The selection of detached villas on which the book focuses shows the variety of language, the diversity of approach and nuances.
The book provides an opportunity to focus our attention on recent developments in the Swiss architectural debate, through a selection of residential buildings created in the last few years by both emerging young architects and others of international renown.
The selection of detached villas on which the book focuses shows the variety of language, the diversity of approach and nuances, where homologizing trends and centripetal impulses co-exist, with the aim of emphasizing the specific character of places and their territorial identity.
Pragmatism, consistency and precision in construction, technical perfection, accuracy of detail and simplicity, are just some of the topoi which inevitably emerge when considering the characteristics of Swiss architecture and its hypothetical ‘Swissness‘, which is in continual confrontation with modernism on the one hand and tradition on the other.
The theme of the house or villa, whether detached or multi-residence, from the typical Swiss chalet to the well-known examples of residential building designed by the avant-garde architects of 1920s and 1930s – Le Corbusier, Hans Schmidt, Rudolf Steiger and Flora Steiger-Crawford, Ernst F. Burckhardt and Lux Guyer, Max Ernst Haefeli, Hans Fischli, Werner Max Moser, Otto Salvisberg, Alfred Roth and Alberto Sartoris – constitutes a particularly fertile field for constructive and formal experimentation, resulting in a varied legacy to which today’s design research in residential buildings is undoubtedly indebted.
The houses selected were designed by: Arnaboldi, Burkhalter+Sumi, Eckert+Eckert, Ferrari, Geninasca, Gigon+Guyer, Graber+Steiger, Gut+Gijzen, Kerez, Koenz+Molo, Marques, Radczuweit, Salvi, Snozzi, Wagner, Wespi+deMeuron and Zech.