Regionalism in Contemporary Architectural Practice

How Swiss architects use materiality to maintain identity in a globalizing world

Laura Brown

Of significant importance in the practice of “regional” architecture is the use of building materials that are locally available. This simultaneously allows a work of architecture to reference nearby historical buildings, adds a fundamental element of sustainability by decreasing transportation, and contributes to the cultural identity of the project. Historically, the issue of building with local materials was irrelevant: architects built with what was available. Throughout the world, great monuments and local vernacular alike tended to reflect materials that were accessible, obtainable, and abundant. In contemporary practice, however, availability is limited not by distance or means but by the imagination: virtually any building material is available so long as the budget exists to procure and deliver it to the site. The desired aesthetic can be achieved with little or no reference to the specific place, disconnecting a building from the culture it serves, in direct opposition to the practice of regionalism. Conversely, when an architect designs by drawing upon locally available materials, the aesthetic of a building, which is largely due to its materiality, the result is a work of architecture that truly fits its site, both culturally and physically. A quintessential example of this architectural typology exists in contemporary practice in Switzerland.

The diverse natural landscape and often-extreme topography of Switzerland, in addition to a lack of ports, makes building with locally available materials not only relevant but requisite. The limitation of resources means that local building materials, which are inherently easier to obtain, must be fashioned so that they last longer and are used most effectively, which in turn means using them only for purposes to which they will serve better than any other material. Climate plays a large role in this as well, where a range of extreme weather conditions requires a performance in buildings that could not be achieved without careful consideration and assembly of materials.

Throughout Switzerland’s history, local building materials have been a precious resource, requiring thoughtful and careful assembly driven by climate, economy, and above all function. Today, research and innovation have provided novel applications for traditional materials, as seen in works by four contemporary Swiss architects: the duo of Valentin Bearth and Andrea Deplazes, Peter Zumthor, and Gion Caminada. These architects have positively contributed to regionalism in Switzerland’s architecture, carrying on a tradition for honesty in materiality, and making it a country of limited resources but exceptional design.

The Alpine terrain covering most of Switzerland makes it difficult to transport materials even over a small distance, yet somehow villages arose perched on the unlikeliest shelves of the mountains and tucked into valleys barely accessible due to the steep surrounding slopes. Three and four hundred years ago the farmers in these towns created a building typology that outlasted generations, as evidenced by the very same villages standing today, inhabited nearly as they were and often largely unchanged. This directly supports advice given by Adolph Loos’ for building in the mountains: “pay attention to the forms in which the locals build. For they are the fruits of wisdom gleaned from the past. But look for the origin of the form.” Function above all else is the origin of form and materiality in traditional Swiss buildings. Typically, houses were built out of a combination of stone and wood. The stone offers thermal properties in its mass, is resistant to fire, lasts indefinitely, and is relatively easy to come by nearly everywhere in Switzerland. Because of its thermal mass, stone is built up into walls often a meter and half thick that both support the house structurally and insulate it: keeping the interior cool in the summer and retaining heat in the winter. Wood plays an important role as well: whether constructed in the “strickbau” fashion of Valser buildings or used primarily in the barn as in the Graubünden region, the wood structures of the house rest directly on top of the stone base. This keeps the wood away from the damp ground, allowing it to stay dry in the winter and spring. The wood structures additionally offer more flow of air and light, and are much easier to transport and build with, hence the upper floors, interior walls, barns, and roofs were typically constructed entirely of rough wood. This lightness meant insulation was a problem, but the Swiss solved this in a very practical manner: the living spaces of the house were built on top of the barn and kitchen spaces, where the heat from the animals and from the hearth would rise to warm the rooms above.

As Loos advised, people continued the tradition of building that had developed with time, especially in their selection of materials, and thus this tradition of stone and wood houses has carried into contemporary architecture. Supplementing the wisdom of the past, contemporary Swiss architects have worked towards technological improvements on traditional building methods both in material elements and assembly, with much potential and success. The very limited palette of resources has perhaps inspired this need for research: to look towards the future, Swiss designers have looked into the past and questioned materiality, experimenting with various applications to add depth and variety and to improve architectural possibilities while referencing their history.

The firm of Bearth and Deplazes features two Swiss architects who have taken traditional styles of Swiss building into consideration even while building rather nontraditional vernacular projects. One such example is the Meuli house in Fläsch: a simple tower-like structure perched at the edge of the village and overlooking a vineyard. The house is constructed from a monolithic pour of concrete that retains evidence of its board forms both on the inside and the outside. While a board-formed exterior is common practice, to have both the inside and outside surfaces as such would have required two separate layers of concrete, one interior and one exterior, with an insulated layer in between. This method, however, would not have conveyed the true construction of the wall: while it would appear to be a solid concrete block, the actual utilization of the materials would simply be surface. But with the research and development of insulation-grade structural concrete, Bearth and Deplazes were able to realize this simpler, more “honest” concrete wall, composed of a concrete containing foam glass gravel and up to 60 cm thick. In this way, the house draws from the massive stone walls of its ancient neighbors—even reflecting their wood construction in the visible board formwork—and integrates the house into the town while introducing an entirely new typology.

Bearth & Deplazes, Meuli House: Flasch, Switzerland

Peter Zumthor is another Swiss architect who has achieved fame in his country—and abroad—through innovative design in harmony with locally available materials. Raised by a cabinet-maker father, Zumthor appreciated the making and materiality of craft at a young age. Part of his success as an architect lies in his simple approach to materials: he builds in a manner common to the region in materials both local and conventional. At the Therme Vals he employed the use of gneiss, a stone from a local quarry, and a material that had a place in the history of local building practices but for which he developed a unique application. By stacking the thin slabs, stone by stone, Zumthor developed massive walls with a characteristic grey color and rough texture. Using this language, he formed a variety of interior and exterior spaces to create different bathing experiences. For nearly 15 years the baths have served all types of people, from the student on an architectural pilgrimage to the health-conscious Swiss seeking relaxation and rejuvenation in the mineral water, and it is arguably the simplicity of materials and thoughtful regional consideration employed by Zumthor that makes the Therme Vals a success.

Peter Zumthor, Therme Vals: Vals, Switzerland

Regionalism surfaces as an especially important theme in the works of another architect, Gion Caminada. Born in the village of Vrin at the edge of the Val Lumnezia (Valley of Light), he opened an architecture office in his hometown after studying architecture at the ETH in Zurich. His architectural interventions in Vrin are numerous, and his involvement in the culture and community complete. Rooted to the village by birthright and upbringing, Caminada is capable of designing with respect and responsibility, yet with his contemporary education in the city he also possesses a forward-thinking attitude, which has vital importance for the farming town whose population is dwindling. It is this balance that has earned him respect in the architectural world as well as the opportunity to design a number of projects and maintain involvement in politics and in town planning. One of his most successful works in Vrin is the Stiva da Morts (Chapel of the Dead). Adjacent to an existing church, the mortuary utilizes an updated “strickbau” construction. The wood is whitewashed on the outside, giving it a sense of purity, while the materiality is still expressed in the texture of the façade. On the inside, every surface, from the floor to the ceiling and even the trim, remains the warm yellow of the simple, natural wood. The connection of the wood construction resting on its stone base on the exterior is also reminiscent of the traditional building style in Vrin and elsewhere in Swiss villages. In addition to the Stiva da Morts, Caminada designed and renovated the Vrin town hall, community hall, school, the Hotel Alpina, a slaughterhause, a telephone booth, and a handful of residential and agricultural buildings. Through these diverse projects, it is his sensitivity to region, community, and materials that has made his architectural projects a success.

Gion Caminada, Stiva da Morts: Vrin, Switzerland

With such a rich building culture and natural landscape, architects in Switzerland have a responsibility to maintain tradition while pushing the practice into a contemporary style that reflects and builds upon the past, not accepting it without question, but not questioning its fundamental values. As Juhani Pallasmaa notes in his article Tradition and Modernity, “Culturally adapted architecture reverberates with tradition. It fuses and reflects the timeless vernacular idiom and, consequently, an authentic culture-specific architecture cannot be invented. It has to rediscover and revitalize aspects of tradition, either explicit characteristics of style or, more convincingly, the hidden dimensions of culture.” This evaluation, as well as the innovations in the research and application of building materials by Bearth and Deplazes, Peter Zumthor, and Gion Caminada demonstrate that successful architecture displays an innate sense of cultural sensitivity and historical receptivity: in essence the practice of regionalism.

Sources

Bearth & Deplazes. Konstruckte/Constructs. Quart Verlag: Luzern, Switzerland: 2005.

Buchanan, P. “Swiss Essentialists”, Architectural Review. Jan 1991. P 50.

Pallasmaa, J; “Tradition and Modernity”, Architectural Review. May 1988. P 27.

Opel, Adolf (ed.), Adolf Loos. Die potemkin’sche Stadt: verschollene Schriften 1987-1933, G.Prachnercop, Vienna, 1983. Translation: Jonathan Quinn.

2G, Revista internacional de Arquitectura. Building in the Mountains: Recent Architecture Graubunden. N. 14, 2000/II.