Remoteness and Identity
Remoteness and Identity - Final Review
December 17, 2024
Tuesday, December 17th, Final Review, ETH Zürich, ONA E30, 08:00 – 19:00
Guests: Myriam Marti, Nancy Ottaviano, Zeno Vogel
Remoteness and Identity - Studio Review 2
November 20, 2024
Noëlle Hutmacher, Elon Rachamin, Anna-Lena Frey
Wednesday, November 20th, Studio Review, ETH Zürich, ONA E30, 09:00 – 18:00
Guests: Anna Puigjaner, Sol Pérez Martínez, Matthew Phillips
Remoteness and Identity - Studio Review 1
October 16, 2024
Wednesday, October 16th, Studio Review, ETH Zürich, ONA E30, 09:30 – 17:00
Guest: Sophie von Einsiedel
Remoteness and Identity
Introduction 17 September 2024, 10am
Klausenpass, August 2024
You don’t just ‘go for a walk’ in Canada. Setting off north from Montreal, the last settlements soon recede into the distance and eventually you reach the North Pole; it is a harsh one-way journey. Similarly, a trip north in Britain ultimately encounters, dead-end, the North Sea. Switzerland, on the other hand, is in the middle of the European landmass. Traversing even the most exposed alpine pass leads, before too long, to inhabited lands. The image and the instrumentalising of mountains, alps, and passes lies at the root of Switzerland’s identity, economy and history, for the land has long been a crossroads for goods and people. Before too long, those who choose to stay, or who are left behind, become Swiss.
Lately, Swiss architecture has become enmeshed in densifying cities and suburbs, making concentrated centres, with little attention being paid to its counterpart: the condition of remoteness. With the climate crisis comes a reassessment of many aspects of Swiss land management and construction, including agriculture and tourism, and these important contributors to the image and the economy of Switzerland play out amongst the mountains.
This semester we will re-evaluate the qualities and uses of remoteness at the Klausenpass, where, at 1948 metres, the cantons of Glarus and Uri overlap. We will study and map the social and the historical, getting to know the walkers, bikers, soldiers, and maintenance crews that are its visitors today. Informed by cartographies, handbooks, and chronicles we will go on to design intimate settlements – newly constructed places that with buildings and gardens provide a space for contemplation, assembly, and quiet industry in this special place at the top of Europe.
Introduction: 17 September 2024, 10:00 am, Klausenpass, Details to be announced
Construction and writing as integrated disciplines are included in this course
HS 2024, ETH Zürich, Studio Caruso
Emilie Appercé, Lucia Bernini, Tibor Bielicky, Adam Caruso, Yosuke Nakamoto
Diploma FS 2025
Un-City
Diesbach, autumn 2024
For a long time, the city has been a magnet for money, for jobs, for culture and for learning. This concentration of everything leads to an inexhaustible demand for resources. There will never be enough land to exploit for profit or adequate housing for the population, a condition of scarcity that is fundamental to late capitalism. This semester we will work in places away from the city where the space exists for more balanced ideas of society to bloom. With the coming of the snow, we descend from the Klausen pass, from 2000 to 600 metres. Linthal, Rüti and Diesbach are villages at the head of the valley, each has clusters of houses and outbuildings, substantial mill complexes with their own hydro power station on the river Linth and abundant agricultural lands. Many of these structures are underused, but in their rich spatial diversity they are a fertile ground waiting for new social programmes. The history of the Glarus Valley is one of invention, industry and agriculture. The human and material resources of the valley obviously still exist, and if the already existing cooperatives and associations could become more interconnected, new energies would emerge from these new networks. This semester we will engage with the contemporary life of Glarus. Observing and recording the social and physical fabric of the villages we will meet as many people as we can, to benefit from their knowledge and to share some of their ambitions. Following themes that will include hydro power, food, industry, health and learning, we will deploy strategies of adaptation and improvisation, in the short and the long term, to develop new kinds of incomplete utopias. Existing and new construction, landscapes and buildings, will transform and consolidate the qualities and constellations that we have found and begin to reveal what the future life of the un-city could be.
Diploma, FS 2025, ETH Zürich
Chair Caruso
Emilie Appercé, Adam Caruso
Chair of Being Alive
Stefan Breit, Teresa Galí-Izard
Baumeister: Selected by Caruso St John
B11 Baumeister: Selected by Caruso St John
Curated Issue November 2024
For the November 2024 issue of the magazine Caruso St John have selected a Baumeister Reader, a series of texts that touch on different aspects of the challenges that lie ahead for the practice of architecture.
IEA Lecture
All buildings are beautiful
October 9, 2024, 18:00
Adam Caruso
IEA Lecture Series HS 24
Practice What We Teach?
ETH Zürich, ONA, Fokushalle
Diploma HS 2024
Switzerland at a crossroads
Inferno (detail), chalk on masonite, 242 × 1219 cm, Tacita Dean, 2019
Control of the mountain passes is a historic source of Switzerland’s wealth and a powerful part of its national mythology. The passes were like switches that enabled individual cantons, and the whole federation, to be transformed from a fortress in the middle of Europe to a crossroads and marketplace at its centre. The passes were not only conduits for goods and services but have historically provided routes of migration between cantons and from beyond. Today with the main business of exchange displaced to tunnels deep within the mountains, the passes have become liberated, becoming places that encourage the informal, the peripheral and the uneconomic. It might not be easy to gain a foothold at 2000 metres, but there is a lot of air, stone, and sky there. With rising temperatures and receding icefields, the passes will become more accessible and habitable. In response to the diploma’s overarching question of ‘how will we live together’, our focus will be on those places away from the density of the centre that are necessary for society to be sustained and at ease with itself. The semester will start with a series of close readings of the living systems such as geology, vegetation, climate, and water of the Klausenpass, the things that make the atmosphere of the place and the material for future interventions. At 1948 metres the pass is where the cantons of Glarus and Uri meet. We will study and map the social and the historical, finding out who inhabited the pass before the walkers, bikers, soldiers, and maintenance crews that one meets there today. With cartographies, handbooks, and chronicles we will go on to design intimate settlements, newly constructed places that with buildings and gardens provide a space for contemplation, assembly, and quiet industry in this special place at the top of Europe.
Diploma, HS 2024, ETH Zürich
Chair Caruso
Emilie Appercé, Adam Caruso
Chair of Being Alive
Stefan Breit, Teresa Galí-Izard
A New Museum
By investigating the history of Glarus it became apparent that the textile industry played a significant role. Described as a pioneer work, the heroic and linear narrative still plays an important role in the canton’s identity today. Inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s concept of the carrier bag, a collection of stories was gathered describing that the Glarnerland isn’t only about the heydays of the industry but also about the possibilities it left behind.
One of the stories to be told is explained by Peter Jenny. In an interview, he mentioned that besides the industrial past, the Glarnerland has the quality of serving as a niche and by that attracting artists and other people involved in the cultural scene. After the textile industry came to a halt at the end of the 20th century, space became available that could be exploited. Examples such as the Palais Jaune in Diesbach in the 1980s or the still active Hollenstein in Ennenda illustrate what Jenny was referring to. Both places offered space to communities of people involved in the cultural sector where they could create their own environment, hidden from the rush in the cities.
Also, the Hänggiturm shows a straightforward way of representing the history of the textile past. Reapplying Ursula Le Guin’s method to analyze the building it became clear that the seemingly perfect appearance of the ensemble has more stories
to tell. The old, original factory building was supposed to serve as a base for the relocated Hänggiturm. As the building was a bit too narrow, it was demolished in the 90s and replaced by a new building with the same appearance. One irregularity that illustrates the orchestration is the large basement with an underground garage.
How does this “Niche” manifest itself?
The relocation of the post office that is currently inhabiting the base of the building offers the possibility to introduce a new use. As an extension of the existing cultural network, a residency for artists is implemented into the partly vacated building. Equipped with small appartements it allows the guests to inhabit the building for any length of time. The floor slab to the basement is cut open to unveil the orchestration and to provide the basement with natural light. The space once used as a garage is reframed into a Werkhalle, ready to be appropriated by the inhabitants, starting with a ceramic workshop in which tiles are produced which are installed on the upper floors. Inspired by the structure of the Chelsea Hotel
the ground floor is transformed into the new Lobby of the building. Together with the existing Anna Göldi Museum in the Hänggiturm, the lobby mediates between the public and the newly implemented internal world. The bar, reception, and collective kitchen on one hand welcome the public of Ennenda into the building and on the other hand, serve as an extension of the inhabitants’ living rooms, enabling a community to form around the residence. The seven existing bathrooms on the upper floors allow the plans to be altered into seven smaller apartments. Equipped with a bed and a small kitchen they provide a basis for the individual occupation of the inhabitants.
Eddie Zhichun Guo
FS 2024 A New Museum
Redesigning Museums
Re (Reframe, Rearrange, Repeat)
Reframe, Rearrange, Repeat
Grenzsanität Brig – A museum at times
Lucia Bernini / Jonas Heller
HS 2022 Reframe, Rearrange, Repeat
The building of the Grenzsanität, designed by Heidi and Peter Wenger, is located at the train station in Brig. It was built in 1957 for the purpose of sanitary examinations of migrant workers passing the Swiss-Italian border. These examinations consisted of screenings for infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis by means of blood collection and radiologic exams. They were mandatory for people immigrating into Switzerland in order to obtain a work and residence permit.
The Grenzsanität is the architectural representation of the restrictive immigration policies established in the post-war years. Terms such as Saisonnierstatut, Überfremdung, Schwarzenbach-Initiative, or Grenzsanitätsdienst did not only shape the discourse about migration in those years, but affected the lives of thousands of people and families. The Grenzsanität is a Denkmal by means of which their story can be told.
Airas Sánchez Keller / Robin Staubli
HS 2022 Reframe, Rearrange, Repeat
Re form
Despite multiple historic transformations in the past, Altstetten Church today benefits from being protected (as a monument from demolition) and simultaneously being a protector for the community of the church and other minorities. Currently, outside these fortifying walls, the Neighborhood in Altstetten is witness to a lot of change and many of its current programs need to close or move out of the area. By intensifying the potential of the church, the hill behind Lindenplatz can be used as a carrier bag for what will be removed and demolished. In punctual interventions, chapter by chapter, the Church is altered to convene to these programs. Each adding new life to the existing yet underused spaces of the church, and thus inviting new people and communities inside it.
Julius Schwartz / Xingyu He
FS 2022 Re form
Neue Kirche Fluntern
IEA Lecture
You cannot take risks without failing
March 15, 2022, 18:00
Adam Caruso
IEA Lecture Series FS 22
One Building, Failure Is an Option
ETH Zürich, ONA, Fokushalle
Interim, forever
Chair of Architecture and Construction
Adam Caruso
The project is presented as a folder, a collection of stories, architectural details, and material understanding, to provide information about the handling of the building and propose a resource for an ongoing transformation. The pages and stories can be rearranged, offering multiple readings and interpretations of the building, architectural fragments, and the interventions.
The research project engages with the hotel building known as Marriott that opened in the 1970s as an autonomous object in the city center of Zurich.The research unfolded stories about the building from contact with the original architect of the building, the interior designers, and the Head of Engineering who has worked in the building for over 25 years. Since the opening of the hotel, the idea of a «complete work of art» has been defiant. Over the years, the building underwent numerous modifications and transformations, revealing mutable versions of itself to keep up with the changing trends in hotel architecture.The generic new interiors have alienated the building’s interior from its shell. Each trend lasts for a generation and is custom- made for international hotel guests.The real users of the building, the workers, are thereby overlooked.The spatial separation between the front and back of the house is disproportionate.
The light touch aims to transform unused or historically interesting spaces in the hotel by critically reframing the existing layers and instrumentalising what is there.The actions are planned following the skill and expertise of the Engineering Team members of Marriott who have been in charge of every change ever made. Each space is appropriated to a new programme to tell the stories I encountered and reveal (im)material values that the building holds. Old, intermediate, and new layers create new atmospheres that are characterful to reconnect the hotel to its users and stay relevant in the future.
Raumbörse Sihlquai
Women Writing Architecture
Website Launch
June 30, 2021
The website womenwritingarchitecture.org was launched this week on June 30th. The new resource, an annotated bibliography of writing by women about architecture, is now publicly accessible to discover, browse and contribute to.
Making Plans for Living Together
Re-working the mosaic questions the arbitrariness imposed by the cadastre and sug-gests to the inhabitants of the neighborhood a new appreciation of their surrounding landscape. A series of architectural and landscape interventions revisit the fragmen-tation caused by the urban mosaic as it is today and thus draw a constellation along the Triemlifussweg highly beneficial for biodiversity. Their complementarity offers residents a sustainable infrastructure that allows them to feel native to their place and thus reinforces the feeling of belonging to a community.
Monte Verità
Making Plans for Living
Marina Medic / Maria Unterlechner
HS 2020 Making Plans for Living, Zürich
Assisi, Giotto di Bondone
Live: What is Next?
Seminar week 19–23 October 2020
A few semesters ago the studio tentatively made moves towards modernism. The evident failure of architecture to address the imbalance of contemporary life provided the motivation to look again at the more ideological and programmatic promises of modernism, particularly the second wave of the 60s and 70s, whose discourses were broadened to encompass themes of gender, the legacies of empire and the growing imbalances in our environment. The consumer driven economy and its insatiable consumption of precious resources is not sustainable, and the desires it claims to fill can never be satisfied. We need to shift our attention to things that give us purpose and happiness. What should we be doing, and how can we have fulfilling lives?
From our new home in Zürich Oerlikon we will meet and debate, both in person and on Zoom, a wide range of figures who are challenging the status quo of technique, economics and politics. We will both declare our existence to the wider world and also call for participation from beyond the limits of academia. The idea is that this intense week of research and outreach will supplement the ongoing themes of the studio, forming the basis of an interactive screen based journal and a special edition reader.
For the week we are collaborating with the Architecture Foundation, who is presenting and streaming the discussions throughout the week and who makes them accessible to rewatch on their YouTube channel.
HS 2020, ETH Zürich, Studio Caruso
What is it worth?
Society and the Image
Emilie Sauter / Pauline Sauter
HS 2019 Society and the Image, Zürich
László Moholy-Nagy
Download Booklet
PDF 80 MB
Public Building
Timothy Bauer / David Butler
FS 2019 Public Building, Zürich
Yokohama International Port Terminal, Foreign Office Architects
Hidden Interiors
Xiao Lu / Bing Yang
HS 2018 Hidden Interiors, Zürich
Villa Meyer, Le Corbusier
Paris, 1925
The Ideal City
Shen He / Wenjie Zheng
FS 2018 The Ideal City, Arbon
Highrise City, Ludwig Hilbeseimer
1924
Describing Beauty
Juliette Martin
HS 2017 Describing Beauty, Zürich
Leopard Head
Benin, 1600
Structure and Society
Sarah Rohr / Sovachana Keo
FS 2017 Structure and Society, Zürich
Narkomfin, Moisei Ginzburg / Ignaty Milinis
Moskau, 1930
Social Structure
Valentina Sieber / Geraldine Burger
HS 2016 Social Structure, Graubünden
Building & Place Inventory
Graubünden
