Editorial

Precisely on March 14, just when Rafael Moneo presented his reworked and now rather inconsequential project for a new congress centre in Zürich the cantonal office of building announced its decision to remove the 1939 Kongresshaus by architects Haefeli, Moser and Steiger from the list of protected buildings (cf. wbw 11|2005 and 6|2006). The new building therefore threatens to displace a key work of that mature modernism that established the international fame of Swiss architecture. Once more the opinion of experts has been ignored in favour of economic interests. It is precisely those who generally like to call for „first class architecture“ that are now showing themselves willing to sacrifice one of the city's leading architectural monuments. However the final word has not yet been spoken. To be continued… In a comparable way but under the reverse omens, so to speak the expert opinion of architects and conservationists was simply ignored in what is allegedly a reconstruction of the district around the Frauenkirche in Dresden. The fusion of commercial interests and nostalgic longing for what has been lost is leading here to an indigestible pastiche that offers evidence of a great cultural insecurity. In contrast the buildings presented here demonstrate once again how much architecture can strengthen – or indeed create – identity. In the case of the Museum Rietberg (there is also good news from Zürich) the new building by Alfred Grazioli and Adolf Krischanitz is integrated in a highly intelligent way in a sensitive situation, in which the new building subordinates itself, reinterprets the existing fabric and relates to its qualities. Rolf Mühlethaler has acted in a very different way in his Falletsche school extension in Zürich-Leimbach where he has developed the place further, in the process creating a varied and exciting series of spaces. With its clusters of spaces the Baumgarten school building in Buochs by pool Architekten joins a series of projects that, over the last few years, have developed the typology of the school. The animated roofscape is used in a sophisticated way to strengthen the relationship to the place while at the same time solving lighting problems specific to this type. This architecture avoids neither complexity nor contradiction, which makes it all the more striking when compared to the rigidity of the student residence in Mendrisio by Carola Barchi, Jachen Könz and Ludovica Molo that acquires a poetic strength through its very severity. And, finally, we might wish to describe the local council offices in Corpataux-Magnedens by 2b architectes with nb.arch as a gem, were it not clad with porous tuff stone that quickly acquires a patina. Local references and images are used here in a highly intelligent way and translated into an ambitious architectural language.
The editors

Thema

Aita Flury
Wahlverwandt Erweiterung Museum Rietberg in Zürich von Alfred Grazioli und Adolf Krischanitz

Nott Caviezel
Tuff Gemeindehaus in Corpataux-Magnedens, von 2b architectes in Zusammenarbeit mit nb.arch

Sabine von Fischer
Vielfältige Innenwelten Schulhaus Baumgarten in Buochs von pool Architekten

Christian Penzel
Metamorphose Erweiterung Schulanlage Falletsche in Zürich-Leimbach von Rolf Mühlethaler

Andrea Casiraghi
Gegenüber Das Studentenhaus Casa dell’ Accademia in Mendrisio von Carola Barchi, Jachen Könz und Ludovica Molo
Originaltext

Wolfgang Kil
«Die Bilder sind da…!» Wenig Erfreuliches zum Dresdner Neumarkt

Forum

Kolumne: Kai Strittmatter
Wettbewerb: Studienauftrag «Erweiterung Stadtmuseum Schlössli» in Aarau
Ausstellung: «Unaufgeräumt/As Found» im Schweizerischen Architekturmuseum, Basel
Ausstellung: «Zerstörung der Gemütlichkeit? Programmatische Wohnausstellungen des 20. Jahrhunderts» im Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
bauen + rechten: Konflikte beim Bauen – eine unendliche Geschichte
EFH: Einfamilienhaus Wissler in Neuwiller, Frankreich, von sabarchitekten
Zum werk-material: Der Komplex La Maladière in Neuenburg von Geninasca Delefortrie und das Stade de Suisse in Bern von Luscher / Schwaar & Rebmann
Bücher: Zur Publikation und Ausstellung «Architektur wie sie im Buche steht»
Bücher: Stadtentwicklung und Denkmalpflege – Zur Schriftenreihe der TU Dresden
Innenarchitektur: Camper shops
Ausstellungen | Veranstaltungen | Wettbewerbe
Neuerscheinungen | Produkte

werk-material

Geninasca Delefortrie, Neuchâtel: Centre Multifonctionelle de la maladière à Neuchâtel
Luscher / Schwaar & Rebmann, Lausanne, Bern und Zürich: Stade de Suisse, Bern