Understanding Swiss National Identity Through Recent Architecture in The Graubunden

Thinking Outside The Box
Reading ‘Swissness’ through recent residential 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 architecture in the Graubünden
ABSTRACT
Through the analysis of Swiss literature and art, this dissertation paints a cultural, political and socio-
economic 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.
2
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.
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................. 2 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 3 
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................ 4 
1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................7 
1.1 Statement of Aim............................................................................................................................ 7 
1.2 Structure and Methodology ............................................................................................................ 7 
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 
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 
4. GRAUBUNDEN LIVING ..................................................................................................................... 20 
4.1 Background to the Graubünden ...................................................................................................20 
4.2 Self-sufficiency and introversion....................................................................................................22 
4.3 Religion, Mysticism & Folklore.......................................................................................................24 
4.4 Conclusions on Graubünden Living .............................................................................................. 25 
4
5. THE MANIFESTATION OF ‘SWISSNESS’ AND ‘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 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 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 
5
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 
6
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)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8385069.stm> [accessed 1 December 2009].
7
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 pre-
eminent school of architecture.
Figure 1. Methodology – diagram 2 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 people4 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)
<http://www.swissworld.org/en/geography/swiss_geography/facts_and_figures/> [accessed 23 October 2009].
8
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).
9
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”
<http://home.earthlink.net/~aisgp/texts/regionalism/regionalism.html> [accessed 18 October 2009].
12
Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1965), pp. 276-7.
10
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 self-
consciously 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,
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.
11
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 half-
cantons (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 Rhaeto-
Romanic, 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 ‘La Suisse n’éxiste pas!... Switzerland does not
is not an EU member 16
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)
<http://www.swissworld.org/en/history/the_federal_state/general_overview/> [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.
12
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)
<http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index/regionen/thematische_karten/maps/bevoelkerung/sprachen_religionen.html>
[accessed 8 October 2009].
22
Culture: What is Swissness? (Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland)
<http://www.swissworld.org/en/culture/swissness/what_is_swissness/> [accessed 12 October 2009].
23
Culture: Mountains and Hedgehogs (Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland)
<http://www.swissworld.org/en/culture/swissness/mountains_and_hedgehogs/> [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

Figure 4. Are Swiss sons
of Swiss who still maintain that the reason Hitler never invaded Switzerland to be sacrificed in other
people's affairs? asked
was due to the mountainous terrain and the Swiss territorial army. 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)
<http://www.swissworld.org/en/politics/foreign_policy/neutrality_and_isolationism/> [accessed 7 September 2009].
25
Ibid.
26
Ibid.
27
14
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
Switzerland (Australia: The Daily Telegraph) <http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/travel/world/destination/history/switzerland>
[accessed 10 October 2009].
29
Politics – Foreign Policy – The Swiss Economy in World War II: Neutrality and Isolationalism (Swissworld: Your Gateway to
Switzerland) <http://www.swissworld.org/en/history/the_20th_century/the_swiss_economy_in_world_war_ii/> [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)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6347519.stm> [accessed 13 October 2009].
32
Lichtenstein, p.11.
33
Foulkes, ‘Swiss still braced for nuclear war’.
34
Ibid.
15
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:
Figure 5. Patek Phillipe

1. Discretion – avant-gardism and egocentricity are frowned 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 <http://www.patek.com/patek-philippe.html?pageId=101&backgroundId=2&lang=en&>
[accessed 2 December 2009].
36
Ibid.
37
Zumthor, Corps Sonore Suisse, p.101.
38
Lichtenstein, p.11.
16
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)
<http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2007&ey=2014&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds
=.&br=1&pr1.x=72&pr1.y=7&c=193%2C122%2C132%2C134%2C146%2C112%2C136%2C111%2C158&s=NGDPDPC&grp=0&
a=#download> [accessed 1 October 2009].
41
Politics: Indirect and direct democracy (Swissworld: Your Gateway to Switzerland)
<http://www.swissworld.org/en/politics/peoples_rights/indirect_and_direct_democracy/> [accessed 2 December 2009].
42
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-whatever-you-do-dont-insult-the-thai-king-50357.html> [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
Canton Graubünden (ch.ch The Swiss Portal) <http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/01116/01118/01421/index.html?lang=en> [accessed
8 December 2009].
50
Large Map of the Graubünden (Wikimedia Commons)
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Karte_Lage_Kanton_Graub%C3%BCnden.png> [accessed 2 December 2009].
51
Canton Graubünden (ch.ch The Swiss Portal) <http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/01116/01118/01421/index.html?lang=en> [accessed
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 tri-
lingualism 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 German, 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)
<http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/regionen/regionalportraets/graubuenden/blank/kennzahlen.html> [accessed 23
November 2009].
54
Constitution of the canton of Graubünden (Federal Authority of the Swiss Confederation)
<http://www.admin.ch/ch/i/rs/131_226/index.html] [accessed 2 December 2009].
55
Languages spoken in the Graubünden Canton (Wikimedia Commons)
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Sprachen_GR_2000.png> [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 self-
sufficiency 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
being cut off or snowed-in. Consequently, there is a
Figure 9. Manual haymaking on steep slopes of the
Graubünden in the height of summer 56 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)
<http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index/regionen/regionalportraets/graubuenden/blank/kennzahlen.html> [accessed 8
December 2009].
58
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)
<http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index/regionen/thematische_karten/maps/bevoelkerung/sprachen_religionen.html>
[accessed 12 August 2009].
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
Eberswalde Library (Panoramio) <http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14858863> [accessed 2 December 2009].
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 19th 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)
<http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3059283> [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. Engadine House deep splayed window Figure 18. Sgraffito applied decoration, house in
reveal 82 Andeer 83
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)
<http://www.worldofstock.com/closeups/ADT5653.php> [accessed 20 October 2009].
83
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
Figure 19. Church in Vals 86
sunlight.
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 Figure 21. A: Standard Kanizsa triangle. B: Peter
Gestalt psychology 90 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)
<http://www.swissworld.org/en/culture/swissness/what_is_swissness/> [accessed 12 October 2009].
89
Breitschmid, p.55.
90
David Marr, Vision: A Computational Investigation Into The Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information (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 that
just emphasise its unified and harmonious character...92
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), 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 law-
abidingness 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 quasi-
autonomous 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 set amongst a
labyrinthine mass of stacked 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 split-
levels. Examples of these outcomes will be
Figure 24. Lighting plan for Zumthor’s labyrinthine Swiss
shown in chapter 7. Sound Box, Hannover 2000 99
5.7 Education: ETH Zurich reinforcing 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 students in the Analoge Architectur Unit.
99
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
109
Miroslav Šik, ‘Dossier: Suisse Allemande; 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 2009 111
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
Architektur Vor ort 035 (Vorarlberger Architektur Institure) <http://v-a-
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 non-
orthogonal 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 manor-
houses 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. Figure 37. Site plan 126
126
Reichlin and Schaub, p.42.
51
Figure 38. Elevations, plans and sections 127,128
127
Panorama - Light Catcher (Velux) <http://da.velux.com/veluxcommon/resources/cache/site/da.velux.com/Non-
Image/PDF/DA01_Panorama.pdf> [accessed 20 November 2009].
128
Arbeiten Bearth + Deplazes <http://deplazes.arch.ethz.ch/downloads/bearth_deplazes/B&Dg_wl_sevgein.pdf> [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 grey-
varnished 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 when Figure 40. Architects’ sketches 136
viewed from the South East 135
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 <http://www.olgiati.net/book_25%20pages_A4.pdf> [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 red-

brown 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
Figure 46. The rosette motif even adorns the
precisely replicated.144 chimneybreast 142
The musician only required a third of the volume of the old barn for his 60m2 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. Craft tradition: carving the formwork
panels 150
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 Figure 54. ‘Cuddle corners’ at the heart of the
local granite lintel detailing 156 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. 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
Charles & Ray Eames House of Cards 1962, <http://automaticoroboticocodificado.dpa-etsam.com/wp-
content/uploads/2008/04/046charles-y-ray-eames-house-of-cards-1952-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 million167 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/m2.
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))
<http://graubuendenkultur.ch/baudenkmaeler/detailausgabe.php?id_language=8&vortid=24369> [accessed 10 November 2009].
168
Philip Jodidio, CH : architecture in Switzerland (Cologne: Taschen 2006), p.108.
169
Lore Kelly, Poetische Atmospäre Haus Gartmann, Chur/CH,
<http://www.nalbachundnalbach.de/arch/dbz/archiv/artikel.php?object_id=38&area_id=1085&id=119519> [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 House 171
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. Site plan 174 Figure 63. House from east corner 175
172
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»
<http://www.norbertmathis.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/preise/Poschiavo_Baudoc_2007.pdf> [accessed 2 December 2009].
174
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 178
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
Figure 66. Site plan 183 Figure 67. Ground floor plan, also showing villa Garbald
and context 182
181
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)
<http://ltha.epfl.ch/enseignement_lth/theorie/exemples_th1/reg_irreg_1/C_04_MILLERMARANTA/MILLERMARANTA_Villa_Garbald.
pdf> [accessed 2 November 2009].
184
Nobuyuki Yoshida (ed.), ‘Miller & Maranta: Restoration and Extension of the Villa Garbald in Castasegna’, a+u : 10 Architects In
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-glass186, which was sprayed
by high-pressure water jets shortly after the formwork was removed. The larch shutters, although roller-
folding, 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),
<http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/swiss-mosque-minaret-ban-is-tragic-legislation/5211656.article> [accessed 3
December 2009].
81
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(Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, May 2004), 6-20
Yoshida, Nobuyuki (ed.), ‘Meuli House’, a+u: New Regionalism in Switzerland, 354 (2000), 68-73
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85
Web pages
Arbeiten Bearth + Deplazes

<http://deplazes.arch.ethz.ch/downloads/bearth_deplazes/B&Dg_wl_sevgein.pdf>
ch.ch The Swiss Portal, Canton Graubünden,

<http://www.ch.ch/schweiz/01116/01118/01421/index.html?lang=en>
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<http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/travel/world/destination/history/switzerland>
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<http://ltha.epfl.ch/enseignement_lth/theorie/exemples_th1/reg_irreg_1/C_04_MILLERMARANTA/MILLE
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<http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index/regionen/regionalportraets/graubuenden/blank/kennzahlen
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<http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/regionen/regionalportraets/graubuenden/blank/kennzahle
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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, Switzerland192
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, J̈̈ürg
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
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 J̈̈ürg Conzett
Olgiati, Valerio
1958 Born in Zurich, Switzerland
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
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
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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Thinking Outside The Box

Reading ‘Swissness’ through recent residential architecture in the Graubünden

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of M.Arch 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................ 4

1.1 Statement of Aim............................................................................................................................ 7

1.2 Structure and Methodology ............................................................................................................ 7

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

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

4. GRAUBUNDEN LIVING ..................................................................................................................... 20

4.1 Background to the Graubünden ...................................................................................................20

4.2 Self-sufficiency and introversion....................................................................................................22

4.3 Religion, Mysticism & Folklore.......................................................................................................24

4.4 Conclusions on Graubünden Living .............................................................................................. 25

5. THE MANIFESTATION OF ‘SWISSNESS’ AND ‘GRAUBÜNDERNESS’ AS ARCHITECTURE ............. 26

5.1 Beyond The Swiss Box................................................................................................................. 26

5.2 Continuity: Modernism as a continuation of tradition .....................................................................27

5.4 Gestalt – wholeness and indivisibility............................................................................................. 33

5.6 Spielwitz & Mysticism ................................................................................................................... 36

5.7 Education: ETH Zurich reinforcing Swissness ............................................................................... 37

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

7B. HAUS WILLIMANN-LOTSCHER IN SEVGEIN BY BEARTH & DEPLAZES ........................................51

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.2 Analysis .....................................................................................................................................62

7E. HAUS LUZI IN JENAZ BY PETER ZUMTHOR .................................................................................. 64

7E.1 Description .................................................................................................................................64

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.1 Description ................................................................................................................................ 74

7H.2 Analysis .....................................................................................................................................77

Sketchbook notes, Vrin, 14 August 2009 ........................................................................................... 89

Biographies of the architects of the case study houses ......................................................................90

1.1 Statement of Aim

1.2 Structure and Methodology

Regional factors influencing life in the Graubünden are then

Chapter 5 explores the architectural consequences of

1.3 Topic rationale

1.3.1 Rationale for Residential Architecture

This dissertation focuses on commissioned, architecturally designed, residential architecture as it is,

1.3.2 Rationale for Switzerland: Heidi & Homesickness

1.3.3 Rationale for the Graubünden

2. DEFINING CRITICAL REGIONALISM

2.1 Regionalism cf. critical regionalism

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................ 4 

1.1 Statement of Aim............................................................................................................................ 7 

1.2 Structure and Methodology ............................................................................................................ 7 

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 

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 

4. GRAUBUNDEN LIVING ..................................................................................................................... 20 

4.1 Background to the Graubünden ...................................................................................................20 

4.2 Self-sufficiency and introversion....................................................................................................22 

4.3 Religion, Mysticism & Folklore.......................................................................................................24 

4.4 Conclusions on Graubünden Living .............................................................................................. 25 

5. THE MANIFESTATION OF ‘SWISSNESS’ AND ‘GRAUBÜNDERNESS’ AS ARCHITECTURE ............. 26 

5.1 Beyond The Swiss Box................................................................................................................. 26 

5.2 Continuity: Modernism as a continuation of tradition .....................................................................27 

5.4 Gestalt – wholeness and indivisibility............................................................................................. 33 

5.6 Spielwitz & Mysticism ................................................................................................................... 36 

5.7 Education: ETH Zurich reinforcing Swissness ............................................................................... 37 

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 

7B. HAUS WILLIMANN-LOTSCHER IN SEVGEIN BY BEARTH & DEPLAZES ........................................51 

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.2 Analysis .....................................................................................................................................62 

7E. HAUS LUZI IN JENAZ BY PETER ZUMTHOR .................................................................................. 64 

7E.1 Description .................................................................................................................................64 

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.1 Description ................................................................................................................................ 74 

7H.2 Analysis .....................................................................................................................................77 

Sketchbook notes, Vrin, 14 August 2009 ........................................................................................... 89 

Biographies of the architects of the case study houses ......................................................................90 