ARCHITEKTUR 0.12: the first exhibition on popular Swiss architecture wins big audience
Text by ARCHITEKTUR 0.12
Zurich, Switzerland
18.12.12
‘Are Swiss architects unable to create interesting buildings?’, asked Felix E Müller, editor-in-chief of Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, in a recent article. ‘Unfortunately, all new buildings look the same.’ With this provocative statement, Müller laid the foundations for the first exhibition on popular Swiss architecture, ARCHITEKTUR 0.12, which took place this October in Zurich’s Maag Event Hall.
...This rebuttal to Müller’s fierce criticism resulted in a wonderful, three-day exhibition featuring some 70 creative and inspiring exhibitors. No fewer than 5,000 enthusiastic visitors and over 100 journalists enjoyed the event, in spite of the unseasonably warm autumn weather.
WHIST Architektur at ARCHITEKTUR 0.12 exhibition, Zurich
Endless creativity
One of the aims of ARCHITEKTUR 0.12 was to give a representative overview of contemporary Swiss architecture and present it to a wider audience. The show couldn’t have been more multi-faceted. WHIST Architektur GmbH, for example, presented their projects on the basis of a unique 3D model, covered with a special foil, which changed colour and refracted the light depending on your vantage point, while a much more minimalist work on show was realised by Mierta & Kurt Lazzarini Architekten from Samedan, Graubünden, who cut a styrofoam cube into several pieces, thus transforming it into their object.
In contrast to this, OOS Architekten from Zurich surprised visitors with a presentation that consisted of a mannequin, its head stuck in a styrofoam cube, beneath the slogan: ‘Mr Studer perceives architecture as a burden.’ The musical aspect of architecture and space was represented by the ‘sound architects’ Corporate Sound AG from Basel, who transformed their cube and gave it a musical inner life. By touching the surface of the object, visitors were able to become acquainted with the sound of styrofoam.
WHIST Architektur at ARCHITEKTUR 0.12 exhibition, Zurich
Over 5,000 visitors and 100 journalists attended the first edition of ARCHITEKTUR, the Zurich-based exhibition for popular Swiss architecture
Over 5,000 visitors and 100 journalists attended the first edition of ARCHITEKTUR, the Zurich-based exhibition for popular Swiss architecture
×Special exhibitions
The show was completed by a further four special exhibitions. The Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects (SIA), a renowned industrial union of qualified professionals in the fields of construction, technology and ambience, celebrated this year its 175th anniversary while Visarte, the industrial union of visual working artists in Switzerland, showed selected works of its members, addressing the topic of ‘art on construction’. In addition, the Swiss Architecture Museum hosted a special performance that simultaneously served as a retrospective and a forecast, while the photo competition for ‘The Ugliest Building in Switzerland’ featured structures voted for by the readers of the Swiss daily newspaper ‘20 Minuten’.
A great success
‘The exhibition was a great success. We received positive feedback during and after the event, and I think that for the first edition we can be more than satisfied’, said Michel Pernet, organiser of ARCHITEKTUR 0.12. Felix Müller also visited the show and ended up re-thinking his position. In an e-mail to the founders of the exhibition, he wrote: ‘I really loved the show. There were many visitors on Sunday afternoon, despite the nice weather.’
Due to this highly positive response, Pernet assures that there will definitely be another edition – ARCHITEKTUR 0.13.
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