Relaxing on the garden terrace at Le Corbusier’s Villa Schwob (1916) on the post-conference daytrip to La Chaux-de-Fonds
Photograph: EAHN

Conference participants exploring the Siedlung Neubühl in Zurich (C. Hubacher, M.E. Haefeli, W. M. Moser, R. Steiger, E. Roth, P. Artaria, H. Schmidt, 1929-32)
Photograph: EAHN

Conference tour group visiting the Zurich Tonhalle (Ferdinand Feller and Hermann Helmer, 1893-95)
Photograph: EAHN

Diener & Diener, Forum 3 office building, Novartis campus, Basel, 2005, detail of façade by Helmut Federle and Gerold Wiederin
Photograph: Nancy Stieber

Karl Moser, St. Antonius church, Basel, 1925-31
Photograph: Nancy Stieber

Transfer and Metamorphosis: The Tours

Following the conference Transfer and Metamorphosis, a number of architectural tours were made available to participants: a tour of Zurich around 1900, a tour of contemporary Zurich, a tour focusing on contemporary Basel, and an all-day outing to La Chaux-de-Fonds where Le Corbusier’s first buildings and the early pedagogical influences on him could be experienced first hand.

The tour of modern architecture in Zurich, led by Stanilaus von Moos and others, emphasized buildings from the 1930s such as the Werkbundsiedlung Neubühl and the Doldertal Houses. The tour around earlier Zurich, led by Tom Gnägi, examined the buildings of the University of Zurich and of the ETH itself, in particular those by Gottfried Semper and Karl Moser. In Basel, tour leader Martin Josephy arranged a stop to visit the reinforced concrete St. Antonius church of 1931 by Moser where participants not only witnessed the church during evening services, but also viewed the glorious display of raking afternoon light throwing the colors of the stained glass lining the nave onto the opposite nave wall. For the most part, however, the trip to Basel concentrated on recent buildings. On the Novartis Campus, the reconfiguration of the urban fabric due to the intervention of the private company was discussed. Buildings by Diener and Diener, Peter Märkli, SANAA and Frank Gehry (still under construction) have transformed the St. Johann industrial site near the French border following the urban plan of Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani. Elsewhere, works by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were also seen. The Schaulager of 2003 in the Dreispitz/Münchenstein district conserves the Emanuel Hoffmann collection of art in a warehouse with heavy walls whose depth is revealed by sharp incisions on the façade, creating a box at once fortified and sculptural. Here, as in the case of the Novartis Campus, peripheral districts of Basel are being animated by Swiss rationalist architecture. The hard-edged industrial character of the firm was also apparent at their railroad Signal Box of 1999 where the twisted exterior cladding of copper strips forms an early indication of the bold direction in which these winners of the 2001 Pritzker Prize would develop. The daylong trip to La Chaux-de-Fonds began with a visit to the Musée des Beaux Arts, an elegant Art Deco building erected in 1926, where the former director, Edmond Charrière, led the tour group through the building. Of particular interest was the collection of books, paintings, furniture, ceramics, and watch design related to Charles L’Eplattenier, whose regional version of Art Nouveau, the Style Sapin, developed from a vast exposure to European currents, is reflected in the library of the art school where he taught Le Corbusier. Ivo Zemp guided the group through L’Eplattenier’s imposing crematory before it met Arthur Rüegg at the Maison Blanche, the house Corb built for his parents in 1912 on the forested hill above the city. From its elevated terraces, the tour proceeded on foot along the “chemin de Pouillerel” down the hill past Corb’s Villas Fallet and Jacquemet-Fallet and back into the striated horizontal layout of the city for a visit to his Villa Schwob. Entrance to this most developed of his early villas and its gardens was the crowning event in a day of exquisite revelations.

Nancy Stieber
University of Massachusetts, Boston