious, and in here will explain how these broader characteristics are manifested in architecture. 5.2 Continuity: Modernism as a continuation of tradition

The crux to understanding Swiss architecture… is [that it is] perhaps unique in the developed world for its continuous development of a tradition. And that tradition has become its own breed of modernism. The romantic populism of chalet architecture and mountain villages notwithstanding, the culture of modernism is so pervasive in Switzerland that it need not even be articulated, much less defended. 65 Owing to its neutrality during

World

War

II,

Switzerland

avoided the widespread destruction that countries such as France, Germany, the Benelux and the UK experienced. There were no cities in Switzerland that required wholesale rebuilding; as such there was no backlash against post-war Modernism that most other European countries experienced. In Switzerland, Modernism is viewed as a continuation of the process of evolution in construction, happening on a gradual scale and alongside traditional architecture. 5.2.1 Continuity, neutrality and minimal art

Minimal art is art ‘radically cleansed of metaphors, symbolism or any form of metaphysics’.66 The influence of this way of thinking is evidenced at the architecture department of ETH Zurich, where students designs are rarely encumbered by heavy conceptual thinking, and are, at worst, orthogonal buildings ‘without any guiding concept and so [are] merely a set of finely crafted details’. 67 The absence of a guiding concept or ideology seems entirely consistent with the nation’s ‘neutral’ status. This preference absence of an underlying rhetoric provides the Swiss with a ‘preference for monolithic buildings or for an architectural language that is conspicuous by its silence at times…’68

65

Spier, p.7.

66

Stanislaus von Moos, ‘Max Bill: In Search of the “Primitive Hut”’, in 2G vol. 29/30: Max Bill Architect , ed. by Karen Gimmi and

Hans Frei (Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, May 2004), pp. 6-20, (p.13). 67

Spier, p.8.

68

Roman Hollenstein, ‘Swiss Architecture Today: An Overview’, in Birkhäuser architectural guide Switzerland: 20th century , ed. by

Mercedes Daguerre (Basel: Birkhäuser, 1997), pp. 380-405 (p.405).

27



Figure 14. Proposal for a ‘Monument to Honour Labour’ by Max Bill – Swiss architect, sculptor, minimal artist 69

Architecture in Switzerland is still taught as building, not as art, theory, nor philosophy. Christoph Allenspach explains that the first question Swiss builders will ask is: ‘How is it done?’ and then ‘What does it look like?’. Attention to detail flows through the culture of building in Switzerland, implying intensive co-operation between architects, engineers and contractors. 70 Manifestos are not Swiss. Architects want to build; only a few of them supply a theoretical justification for their methods.71

69

Arthur Rüegg, ‘Monument to Honour Labour, Zurich, 1939’, in 2G vol. 29/30: Max Bill Architect , ed. by Karen Gimmi and Hans

Frei (Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, May 2004) pp. 90-92, (p.91). 70

Chrisoph Allenspach, Architecture in Switzerland: Building in the 19 th and 20th Centuries, (Zurich: Pro Helvetia Arts Council of

Switzerland, 1999), p.16. 71

Ibid., p. 13.

28



5.2.2 Continuity through materiality

Continuity is typically reinforced in Swiss architecture by the use of a high quality, but sober, materials palette. This is made possible due to the nation’s wealth, as set out in chapter 3, which allows it to continue to develop artisanal and precision craft skills at a time when its European neighbours have felt obliged to outsource their manufacturing production to lower cost countries and refocused away from primary and secondary industry to service-based professions. ‘It can even be said that [in Switzerland] it is not the quality of the idea but the quality of the thing that is important’. 72 The desire to remain inconspicuous and discrete regardless of wealth manifests itself in the use of a limited palette of materials. Concrete features heavily in Swiss architects’ palettes, in part because of Switzerland’s leadership in tunnelling and bridge building. Swiss architects find their confidence in building in concrete — for many years the Swiss have been constructing the most challenging concrete structures in order simply to get around, through mountains and across ravines. Nature is always sheer and present.73 Eminent Swiss bridge builders who have contributed to Switzerland’s prowess in concrete construction include Robert Maillart, Othmar Ammann, Christian Menn and now Jürg Conzett. 74 The use of concrete has strong connections with the idea of ‘forme forte’, the notion of rooted, monolithic architecture, which is explained in more depth below. The limited and traditional material palette feeds back to reinforce continuity. The architect Miroslav Šik, who acted as professor at ETH Zurich to many of the – then student - architects responsible for the case study houses in this dissertation said in his book, ‘Old-New’: As a traditionalist, I cherish the link with architectural craftsmanship – by which […] I mean not only the manual skill but also methods and materials that have been tried and tested over long periods of time. I regard slight restraint as a bridge that links the past, the present and the future and ensures continuity.75

72

Spier, p.8.

73

Jonathan Woolf, Man & Monolith (London: BDonline, 18 November 2005)

> [accessed 3 August 2009]. 74

Spier, p.13.

75

Miroslav Šik, Heinz Wirz (ed.), Old-New (Lucerne, Quart, 2000), p. 62.

29



5.3 Forme Forte – the architectural manifestation of a need for security

Chapter 3 identified the ‘the Swiss people’s highly developed need for security’76 and how that was attributable to the country’s political status as an independent, occasionally autonomous country, surrounded by other, larger nations. The architectural consequence of this is what the architectural theorist Martin Steinmann refers to as ‘La forme forte’ – translated from the French as ‘strong’ or ‘forceful’ form. Steinmann believes that the opacity and autonomy of these forms has become ‘the paradigm of new Swiss architecture’. 77 As a small, neutral country, it is perhaps unsurprising that many Swiss boxes appear monolithic; wedge-like, seemingly locked to the rock on which they are built for eternity, and with few apertures as points of weakness or breach. 78 Many of the these monolithic, bunker-like, elemental volumes appear to have been formed by the interior being carved out, what Valerio Olgiati refers to as ‘An Architecture of Dividing’ as opposed to ‘An Architecture of Adding’.79 In the Graubünden, a robust, defensive building typology has emerged out of climatic considerations. Two forms of construction dominate the region: 1. ‘Blockbau’ or ‘strickbau’ construction , which is log-on-log knitted construction, typically constructed on a stone plinth, generally built into the slope of the mountainside. Strickbau construction is limited by the size of the timbers available. As a form of massing construction (as opposed to framed construction) it requires significant amounts of timber, and the wood is subject to warping as it dries out. The solid construction technique results in an architecture of division, with a central, unheated circulation core, and most importantly, a hearth room or ‘stube’.

76

Lichtenstein, p.11.

77

Bearth, Deplazes and Wirz (ed.), Bearth & Deplazes, Konstrukte / Constructs , p.31.

78

Ibid.

79

Markus Breitschmid, The Significance of the Idea in the Architecture of Valerio Olgiati (Zurich, Niggli, 2009), p.47.

30



Figure 15. Traditional strickbau construction technique 80

Figure 16. Examples of ‘stube’ in floor plans 81

Figure 17. reveal 82

Figure 18. Sgraffito applied decoration, house in Andeer 83

Engadine

House

deep

splayed

window

80

Schlorhaufer and Caminada, p.52.

81

Ibid., p.53.

82

Guenter Fischer, Windows Of A Typical Engadine House, Samedan, Engadin, Grisons, Switzerland (World of Stock)



31



2. The Engadine House consists of thick walls, and asymmetric splayed, small, deep windows to protect against the alpine climate. Although Engadine houses appear to be solid masonry, they are generally constructed from solid wood and then covered with white stucco or with a secondary wall of stone and then stuccoed. This double wall combines the waterproofing and wind shielding properties of stone with the insulating properties of wood. 84 Frequently they are decorated with frescos or sgraffito, where layers of contrasting coloured plaster are applied and then scratched away to leave decorative facades. Both forms of construction in the Graubünden make use of abundant local materials – timber and stone, and the density of the construction imbues the buildings with a stereotomic, solid, permanent quality. Openings must be kept small to avoid structurally weakening the massive solid walls. These typologies echo on a local scale the need for a feeling of security in the face of nature.

The Vrin-based architect

Gion Caminada said in an interview with the journal 2G: City people long to look out over extensive views of nature, while the inhabitants of mountain landscapes, who live in close contact with nature, prefer an intimate space that is conducive to warmth and closeness. Personally, l like this attitude. 85 As such, both strickbau construction and Engadine houses represent the ‘formes fortes’ of the Graubünden region. As massing constructions, both techniques are material and labour intense, and therefore there is overlap with ideas of continuity, high wealth and craft. 5.3.1 Forme Forte, plasticity and applied decoration

The thinner mountain air makes for intense sunlight in the Graubünden when the sky is clear. When travelling around the region the mountain chapels elicit memories of the Cyclades islands in Greece, the whitewashed churches demonstrating an evident plasticity of form. Any decoration, be it painted, as sgraffito, or from woodcarving is thrown into sharp relief by the bright sunlight.

Figure 19. Church in Vals 86

84

George Everard Kidder, Switzerland Builds: its Native and Modern Architecture (London: Architectural Press, 1950), p.66.

85

Christoph Staub, ‘The Vrin Project’, in 2G: Construir en las montañas : arquitectura reciente en los Grisones = Building in the

mountains : recent architecture in Graubünden, ed. by Moises Puente and Lluis Ortega, vol 2. no. 14, (Barcelona, Gustavo Gili,

2000), pp.136-143, (p.139). 86


32



Heinz Wirz, the editor of Swiss architectural publishing house Quart, observes that: Almost all the important works of recent Swiss architecture are clearly defined in terms of absolute volume, of the creation of surfaces of varying luminosity. 87 5.4 Gestalt – wholeness and indivisibility

In chapter 3, on discussing Switzerland as a confederation of regions, a citation by Swissworld explained how the Swiss see Switzerland as ‘unity, but not uniformity’.88 Valerio Olgiati says: ‘modular things can fall apart’.89 Gestalt - or wholeness - is related to the notion of forceful form – la forme forte - but it is subtly different.

Gestalt psychology focuses on principles or

emergence and ‘indivisible totality’ – the picture only becoming complete when viewed as an entire whole.

Figure 20. Spotty dog – an example of ‘emergence’ in Gestalt psychology 90

Figure 21. A: Standard Kanizsa triangle. B: Peter Tse's Volumetric Worm. C: Idesawa's Spiky Sphere. D: Peter Tse's Sea Monster 91

87

Valentin Bearth, Andrea Deplazes and Heinz WIrz (ed.), Spacepieces (Lucerne, Quart, 2000), p.45.

88

Culture: What is Swissness? (Swissworld Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland)


Breitschmid, p.55.

90

David Marr, Vision: A Computational Investigation Into The Human Representation and Processing of Visual I nformation (San

Francisco : W.H. Freeman, 1982), p.101. 91

Steven Lehar, The World In Your Head: A Gestalt View of the Mechanism of Conscious Experience (Mahwah, New Jersey:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003), p.52.

33



In his description of Valerio Olgiati’s school at Paspels in the journal 2G, Jacques Lucan eloquently describes highly effectively how this has been translated into architecture (emphasis added): Let us return to the building’s monolithic character. It belongs to the category Robert Morris called “unitary forms” - polyhedrons that “seem to fail to present lines of fracture by which they could divide for easy part-to-part relationships to be established ”. From this perspective Paspels School should be understood as a whole, an entity so

indivisible that no joint shows a possible separation, nor does any access of symmetry divide the volume . Openings are not set out at all regularly, in particular, as if

they are located for a reason which is at present hidden, they do not fit into the grid of the reinforced-concrete formwork. This has the effect of giving the school an event more monolithic character, with the pattern of the formwork unaffected by the openings. The intervals between openings always vary slightly, so they seem to disturb the regularity of the complex. Moreover, by looking slowly and carefully, we see that the four corners of the building seem not be right angles, but slightly acute or obtuse. The deformations mean that the volume is not a “cube”. Although the differences, intervals and deformations are visible, they are slight and not very distinct …. In the end, Paspels School offers a perceptual experience. It invites us to circle around, as if around a totem pole, looking at each façade, but there is no ideal position in which we can stop, no viewpoint from which we can understand the building in its entirety. So it is a paradox, one which Valerio Olgiati likes to present elsewhere: to create a monolithic and static building with irregularities irregulariti es that 92 just emphasise its unified and harmonious character ...

Figure 22. Paspels School by Valerio Olgiati 93

92

Jacques Lucan, ‘Textured Spatiality and Frozen Chaos’ in 2G Vol. 37: Valerio Olgiati, ed. by Moisés Puntes and Anna Puyelo

(Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2006), 2006), pp. 4-11 (pp. 4-5). 93


34



Another example of how an ‘architecture of division’ and wholeness is a popular theme is evidenced from an exercise sheet from Andrea Deplazes’s studio at the ETH: ….make sketches of how your would dissect your “spacepiece” into a maximum of five pieces without any parts remaining. Determine the position of your incisions in such a way that you can reassemble your “spacepiece” in its original form. 94

Figure 23. Paspels School by Valerio Olgiati – an example of wholeness and indivisibility – plans and elevations 95

94

Bearth, Deplazes, WIrz (ed.), Spacepieces, p.46.

95

Lucan, 2G Vol. 37: Valerio Olgiati, pp. 46-48.

35



5.6 Spielwitz & Mysticism

This heading brings together the qualities of lawabidingness and playfulness of the Swiss as set out in chapter 3, and the importance of myth and folklore, the whimsical, in the Graubünden, introduced in chapter 4. 5.6.1 Playing within the rules: parametric design

Parametric – or generative - design concerns itself with the iterative process of design from the use of tightly defined parameters from a specific site. Examples of such parameters could include local planning laws about the maximum height of a building, rights to light of a neighbouring

property,

and

the

boundary

line.

Designers can then specify required design outcomes – for example – maximum floor area for their design – whilst taking account of those fixed parameters and whilst respecting parameters true for all buildings – namely, building regulations. Parameters can be adjusted, but the overall effect is to achieve a quasiautonomous design through the use of computer software and iterative design, until an ‘optimal’ solution for the given constraints is attained. Consequently, Valerio Olgiati has claimed that he is ‘designing nothing’. 96 This statement by an architect with a reputation for producing buildings of sublime quality may seem bizarre. The basis of architecture, for Olgiati, ‘has more to do with mathematics than with phenomenology’. 97 The interaction of the prevailing view of ‘architecture as building’ and a strong respect for the law in Switzerland helps explain the popularity of parametric design in Olgiaiti’s atelier in Flims, a technique that is also employed by many of his contemporaries as a mechanism for rooting a project in its ‘place’ through a near Pavlovian adherence to planning legislation. Jacques Lucan says of Olgiati’s proposal for an office building in Zurich (emphasis added): The form owes nothing to the architect’s imagination. The shape is not the result of a choice; the only option was to submit to the constraints of the site in a strict way. Ideally, the form would have been the ‘automatic’ result of the equation which combines regulatory parameters .98

96

Markus Breitschmid, p.55.

97

Ibid., p.61.

98

Lucan, Valerio Olgiati , p.9.

36



Through the case study houses in chapter 7, this dissertation will present a number of examples where the design has been grounded in its site through the passive acceptance of local planning laws. 5.6.2 Mountains and mysticism

As well as the abundance of gnomes found in gardens in the region, folly-like towers sources of intrigue and mysticism punctuate the Graubünden landscape. Zumthor’s Swiss Sound Box for the Hannover 2000 Expo was designed to be a corporeal

experience

labyrinthine

mass

set

of

amongst

stacked

a

drying

timbers, punctuated by food stalls, works of Swiss art and music. 100 The mysticism of the mountains acts alongside Spielwitz, introducing motifs such as non-orthogonal forms, towers and splitlevels. Examples of these outcomes will be shown in chapter 7.

Figure 24. Lighting plan for Zumthor’s labyrinthine Swiss Sound Box, Hannover 2000 99

5.7 Education: ETH Zurich reinforcing r einforcing Swissness

One of the most important common themes linking the current wave of successful architects in the Graubünden is The Federal Institution of Technology, or ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) Zurich. Steven Spier says: ETH Zurich… epitomises much about Swiss culture. It is very selective… rigorous… it is sure where it is heading… it produces students of an extremely high competence and doesn’t entertain the maverick sensibility.101 All of the architects of the case study buildings in this dissertation have connections with ETH Zurich whilst Conradin Clavuot, Anrdrea Deplazes, Quintus Miller, and Valerio Olgiati were amongst Miroslav Šik’s

99

students in the Analoge Architectur Unit.

Zumthor, Corps Sonore Suisse, p.155.

100

Ibid., p.64.

101

Spier, p.9.

37



5.7.1 Miroslav Šik + Analoge Architektur

From 1983, the Autonomous Architecture unit at ETH Zurich was chaired by Fabio Reinhart with support from Luca Ortelli, Santiago Calatrava and Miroslav Šik. Šik very quickly took on a central role within the atelier, grouping students around him into a sort of elite class. The students in Šik’s unit courted early controversy by their isolationism and all-black attire with drew criticism of being a clan – furthermore they displayed a keen interest in early Fascist-era architecture. 102 After two years of dissociation with the avant-garde and searching for an identity, Šik started to emphasise the importance of anonymous, regionally rooted architecture, awareness of the everyday and the atmosphere of place. Šik encouraged his students to celebrate the everyday using a fusion of styles to evoke the zeitgeist - familiar yet original. 103 Analoge Architektur was undoubted influenced by the postmodern movement and the work of Robert Venturi, but ‘its droll quality was transformed into a melancholy poesy’.104 In the analogous approach, atmosphere becomes a genuine tool for carving out the identity of a site, a building or space. When properly handled, it can fulfil the innate human need for stability and protection .105 Notions of continuity and gestalt are of great significance to Šik: My preferences are always in the interests of continuity .106 I seek to wipe out existing contrasts with the modern city. Buildings not only have to be slotted neatly into their site; they have to impact the conflicting elements around them […] My role is iron out each conflict so that everything can once again form one whole .107 Šik

did not get his students to work on out-of-the-ordinary programmes, but rather on projects that could

be tackled in depth, such as converting housing. Building regulations were carefully respected and students were expected to study standard product catalogues - not with the aim of curbing the students' imagination - but in order to keep projects within the bounds of ‘the ordinary’.

This echoes the law-

abiding and discrete characteristics of ‘Swissness’ identified in chapter 3.

102

Jacques Lucan, A Matter of Art – Contemporary Architecture in Switzerland (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2001), p.44.

103

Spier, pp. 12-13.

104

Ibid., p.9.

105

Lucan, A Matter of Art – Contemporary Architecture in Switzerland, p.47.

106

Šik, Wirz (ed.), p.62.

107


38



Figure 25. Student work from Miroslav Sik’s Analoge Architektur unit 108

Figure 26. Andrea Deplazes: student drawings under Sik’s tuition – Crematorium, Neuenhof, 1987 109

108

Lucan, A Matter of Art – Contemporary Architecture in Switzerland , p.48.

109

Miroslav Šik, ‘Dossier: Suisse Al lemande; Traditionnel, poétique’, Architecture D’Aujourd’hui, 299 (June 1995), 63-71 (p.70).

39



Perspective drawings were worked up on computers and then coloured by hand over several days. The process was intentionally slow so that students could grasp the material reality of the design. Šik said: I get them to draw everything, down to the dirt on the road… That way they start thinking about things like the texture of the sun-warmed asphalt. 110 The ultimate aim of any scheme was unity , so each alteration to the site has to be virtually imperceptible, blending seamlessly with the setting. Despite the strong influence that Šik had over his students, his teachings seem entirely consistent with notions of ‘Swissness’; indeed, they would appear to have very strong connections with ideals such as continuity and discretion (what is permitted is what does not bother). Šik sought a smooth integration of past and present, a concordant unity of old and new. Šik’s Analoge Architektur unit does not appear to represent a stylistic distraction from notions of ‘Swissness’ or ‘Graubünberness’ but, rather, has acted as a positive reinforcement feedback mechanism for the traits identified in chapters 3 and 4. 5.8 Conclusions on the manifestation of ‘Swissness’ and ‘Graubünderness’ as architecture

Switzerland’s selective engagement with the rest of the world and its highly attuned desire for security produces an elemental, strong, defensive, bunker-like, inward-focused architecture – what Martin Steinmann refers to as la forme forte . This is further reinforced by climatic factors in the alpine region of the Graubünden. As well as being monolithic, these building types are often appear impenetrable, and do not present easy lines of fracture – the principle of wholeness, entire indivisible totality - gestalt . This inward focus reduces greatly the need for any sort of manifesto or ideology – hence the simplicity or ‘quietness’ moniker frequently attached to Swiss architecture. The elemental quality is frequently reinforced by a limited, but high-quality and precise palette, the choice of materials grounded by specifiers with a strong knowledge of how to build and clients with sufficient financial resources to afford such high standards. Discrete designs, traditional materials and craft serve to reinforce a feeling of continuity permeating Swiss architecture. Swiss Architects have started to use town-planning laws to influence their designs as a deliberate way of rooting a building into its surroundings, a form of parametric design, or playing within in a framework – which was identified in chapter 2 as spielwitz . The whimsy and mysticism evidenced by folklore iconography in the Graubünden appears to be a close relation to spielwitz.

110


40



6. APPRAISING ARCHITECTURE AS IDENTITY: METHODOLOGY 6.1 Analysis Framework

The analysis framework was derived from the elements of ‘Swissness’ or ‘Graubünderness’ identified in chapters 3 and 4, which were then translated into an architectural language in chapter 5. In order to organise and group these influences on architecture to create a clear tool with which to analyse the case study houses, a mind map was created.

Figure 27. Preliminary attempt to mind-map notions of ‘Swissness’ and ‘Graubünderness’ - August 2009111

This was later refined and simplified to:

111


41



Figure 28. Analysis framework for ‘Swissness’ and ‘Graubünderness’ 112 Swiss influences are denoted by red circles, Graubünden influences by grey circles

112


42



Here is a brief aide memoire of some of the architectural implications of the four analysis categories: 6.1.1 Forme Forte

The idea of a strong or forceful form, suggesting rootedness, monumentality, related to national security concerns deriving from neutrality, and regional climatic considerations. In this category case study buildings will be tested for evidence for factors such as robustness, stereotomic construction, small apertures, a strong connection with the ground; all combing to provide a feeling of permanence. 6.1.2 Gestalt

Related to Forme Forte and therefore overlapping in the mind map diagram, gestalt introduces ideas of entire totality, unity, wholeness and indivisibility. 6.1.3 Mysticism and Spielwitz

Mysticism is specific to the Graubünden, and concerns itself with regional influences associated with Alpine dwelling. It includes elements that evoke ideas of myth, such as tower construction; whilst overlapping with ‘gestalt’. It could evidence itself through, say, a labyrinthine internal layout and / or the use of half-levels. Non-orthogonal plans are also captured by this category, and it is here that we might expect to see overlaps with ‘spielwitz’ and the idea of manipulating a building’s form to play within the legal parameters of its site. 6.1.4 Continuity

Being the most important factor and a defining attribute of ‘Swissness’, continuity overlaps with each of the three other factors above - and therefore interfaces with them all on the diagram in Figure 28. Ideas of tradition and continuity could manifest themselves in the case study houses through notions of quietness and discretion through a limited palette, craftsmanship through precision detailing, and links to vernacular construction methods. 6.2 The Case Study Buildings

A. Haus Meuli: Bearth & Deplazes in Flasch; B. Willimann-Lotscher House: Bearth & Deplazes in Sevgein; C. House for a Musician, Atelier Bardill: Valerio Olgiati in Scharans; D. Girls’ Boarding House: Gion Caminada in Disentis; E. Haus Luzi: Peter Zumthor in Jenaz; F. Gartmann House: Patrick Gartmann in Chur 43



G. Haus Raselli-Kalt: Conradin Clavuot in Poschiavo; and H. Extension to Villa Garbald: Miller & Maranta in Castasegna.

Figure 29. The Case Study Houses all are located within 60 kilometres of the Graubünden capital, Chur (location of the Gartmann House, F) 113

113

Author’s annotation of a Google Map.

44



6.3 Basis for selection

Eight buildings were selected in order to provide a representative sample size, whilst allowing for sufficiently deep evaluation of each. In addition, the case study houses are: 1. Contemporary . This dissertation is interested in critical regionalism and what buildings say about Switzerland today, and how Swissness informs building design. For the purposes of this dissertation, ‘contemporary’ is defined as having been completed in the past decade; 2. Situated in the Graubünden , as set out in the introduction, where the influence of ‘globalisation’ to date remains more limited; 3. Realised by a Swiss architect – as opposed to a foreign architect building in the Graubünden in a ‘Swiss manner’; 4. Residential . The hypothesis is that residential architecture is more personal and speaks more of the client’s deep-held needs and values than a more polyvalent, public or corporate building. Two residential centres are included to extend the range of architects covered by this dissertation; and 5. Completed, and published in journals or books with English text . This is attributable to the author’s weak abilities in reading German and total inability to read Romansch. Furthermore, the majority of the case study buildings are private homes, and therefore not internally accessible for primary research.

45



7A. HAUS MEULI IN FLASCH BY BEARTH & DEPLAZES 7A.1 Description

Completed in 2001, this family house is located a wine-making valley, on the edge of the small village of Flasch, adjacent to vineyards and very close to Heidi’s hometown of Maienfeld.

Figure 30. Site plan 114

Figure 31. Section 115

The rooms are accommodated over three floors (plus cellar), with the living room at the top floor to benefit from the views, and the kitchen on the ground floor to interface with the small garden.

114

Bearth, Deplazes, WIrz (ed.), Konstrukte / Constructs, p.74.

115

< http://v-aArchitektur Vor ort 035 (Vorarlberger Architektur Institure)
i.at/files/avo%20/architektur%20vor%20ort%2035_graubuenden_web.pdf > [accessed 10 November 2009] (p.4).

46



Figure 32. Plans and elevations 116,117

116


47



7A.2 Analysis 7A.2.1 Forme forte

With no plinth or other form of delineation, the polygonal form appears to emerge as a geometric boulder from the surrounding fertile soils.

Figure 33. Emerging from the fertile soils around Flasch 118

The walls are made of 500mm thick solid Stampfbeton – a non-reinforced concrete - and were poured into cheap formwork. The concrete is mixed with granulated glass to provide insulation. The walls have been lime-washed a greyish white. The window openings are precisely punched out of these thick concrete walls, and by setting the glazing flush with the internal walls the architects have ensured that the solidity of the walls is clearly appreciable. The deep window reveals generate a deep relief, creating what is akin to a piece of minimal art in the strong mountain sunlight.

117

Nobuyuki Yoshida (ed.), ‘Meuli House’, a+u: New Regionalism in Switzerland , 354 (2000), 68-73 (pp. 70-71).

118


48



7A.2.2 Gestalt

The combination of the kinked roof plane, the non-orthogonal walls, and the deep-sunk windows of varying sizes, presents the observer with no obvious line of fracture for the building.

Figure 34. Indivisible totality - gestalt 119

Figure 35. Sculptural form a result of reduction or carving - not an ‘architecture of addition’ 120

7A.2.3 Mysticism + Spielwitz

The building’s five-sided form owes much to the parameters of its angular site at the edge of the village, adjacent to lucrative wine-growing land, acting a as corset for the design. 121 The unconventional ‘skewed’ angle of these buildings is not only a gestural quality. It is also a metaphor for a free style of movement on the Cartesian chessboard in the game of building bureaucracy. 122 Haus Meuli is tower-like, recalling the folly-like towers that punctuate the Graubünden scenery, with nonorthogonal internal volumes and split levels providing the intrigue internally.

119


120


121

Ibid., p.75.

122

Ibid., p.33.

49



7A.2.4 Continuity

The tall, thin building demonstrates a tradition of land economy by squeezing into the corner of its site, preserving land for the vines. 123 The house is ‘decidedly anti-high-tech’, 124 the solid concrete walls harking back to the solid appearance of the Engadine Houses or the compact and plastic, like the old manorhouses of Flasch. The traces of the wooden formwork have been retained, integrating the monolith to an extent with the neighbouring farm buildings. The pronounced roof overhang echoes the surrounding fabric whilst simultaneously meeting planning legislation and hiding the roof gutter ‘…the absurd regulations governing the design of roofs: nicely even on all sides, the overhanging roof is virtually elevated to Holy-Sacrament status in house building’. 125 Meanwhile, the small drainpipes below each window aperture demonstrate both a quality of craft and understatement that is typically Swiss.

Figure 36. East elevation showing gutter details

123

Spier, p.22.

124

Ibid., p.21.

125


50



7B. HAUS WILLIMANN-LOTSCHER IN SEVGEIN BY BEARTH & DEPLAZES 7B.1Description

Built between 1998 and 1999, with the clients, a family, carrying out some of the building work themselves, this timber-framed house sits wedge-like on the edge of the small village of Sevgein. The building’s living spaces open out towards the northeast, overlooking the wide valley of the Vorderrhine containing the main rail and road links between Flims and Chur. Two of the five corners are right angles, with the wider west elevation broken by a rib.

The

central circulation spine mitigates the north light by allowing south light to penetrate through the core, and also provides a double height space for the entrance lobby.

126


Reichlin and Schaub, p.42.

51



Figure 38. Elevations, plans and sections 127 128

127

Image/PDF/DA01_Panorama.pdf > [accessed 20 November 2009]. 128

Arbeiten Bearth + Deplazes [accessed 20

November 2009].

52



7B.2 Analysis 7B.2.1 Forme forte

Despite being a timber-framed structure clad in boards, the building appears homogenous and therefore monolithic, strengthened by its five-sided plan and non-orthogonal angles. The cladding is of greyvarnished wood of three different widths and has a ‘remarkable heaviness’. 129 Boosting the sense of protection and defensiveness of the building, each room has only a single window. The timber frame sits above a fair-faced concrete slab that steps down with the terrain, rooting the building into the side of the mountain. 7B.2.2 Gestalt

The house is arranged across split-levels, creating variated views and an ‘inner topography’. 130 The building is a puzzle box, appearing to be ‘clear and unequivocal only at first glance’. 131 The architects explain: ‘A house with lots of different rooms - a kind of "labyrinthine mouse hole" – was what this family of four wanted’.132 7B.2.3 Mysticism + Spielwitz

As you approach the building from the southeast, the non-orthogonal plan and the roof rib combine to distort perspective, making it hard for the observer to determine the length of the building, as shown in Figures 39 and 40. The concept of a population of mice evokes a vision of ‘a natural way of life on the borders of the community, perhaps a romantic dream of dropping out of the social network…. living in a spatial continuum divorced from the outside world’. 133 7B.2.4 Continuity

The slenderness of the Willimann-Lotscher House ‘continues in the tradition of the massive, feudal fortress towers of the Grisons, which are both spatial focal points and mysterious crystallisations of folk fantasy’. 134

129


130


131

Ákos Moravánszky ‘Swissboxes etcetera’, a+u: 10 Architects In Switzerland , 410 (November 2004), 12-17 (p.14).

132


133


134

Ibid., p.45.

53



Figure 39. Parallax distortion viewed from the South East 13

when

Figure 40. Architects’ sketches 136

Reflecting the Swiss penchant for understatement and also the influence of Miroslav Šik’s teaching of the everyday - analoge architektur, using standard components, the windows in the elevations are actually off-the-shelf skylights set within copper frames, chosen as they were the cheapest option to fulfil the function. One element of the design that represents a clear break with continuity however, in the quest for a prismatic form, is the absence of an overhanging roof, which ‘attracted bitter opposition from some villagers’. 137

Figure 41. Velux windows in walls 138

Figure 42. South West Elevation 139

135


136

Ibid., p.126.

137

Ibid., p.107.

138

Andrea Deplazes, Constructing Architecture – Materials, Processes, Structures: A Handbook , 2nd extended Edition (Basel:

Birkhäuser, 2008), pp. 433-434.

54



7C. HOUSE FOR A MUSICIAN, SCHARANS BY VALERIO OLGIATI 7C.1 Description

This studio house was constructed between 2005 and 2007 for the musician Linard Bardil. It lies in the heart of the old village of Scharans and occupies the site of a former barn. Conzett, Bronzini and Gartmann acted as structural engineers for the project.

Figure 43. Site plan, north directly up 139

Figure 44. Larger site plan 140

139

Valerio Olgiati, House for A Musician – Atelier Bardil (Neuenhof, Koepfli Partners, 2007), p.47.

140

Valerio Olgiati, 25 Pages download 2007_8 – Atelier Olgiati [accessed 8

August 2009] (p.24).

55



Figure 45. Plans, Section, Elevations 141

141


August 2009] (pp. 23-25).

56



7C.2 Analysis 7C.2.1 Forme forte

The walls are constructed out of in-situ, double-walled, tinted fair-faced concrete, making the building appear solidly rooted to the earth, like some form of clay extrusion. The external walls reflect the volume of the old barn that previously occupied the site and therefore are tall and dominating, and are punctured only by a single large aperture on the west elevation, above head height from the street. This serves to admit afternoon sunlight into the walled garden, whilst maintaining privacy for the occupants. The courtyard garden and its oculus suggest an inward focus, suggesting inspiration for the musician owner coming from the celestial, rather than the terrestrial. 7C.2.2 Gestalt

By applying decoration across the all the redbrown pigmented concrete surfaces of the building – not just walls, but the soffit and even the chimneybreast, the house takes on a monumentality, a sense of plasticity and unified wholeness. ‘The idea that stands at the centre of Olgiati’s architecture is the absolute, a totality, an organic unity’. 143 7C.2.3 Mysticism + Spielwitz

Planning laws almost exclusively determined the form - to obtain planning permission in the protected historic village-scape, the volume of the old wooden stable that it replaced had to be precisely replicated.

144

Figure 46. The chimneybreast 142

rosette

motif

even

adorns

the

The musician only required a third of the volume of the old barn for his 60m 2 studio, so the rebuilt walls largely frame the courtyard garden.

142


August 2009] (p.22). 143

Breitschmid, p.7.

144

Oliver Domeisen, ‘The Quest for Ornament’, Detail Review of Architecture and Construction Details (English Edition) , 6 (2008),

574-582, (p.581).

57



Regarding mysticism, the motif that adorns the concrete internally and externally is a simple geometric abstraction of a flower, by which Olgiati wanted to avoid a specific symbolic meaning, instead recalling a local craft tradition. The pattern however still cannot fail to evoke notions of Pagan imagery within observers.

Figure 47. Atelier Bardil - South Elevation 145

7C.2.4 Continuity

As with many of Olgiati’s schemes, there is an element of parametric design – inasmuch as the massing of the previous barn on the site determined the external volume. The pigmentation of the concrete was a requirement to gain planning permission, in the expectation that the red-brown colour would blend with the existing context wooden chalets and 16th and 17th century houses finished in richly decorated render.146 ‘The six pointed motif can be found […] on the wooden walls of the stables, and the red of the concrete is reminiscent of the paint made with ox blood which once protected the wood from parasites’.147

145


146

Domeisen, p.581.

147

Valerio Olgiati, Valerio Olgiati (Cologne: Walter Konig, 2008), p.115.

58



Between 150 and 170 motifs were hand-carved by two local craftsmen into the wooden formwork panels, each of which was used three of four times in the casting process. Interestingly, the initial investigations into the scope to use CNC milling for the shuttering were abandoned due to higher costs compared to those of traditional craft methods. It was left up to the contractor to distribute the formwork according to his aesthetic choice, introducing an element of chance into the arrangement of approximately 550 rosettes upon the building. 148

Figure 48. Absence of roof 149

Figure 49. panels 15

Craft

tradition:

carving

the

formwork

148

Domeisen, p.581.

149


August 2009] (p.21). 150

Valerio Olgiati, House for A Musician – Atelier Bardil, p.36.

59



7D. GIRLS’ BOARDING HOUSE IN DISENTIS BY GION CAMINADA 7D.1 Description

Whilst this is not a private residence, it remains a residence, commissioned by the Cloister of Disentis for their female students. Vrin-based architect Gion Caminada won the competition for the building as his design was the lowest cost to build, largely through his elimination of the need for two separate stair cores by cleverly seating the building into the hillside and thereby providing a level exit to the surrounding terrain to each of the building’s five floors. The building was built between 2001 and 2004 and cost CHF 5.2m.151

Figure 50. Site plan in relation to village 152

Figure 51. The larger openings denote the location of the living rooms on each floor, following the rotated plan 153

Inside the near-cubic volume, the bedrooms on the upper four floors are arranged in a U-shape around a lounge; the intention was a feeling of ‘radical normality’, 154 a hotel for learning, not a reformatory. All the girls have their own en-suite rooms, so it is effectively a home away from home. The large sliding windows in each elevation reveal how the plan has rotated and the position of the lounge on each of the upper floor levels, whilst the ground floor contains a multi-purpose space and small kitchen.

151

Gion A. Caminada, ‘Girls’ Dormitory, Cloister Disentis’, a+u: 10 Architects In Switzerland , 410 (November 2004), 84-89 (p. 84).

152

Ibid., p.86.

153

Christoph Mayr Fingerle, Neues Bauen in den Alpen = Architettura contemporanea alpina = New alpine architecture (Basel,

Birkhäuser, 2008), p.34. 154

Ibid., p.37.

60



Figure 52. Plans and Section 155

155

Gion A. Caminada, ‘Girls’ Dormitory, Cloister Disentis’, a+u: 10 Architects In Switzerland , 410 (November 2004), 84-89 (p.86).

61



7D.2 Analysis 7D.2.1 Forme forte

Prior to this project, Caminada had built almost exclusively in timber, using the strickbau technique to create a ‘knitted building’. The effect of such density of timber is to almost convert a tectonic element – timber - into a stereotomic or cave-like structure. As such, the move to working with concrete and render, as is the case in the girls’ dormitory block at Disentis, was not such a significant leap for the architect as the materiality alone might suggest. The wall thickness is made apparent through the recessed section of the window configurations. Built into the central circulation spine of the building are copper plates ‘oven niches’, hearths or cuddle corners, for a feeling of warmth and safety at the heart of the building.

Figure 53. Timber framed settle windows, render walls with local granite lintel detailing 156

Figure 54. ‘Cuddle corners’ at the heart of the building on each floor 157

Caminada said: ‘The most important themes for the young women: a feeling of safety and communication, nest as a metaphor for [a] secure safe place’. 158 As the section in Figure 52 shows, the building is firmly seated into its mountainside location.

156


157

Schlorhaufer and Caminada, p.29.

158

Fingerle, p.37.

62



7D.2.2 Gestalt

The manner by which the floor plan rotates anticlockwise through 90 degrees on each floor works to lock the five floors of the building to the central stair core, which, in itself, could be viewed as an indivisible entity, as well as a sculptural piece of artwork.

Figure 55. The dormitory is unified and made indivisible by the sculptural stair core 159

7D.2.3 Mysticism + Spielwitz

The plan is a splayed square form, interfacing with the pre-existing buildings whilst respecting building limits. The 90 degree turn between each level means that the living rooms on each floor each have a different aspect, over the valley, towards the town of Disentis, or up towards the Benedictine Abbey. Caminada says of the design: ‘In the labyrinth you come across yourself, there are different choices here, meeting or avoiding / Every flat has separate access from the outside, is differently orientated’. 160 By integrating the dormitory into the terrain, Caminada has given the girls the option to travel through the core or to skirt around the outside of the building. The effect is to increase the element of surprise. 7D.2.4 Continuity

The grey render of the building roots the building squarely in its location; the concrete was locally sourced from a quarry on the outskirts of Disentis. The building achieves an understated quietness through the simple materiality; it is only when you look closely above the windows that you notice the stone lintels set flush into the render, as shown in Figure 53. Internally, the joinery work is of exceptional quality, whilst also innovative in maximising the space for the girls in their en-suite rooms. The overall outcome is a very humane, comforting and secure-feeling habitat.

159

Valentin Bontjes van Beek and Alex Hirst ‘Gion Caminada: Girls’ Dormitory, Disentis’, AA Files, 51, 2-13 (p.3).

160

Fingerle, p.37.

63



7E. HAUS LUZI IN JENAZ BY PETER ZUMTHOR 7E.1 Description

This is a private residence with a separate granny flat or ‘Stöckli’. The clients were a local couple with six young children.161 The project lasted from 1992 to 2002, partly because of the need to air-dry the timbers for the Strickbau construction. Peter Zumthor appears to be developing an interest in strickbau, following on from the work of Gion Caminada in this field, and he has recently complete a pair of strickbau chalets in a small hamlet above Vals for his wife, Annalisa Zumthor.

Figure 56. House in context in Jenaz

The house is located on a north-east facing slope just above the centre of the village of Jenaz, at an altitude of about 800 metres, amongst other detached houses of similar scale, some of which are heavily decorated in sgraffito. Jürg Conzett acted as structural engineer.

161

Fingerle, p.253.

64



Figure 57. Plans, Elevation 162

162

Fingerle, pp. 251-252.

65



7E.2 Analysis 7E.2.1 Forme forte

Although not out of scale with the surrounding houses, Haus Luzi remains very imposing above the village. Since the building has been constructed out of timber, it sits atop stone terracing to create a level site, a small tabla rasa, so appears less rooted to the ground than the previous case study houses. Nonetheless, the huge strickbau walls can only support a certain number of apertures before they become weakened, so whilst there are large windows in the central third of each façade, the structural stair cores in each corner anchor the building heavily to its site. The monolithic nature of the building is achieved by a double wall construction of stacked beams. Consequently, the long elevations are very imposing and defensive looking when viewed from the street. The building presents a strong external composition, with the windows set back to form flower balconies, creating sharp relief from the over-shot Strickbau beams, suggesting undertones of minimal art. 7E.2.2 Gestalt

Externally, the building appears less of a puzzle box than the previous case study buildings.

It is regularly

orthogonal, but remains slightly cryptic because of the opacity of the circulation towers in each corner. The flat, overshot wall planes engender a feeling of interlocking cards, like the Eames House of Cards, and, like a house of cards, the interdependency of each element on the stability of the structure provides that feeling of interwoven wholeness. 7E.2.3 Mysticism + Spielwitz

Figure 58. Eames House of Cards 163

A surprising feature of the layout is the way you can either take a private flight of stairs or take a ‘diversion’, via the other rooms on the first floor, to get to the bedrooms. bedrooms . In a similar way to the effect achieved by Caminada at the Girls’ Domitory in Disentis, the options for circulation means that there is a real potential for people to appear and disappear, sprite-like, when moving between floors.

163

content/uploads/2008/04/046charles-y-ray-eame content/uploads/2008/04/046 charles-y-ray-eames-house-of-cards-195 s-house-of-cards-1952-eames-design-p.jpg 2-eames-design-p.jpg > [accessed 10 December 2009].

66



The act of disappearing up into the top floor is accompanied by a moment of bliss which Gaston Bachelard associates with the attic (grenier) of the ideal "cabin". This is clearly because, on large estates, attic space was divided up into tiny rooms or compartments where children servants or casual labourers slept. 164 7E.2.4 Continuity

The separate entrances and staircases and annexes allow for a tight family unit, promoting continuity through inter-generational living. The layout means that the bedrooms, each with its own scenic view, acquire an additional individuality, and a psychological distance from the main floor of the house is created. This ties in with notions of ‘nearness, yet distance’ that was established in chapter 4. The family was keen to use timber in the construction to ensure that employment and skills remained in the area. They worked on the house themselves with friends and relatives at the weekends. The result is an imposing but ‘no-frills’ family home, built by their own hands in the evenings and weekends over a decade, as was typically the way in which houses were built in this region. 165

164

Fingerle, p.252.

165

Ibid., p.251.

67



7F. GARTMAN HOUSE IN CHUR BY PATRICK GARTMANN 7F.1 Description

The Gartmann House is located on the side of a hill above Chur, orientated towards the west. It is the home of Patrick Gartmann, partner in the firm of structural engineers Conzett, Bronzini, Gartmann, and cost CHF 1 million 167 to construct (approximately £580,000). It was completed in 2003. Each of the three floors measures 102m2,168 meaning the building cost equivalent to £1900/m 2. It was designed in collaboration with Bearth & Deplazes and a total of seven similar houses are planned for the area. 169

Figure 59. Plans 166

166

Axel Sowa, ‘Maisons Individuelles’, Architecture D’aujourdh’hui 357 (March/April 2005), 38-93 (pp. 48-51).

167

Haus Gartmann (graubündenKULTUR))


Philip Jodidio, CH : architecture in Switzerland (Cologne: Taschen 2006), p.108.

169

Lore Kelly, Poetische Atmospäre Haus Gartmann, Chur/CH ,

> [accessed 10 November 2009].

68



7F.2 Analysis 7F.2.1 Forme forte

Like Haus Meuli by Bearth & Deplazes, the Gartmann House has been cast entirely as a single layer of concrete, 450mm thick, with clay and glass added for insulation. One of the reasons that this house was so expensive when contrasted with its austere internal finish is the use of the insulating Liapor concrete. The arrival is deceptive and bunker-like – from the car park area you are presented with a solid concrete wall with a single opening to what appears to be a bungalow. The rest of the building is built down into the slope of the hill.

Figure 60. Entrance to the Gartmann House 170

Like Haus Meuli, the glazing lies flush with the internal walls, making the monumental wall thicknesses clearly legible from the exterior.

170

Jodidio, p.109.

69



7F2.2 Gestalt

The thick walls and roof slab and the set back windows suggest the interior spaces were hollowed out of a solid, almost cubic block of solid concrete. The apertures are iterations of squares also, adding to the building’s connections with minimal art.

7F.2.3 Mysticism + Spielwitz

That the design appears rather austere and internally orthodox, and there is not a huge amount of evidence of playfulness or mysticism in the scheme is perhaps attributable to the fact that is the home of an engineer. The only slight evidence of spielwitz is the large area of sliding glazing on the ground floor, apparently subverting the building’s monolithic quality and weight. Clearly this will also have been determined by the

Figure 61. South Elevation, Gartmann House171

practical desire to admit as much light as possible into the living and kitchen area and to be able to access the garden and terrace. Continuity

This is probably the weakest building in the case study in terms of demonstrating an obvious lineage of continuity. However, the does extend Switzerland’s tradition of innovation in the use of concrete and the location (built into the side of the mountainside) and typology (a close grouping of monolithic buildings) does represents a form or urbanistic continuity.

171

Jodidio, p.109.

70



7G. HAUS RASELLI-KALT IN POSCHIAVO BY CONRADIN CLAVUOT 7G.1 Description

The village of Poschiavo is located in a deep valley, surrounded by peaks rising to 3,000 metres. Haus Raselli-Kalt, for a family of four, was completed in 2002 and lies at an altitude of 300 metres, amongst a set of plots for new houses on the outskirts of the village, which, although decreed by a local planner appear ‘so foreign to the valley’ and its ‘dense and crowded agglomerate’. 172 It cost CHF540,000 to build.173

Figure 62. 62. Site plan 174

172

Figure 63. House from east corner175

Conradin Clavuot, translated from German by Claire Booney, ‘Conradin Clavuot, One-family House Raselli-Kalt’, a+u: 10

Architects In Switzerland , 410 (November 2004) 64-69, (p.67). 173

Norbert Mathis, Preisverleihung «MAX»


Clavuot, a+u: 10 Architects In Switzerland , 410, p.67.

175

Christian Schittich (ed.), ‘House in Li Curt, Conradin Clavout, Chur’, Detail Review of Architecture and Construction Details –

Masonry (English Edition), 6 (2005), 654-659, (p.655).

71



Figure 64. Plans and Sections 176

7G.2 Analysis 7G.2.1 Forme forte

The building is isolated in its own plot, in stark contrast to the tight-knit, older part of the village. As the section shows, the house is sunk into the ground, the street and building blending as you drive directly onto the roof of the store. House, terrain and street become one. The external render is coarse and rough. Inside the sanctuary of home, smooth, warm timber dominates. The deep window openings demonstrate the solidity of the 300mm thick wall structure.

176

Schittich (ed.), ‘House in Li Curt, Conradin Clavout, Chur’, p.654.

72



7G.2.2 Gestalt

As figure 65 shows, the windows are located on a regular grid, but because some have been blanked out, the symmetry of the building is less evident, and the building becomes ‘more in tune with the local vernacular’. 177

Figure 65. Clavuot’s elevational sketches 17

7G.2.3 Mysticism + Spielwitz

Aside from the playfulness of the window positioning, the house is deliberately uncomplicated and legible in plan and in section – so this case study house demonstrates little to analyse under this category. Continuity

Clavuot has attempted to mend some of the potential damage created by the sparse plots to the west of the old compact village by building: …what to Poschiavo [seemed] normal, usual, local, organic. Not the extravagant, but the reticent, the informal, the “unarchitectural”, the unspectacular… [a] house that was subjugated to no fashion, no trend, but simply “the kind in Poschiavo”, the kind the native population would build.179 Internally, the layout harks back to strickbau or Engadine house construction, with solid timber-load bearing internal walls and services built around the central stair core. Furniture is built into this structure, it is, like many of the case-study houses already covered in this dissertation, low-frills and unshowy. The building should represent a neighbour who has ‘only good aspects’.180

177

Schittich (ed.), ‘House in Li Curt, Conradin Clavout, Chur’, p.654.

178

Conradin Clavuot, Conradin Clavuot Architekt , (Zurich: Niggli, 2008), p.161.

179

Clavuot, a+u: 10 Architects In Switzerland , 410, p.67.

180

Clavuot, Conradin Clavuot Architekt , p.213.

73



7H. EXTENSION TO VILLA GARBALD IN CASTASEGNA BY MILLER & MARANTA 7H.1 Description

Like the girls’ dormitory in Disentis, this is not a private dwelling, but rather represents private sleeping quarters for those attending seminars at the Villa Garbald. The new building was partly financed by ETH Zurich and Conzett Bronzini Gartmann were the structural engineers. It was completed in 2004. The village of Castasegna is located on the southern border of Switzerland with Italy. The new tower is located on the site of a former barn within the grounds of the Villa Garbald, built in 1862 by Gottfried Semper for the customs officer Agostino Garbald. 181


181

Figure 67. Ground floor plan, also showing villa Garbald and context 182

Christian Schittich (ed.), ‘Restoration and extension to the Villa Garbald in Castasegna’, Detail Review of Architecture and

Construction Details – Refurbishment (English Edition) , 4 (2005), 400-404 (p.401). 182

Ibid., p.400.

74



Figure 68. Plans 183 and elevations 184

183

Miller Maranta Villa Garbald (Ecole Polytechnique Fédéralé de Lausanne Institut d’Architecture et de la Ville)


Nobuyuki Yoshida (ed.), ‘Miller & Maranta: Restoration and Extension of the Villa Garbald in Castasegna’, a+u : 10 Architects In

(p.92). Switzerland , 410 (2004), 90-98, (p.92).

75



Figure 69. Sections 185

185

Yoshida (ed.), p.97.

76



7H.2 Analysis 7H.2.1 Forme forte The building was constructed from in-situ concrete, insulated with foamed-glass 186, which was sprayed

by high-pressure water jets shortly after the formwork was removed. The larch shutters, although rollerfolding, also present a very defensive appearance.

Figure 70. Larch roller shutters 187

Figure 71. East elevation 188

Figure 72. West elevation 188

Figure 73. Southwest elevation 188

With its basement, the tower is deeply embedded into the mountainside – again there is no visible division between topography and construction in the form of plinth or damp-proof membrane.

186

Schittich (ed.), ‘Restoration and extension to the Villa Garbald in Castasegna’ p.401.

187

Author’s photographs, August 2009.

77



7H.2.2 Gestalt

The deep-set window openings are irregularly placed across the elevation. The sections in figure 69 reveal the way in which the stair core moves within the five storey (plus basement) building, with numerous half-levels and landings disrupting any obvious symmetry or pattern in the external appearance.

Combined with the kinked roof profile and the non-orthogonal plan, the building is

presented as an indivisible whole, with no clear line of fracture or additive composition. 7H.2.3 Mysticism + Spielwitz

Regarding mysticism, the towering form echoes to some degree images of mountain castles and follies engendered by Bearth & Deplazes Willimann-Lotscher House at Sevgein, whilst also reflecting north Italian bird towers known as ‘rocolli’. 188 In a form of playfulness, the fireplace – as well as being on the ground floor in the meeting room, another ‘stube’ or hearth is located on the top floor - inconsistent with lugging firewood up flights of stairs. It warms a double-height viewing niche with a picture window over the valley into Italy. 7H.2.3 Continuity

The external concrete render already looks similar to the finishes of the older houses in Castasegna, and the architects expect that moss will grow in time over the uneven external finish and the larch shutters will grey up. The building will then ‘harmonize’ 189 further with the rest of the village.

188

Schittich (ed.), ‘Restoration and extension to the Villa Garbald in Castasegna’ p.401.

189

Ibid.

78



Figure 74. North elevation in village context 190

190

Schittich (ed.), ‘Restoration and extension to the Villa Garbald in Castasegna’ p. 403.

79



8. CONCLUSIONS Despite being a confederation of regions, this dissertation has demonstrated that the Swiss do still have a set of overriding and unifying national characteristics, the majority of which have evolved out of Switzerland’s largely unique approach to foreign policy. Of the eight case study buildings by seven different architectural practices based in the Graubünden, almost all tested convincingly for evidence of each of the analysis criteria for ‘Swissness’ established in chapters 5 and 6 – namely, a forme forte, gestalt (or entire totality), spielwitz and mysticism and sitting above them all, the theme of continuity. The one case study building that did not appear to demonstrate comprehensive evidence of ‘Swissness’ under this methodology was the house of engineer Patrick Gartmann in Chur. The case study houses underscore the points that emerged from the analysis of Swiss literature, culture, foreign and socio-economic policy in chapter 3 that Swiss people are, above all, highly attuned to the fact that national and regional identities are in a perpetual state of flux. Consequently, the Swiss recognise that today represents tomorrow’s history. There is a strong desire to pass on a high quality and appropriate legacy.

Continuity therefore, is the overriding theme in both the Graubünden and in

Switzerland as a whole. Switzerland’s ability to enjoy such continuity is a direct product of its neutrality and the degree to which it is still able to operate as a quasi-island state at the heart of Europe.

Neutrality has promoted the

nation’s wealth through private banking, and fostered introspection. This in turn has allowed traditional artisanal skills and crafts to be preserved at a time when the majority of western nations are outsourcing production and manufacture to cheaper sources in the quest for lowest cost production. Neutrality and detachment was epitomised in the 1990s in architecture by the ‘Swiss Box’, whilst simultaneously reflecting Swiss austerity, precision and discretion, by employing a small palette of tried and tested materials. In the first decade of the 21st century, it appears that a growing desire for self-sufficiency, independence and a distancing from a globalising, homogenising world now represents a significant motivation for both the Swiss as a nation and at the regional level in the Graubünden. Consequently, the Swiss Box now appears to have evolved into something more monolithic and opaque – the bunker-like forme forte. Contemporary Swiss architecture embodies high quality but without being showy and unnecessarily differentiated.

Indeed, the feeling of unity, indivisible totality, or gestalt, is another key element of

Swissness. Assured, yet respectful of its neighbours, the architects of many of the case study houses in this dissertation are now actively using the restrictions of planning law and tools such as parametric design to ‘play within the rules’ to root a building in its site – identified as ‘spielwitz’ for the analysis of the case study houses.

In the Graubünden, this playfulness and whimsy is manifested by the strong 80



influence of myth, mysticism and folklore, and its impact on the design of many of the case study houses is apparent. All the above factors have all been reinforced by education; and the influence of the architecture department at ETH Zurich has been particularly significant. The teachings of Miroslav Šik and his analoge architektur unit involved emphasising national traits, rather than imposing a new, forced, style upon its students. His former students now form part of a close network of architects currently working in Graubünden, serving to further strengthen themes from ETH and, therefore, regional and cultural identity.

The vote at the end of November 2009 in Switzerland to ban further minaret construction caused consternation in some British architectural journals, such as the Architects’ Journal. 191 Whilst it is true that the conditions that have allowed Swiss ideas of continuity and tradition to flourish may have been built on questionable moral grounds – particularly regarding private banking and the Second World War – it would be wrong to accuse Switzerland of xenophobia, racism or ‘Islamophobia’ because of this outcome. As we have witnessed with Martin Heidegger, walking the line of ‘placeness’ is fraught with risks. The desire to see traditions preserved in the face of an increasingly generic, ‘non-place’ world will inevitably lead to claims of fascism, racism or nationalism. Nonetheless, architecture itself more often than not represents the distillation, edification and implicit sanctioning of the cultural, socio-economic and political environment of where it was built. As such, the realisation that some of the case study houses in this dissertation represent the physical manifestation of a bunker mentality – an introspection and conscious disengagement from a world generally more troubled than the green pastures of the Swiss Alps - may cause some observers of the case study buildings, and contemporary Swiss architecture as a whole, to stop and reconsider their initial, architectural, admiration.

191

Rory Olcatyo, Swiss mosque minaret ban is tragic legislation (London, Architects’ Journal, 3 December 2009),

[accessed 3 December 2009].

81



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Web pages Arbeiten Bearth + Deplazes

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88



APPENDICES Sketchbook notes, Vrin, 14 August 2009

89



Biographies of the architects of the case study houses

This information has been largely gleaned from pages 200-207 of Jacques Lucan’s ‘A Matter of Art’. Bearth, Valentin

1957

Born in Tiefencastel, Graubünden, Switzerland 192

1983

Diploma in architecture – ETH Zurich (Professor Dolf Schnebli). Zumthor was one of the co-examiners for Beath’s disseration project193

1984-1988

Worked in Peter Zumthor’s Atelier in Haldenstein

1988

Opened Bearth & Deplazes in Chur with Andrea Deplazes

2000

Professor at Accademia Architettura, Mendrisio

Caminada, Gion A.

1957

Born in Vrin, Graubünden, Switzerland Trained as a carpenter Postgraduate degree from ETH Zurich

1999-now

Professor of architecture at ETH Zurich Collaborations with the engineer Jürg Conzett

Clauvot, Conradin

1962

Born in Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland

1982-1987

Studying architecture at ETH Zurich, having studied under Miroslav Šik and his thesis project under Professor Fabio Reinhart

1988

Founded his own practise in Chur

1998

Award for New Building in the Alps

1999

Swiss Award for Wood Architecture

2003

Visiting professor at ETH Zurich

192

193

Constructs p.29

90



Collaborates with the engineer Jürg Conzett Conzett, J̈ürg ürg

1956

Born in Aarau, Aargau, Switzerland

1980

Graduated in engineering from EPF in Lausanne

1981-87

Worked in Peter Zumthor’s office in Haldenstein

1988

Set up practise with Gianfranco Bronzini and Patrick Gartmann in Chur

Deplazes, Andrea

1960

Born in Chur, Graubünden, Switzerland.

1988

Diploma in Architecture, ETH Zurich (Professor F. Reinhart)

1988

Opened Bearth & Deplazes in Chur with Valentin Bearth

1997 – now

Professor in Architecture & Construction at ETH Zurich

Gartmann, Patrick

1968

Born

1994

Graduated as a civil engineer

1998

Graduated as architect

1998-2000

Assistant to Valerio Olgiati at ETH Zurich Collaborations with Conzett, Bronzini and Gartmann

Maranta, Paola

1961

Born in Chur, Graubünden, Switzerland

1986

Graduated from ETH Zurich

1991-1994

Management Consultant at McKinsey in Zurich

2000

Visitng professor at EPF Lausanne Collaborations with Conzett, Bronzini and Gartmann

Miller, Quintus

1961

Born in Aarau, Aargau, Switzerland

1987

Graduated from ETH Zurich 91



1990-4

Assistant to Professor Inès Lamunière at EPF Lausanne and ETH Zurich

1994

Started partnership with Paola Maranta in Basel Collaborates with the engineer Jürg ̈ürg Conzett

Olgiati, Valerio

1958

Born in Zurich, Switzerland

1986

Graduated from ETH Zurich

1986-7

Assistant to Professor Fabio Reinhart at ETH Zurich

1988-93

Practised in Zurich with Frank Esher

1993-95

Practised in Los Angeles with Frank Esher

1996

Set up own atelier in Flims

1998


Šik, Miroslav

1953

Born in Prague

1979

Graduated from ETH

1983-1991

Assistant to Professor Fabio Reinhart at ETH Zurich

1987

Founded own practice in Zurich

1998


Zumthor, Peter

1943

Born in Basel, Switzerland

1958

Trained as a carpenter

1963

Studied architecture at the Schule für Gestaltung in Basel

1966

Studied at the Pratt Institute in New York

1968-78

Architect for Listed Buildings of the Graubünden canton

1979

Set up practise in Haldenstein Teaches at Academia di Architettura de Mendrisio 92



Font

This dissertation was set in Helvetica, a font favoured by graphic designers for its timeless modernity and neutrality, first developed in 1957 in Switzerland. At 19 minutes 48 seconds into the documentary Helvetica, Mike Parker, Director of Typographic Development at Mergenthaler Linotype USA 1961-1981 makes a point about the typeface which seems to echo notions of Gestalt: When you talk about the design of.... Helvetica, what it’s all about is the interrelationship of the negative shape - the figure ground relationship - the shapes between characters and within characters with the [...] inked surface. And the Swiss pay more attention to the background, so that the counters and the space between characters just hold the letters. You can't imagine anything moving, it’s so firm. It is not a character that is bent to shape; it lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space.

93

Understanding Swiss national identity through recent architecture in the Graubunden

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