Heinz Wirz

For almost 15 years, the architectural couple Pascal Fournier and Sandra Maccagnan have been working in the Unterwallis region to produce a remarkable oeuvre. The individual buildings consciously react to their developed, usually rural environments and are able to clarify them, thereby achieving a more beautiful, complete whole. Text in English and German.

The peaceful, stoic and classic appearance of buildings by the Bonn architect Uwe Schroder recalls the Italian rationalism of the 1960s to 1980s. He skilfully interweaves it with contemporary use requirements to achieve clear, fundamentally architectural expressions.

Buildings by the London architect Stephen Taylor use their powerfully innovative nature to smoothly integrate themselves into the surroundings, thereby becoming a valuable part of the London environment. At the same time, the form, materials and details of the buildings are reduced to produce a meditative, consistent character.

The young Zurich architects Ralph Blattler and Gilles Dafflon meticulously and intensely pursue a wide range of architectural tasks, be they smaller, rigorously developed conversions, well-conceived residential buildings or larger projects following competition success, in which they implement the experience they have gathered among renowned international architects.

Renovation, conversion and restoration are challenging architectural tasks that are seldom discussed. For many years now, the architect couple from Zurich has pursued this topic with great care, creating notable conversions and restorations such as the Zurich projects to convert a maintenance depot, extend the Villa Rainhof, convert the Homburger commercial building and renovate the Tonhalle. Articles by: Elisabeth & Martin Boesch. .

A residential building with exceptional spatial qualities in the Basel Jura region made Jakob Steib renowned in 1995. The thematic focus of his designs lies in apartment buildings and their typology. Well conceived spatial constellations, coherent materials and careful placement within settlement structures characterise his buildings.

Each design by the architects Valery Clavien and Nicola Rossier, who work in Geneva and the Wallis region, consistently or even radically implements a design concept. For instance above an untouched basement floor, a small rural building with a new upper level was created with diverse, ingenious references to the basement floor and the new residential use.

Buildings by the Geneva architect Pierre-Alain Dupraz always reveal experimental elements, little inventions that are refined to produce an aesthetic overall result. For instance a villa is developed out of a module of prefabricated garage boxes, or a creche has underground rooms aligned around a large interior courtyard.

Buildings by the Geneva architect Pierre-Alain Dupraz always reveal experimental elements, little inventions that are refined to produce an aesthetic overall result. For instance a villa is developed out of a module of prefabricated garage boxes, or a creche has underground rooms aligned around a large interior courtyard.

The young Fribourg architect and his team have already produced a notable number of high-quality buildings: small school buildings, for instance for the school in St-Cierges VD, which is placed with great topographic precision, the exciting ensemble of the vocational school in Domdidier FR and the cleverly conceived extension to the multifunctional hall in Sales FR. Text in German."

The school extension in Andeer stands confidently and memorably beside the existing 1950s building. The building is a typical example of the intensive work by the Zurich architects Peter Joos and Christoph Mathys. Their buildings draw from the architectural potential of the location and transform it in their buildings with an enhanced degree of dignity and poetry.

In 2013, Hieronyme Lacroix and Simon Chessex produced a student housing development close to the Geneva railway lines that represents exemplary urban architecture, with subtle nuances and a convincing resonance of the location's dynamic atmosphere. Before and afterwards, they designed smaller residential developments and larger conversions of refined quality. Text in English and German.

The buildings compiled in this volume by the Augsburg architects Titus Bernhard are committed to classical modernism. They are extremely sculptural and highly experimental in terms of their choice of materials. Based on those principles, an extensive, superior body of work has been developed since 1995.

The young architects Laurent Savioz and Claude Fabrizzi from Valais attracted international attention with their radical transformation of a stable building into a residential development and their intelligent covering of medieval ruins in St.Maurice. Since then they have produced a number of noteworthy and unusual buildings of high quality.

The young architects Laurent Savioz and Claude Fabrizzi from Valais attracted international attention with their radical transformation of a stable building into a residential development and their intelligent covering of medieval ruins in St. Maurice. Since then they have produced a number of noteworthy and unusual buildings of high quality.

In the 90s a group of architects formed in London that moved towards a matter-of-fact, unspectacular architecture inspired by the location. A key work and model in this style was Tony Fretton's Lisson Gallery from 1992 with its unembellished facade and strong lines, constructed virtually "without details" and integrated into the row of buildings. Text in English and German. 66 colour and 9 b/w illustrations

Miroslav Sik coined the term Analogue Architecture in the late 1980s. It stands for an architectural approach that is oriented towards the existing environment, its atmosphere and the construction tradition in a subtly radical way. It has made Miroslav Sik an unmistakable protagonist in Switzerland and Europe in the last 20 years. He has pursued this dedicated, anti-modernist orientation both as a teacher at the ETH Zurich and in his architectural work, which shows clear continuity since 1988. This monograph compiles his existing buildings and works. Each project pursues his pugnacious architectural stance, which is anything but "modern" or modernist. Even in the simplest construction tasks, Miroslav Sik uncovers and makes tangible the work's intrinsic dignity and noble potential. Text in English and German. 81 colour illustrations

The renowned Dutch architectural scene of the 90s was followed by a generation of architects whose buildings are less spectacularly designed, but all the more refined and aware of the location and its atmosphere. They include Peter Wingender and Joost Hovenier. Their buildings harmoniously resonate with the specific mood of the location. Text in English and German. 62 colour and 6 b/w illustrations

The clear and fundamental train of thought that forms the basis for every design by the London architects leads to projects that are characterized to an equal extent by the utilisation and the location-specific, constructive requirements. A semi-detached house in London is thus transformed into a complex organism that is incorporated respectfully into the housing development. Text in English and German. 40 colour and 21 b/w illustrations

Vincent Mangeat became internationally renowned in1988 following the construction of his building for the Cantonal High School in Nyon. Influenced by his work experience in Paris, training under Jean Prouve and a spell as Assistant to Hans Brechbuhler and Pierre Foretay at the EPF Lausanne, Mangeat s work bridges the gap between two architectural eras, namely the Tessin Tendenza of the '70s and '90s architectural styles with their exponents in the German-speaking region of Switzerland. But his work has always remained independent and rooted in western Switzerland. From his first residential building in Evolene (1969) to his current projects, including a house for writers at the foot of the Jura mountains, his wealth of architectural achievements form an important a part of his life and work as his permanent, valuable teaching activity. Text in English, French and German. 400 colour illustrations