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10 Snapshots of Architectural Education Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology from 1855 to 1987

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10 Snapshots of Architectural Education Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology from 1855 to 1987 Translations Reto Geiser 10 snapshots of Architectural Education Architecture at the Swiss federal institute of Technology from 1855 to 1987 Reto Geiser course of studies was limited to three 1915 Abstract years, the first two of which were mainly When Karl Moser (1860–1936) was Architecture is an inherent part of every dedicated to mathematical-technical appointed to ETH Zurich in 1915, he society. It is an indicator of political, matters, while only the last year was could look back to a successful career economic, technological and cultural dedicated to architectural design. as a practicing architect. From 1888 conditions, as well as their changes. The Semper, wished to extend the studies in to 1915, he collaborated with Robert built environment is constantly changing, order to give design a more dominant Curjel in Karlsruhe, Germany, building generating new paradoxes, and the role of role. He consequently structured the a great number of churches, a train the architect, too, is subject to continuous curriculum so that propaedeutic subjects station, and, most notably, the main building of Zurich’s University, as well re-formation. Along ten photographic would be taught in the morning, and lectures on architectural history would as the Zurich Kunsthaus [Museum of snapshots found in institutional and take place in the evenings, liberating Fine Arts]. Trained in Semper’s tradition, private archives, and with the support of the core of the day for actual studio Moser was about to form a whole extended captions, this visual essay aims work including perspectival drawing, generation of Swiss architects, when he to provide an incomplete overview of the figuration, landscape design, and the began to teach during a time of national multifaceted teaching environment at creation of ornamentation. The projects isolation due to the First World War. the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology developed in Semper’s atelier were Interested in the fundamental principals (ETH) in Zurich, from the mid nineteenth to mostly based on current architectural of architecture, independent of a given the late twentieth century. The presented competitions or on actual commissions, formal vocabulary, the architect tried snapshots of architectural educators and taking advantage of the student work to introduce his pupils to the roots their respective design studios reveal force. During Semper’s tenure, the of architectural culture. The study of treatises of the Renaissance, and their a variety of design methodologies and architecture faculty developed to a school of more than fifty students, and further development in a classicist style didactic structures that shaped the school with his design for the main building was a central aspect of his curriculum. over the course of more than a century. of the ETH, he managed to impose Next to the humanistic studies and what he considered the ideal plan for design, construction processes and the 1855 an architecture school to the entire actual structure and materialization Throughout his teaching career, institution. The picture shows the class of buildings were fundamental parts Gottfried Semper (1803–1879) was on one of the yearly field trips within of Moser’s curriculum. Already in his involved in the development of curricula. Switzerland, Semper’s preference being lifetime, Moser was considered to be part In Dresden, London, and finally at the the south, bordering Italy. of the “fathers of modern architecture,” newly founded “Polytechnikum” in BIBLIOGRAPHY: an attribution he reached through Zurich, he obtained a leading role in his abstract, but never fundamental the reorganization and formation of Bruno Maurer, “Lehrgebäude – Gottfried Semper am Zür- cher Polytechnikum,” in: Winfried Nerdinger and Werner teaching pedagogy, which provided the the respective architecture schools. Not Oechslin (eds.), Gottfried Semper, 1803–1879: Architektur foundation for the Swiss contribution to only was Semper ETH’s first dean of the und Wissenschaft, Zürich/München: gta Verlag/Prestel, 2003, p. 306–313. the architecture culture of the 1920s. In architecture faculty, he was also its first this role, Karl Moser served as the first and only professor with a student body Note: Martin Tschanz is currently working on a detailed history of the Architecture Faculty at ETH Zurich. President of the Congrès Internationaux of nine pupils in 1855. At the time, the IMAGE CREDIT: gta Archives / ETH Zürich d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM). 65 MATERIA ARQUITECTURA #01 Dossier BIBLIOGRAPHY: pharmaceutical company Hoffmann- his classes with a systematic program Ernst Strebel, “Die Architekten Curjel & Moser und die La Roche with commissions both in or a particular methodological offizielle SchweizerA rchitekturlehre um 1900,” in: Uri Ro- bert Kaufmann (ed.), Die Schweiz und der Deutsche Süd- Switzerland and abroad. An excursion framework, nor did he encourage a westen, Ostfildern: Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 2006, p. 123–139. to Belgium and the United Kingdom in critical discourse, as Werner Moser There is an ongoing research project at the Institute for order to visit his construction sites, and later observed. Structure, material, and the History and Theory of Architecture at ETH Zèrich, dealing with the oeuvre of Karl Moser. to study recent buildings was a positive the “aesthetic laws of harmony and synergy of this dual appointment. The proportion” were the guiding principles IMAGE CREDIT: photograph shows Salvisberg and his of Hofmann’s teaching. He repeatedly gta Archives / ETH Zürich students from the ETH with Henry van stressed the importance of the de Velde, their local guide. individual student’s “talent and passion,” 1929 BIBLIOGRAPHY: and his belief that architecture was a When the call of ETH Zurich reached form of art—hence the German “Bau- Otto Rudolf Salvisberg (1882–1940) in Claude Lichtenstein, Martin Steinmann (eds.), O. R. Salvis- berg. Die andere Moderne, Zürich: gta Verlag, 1995. Kunst”—that could not be taught like 1928, he was successfully practicing other subjects. Hofmann also continued in Berlin. It took some effort from the IMAGE CREDIT: gta Archives / ETH Zürich the school’s tradition of excursions, president of the school to convince the even if at first restricted to the borders well-known practitioner to give up his 1941 of Switzerland due to the geopolitical office in order to teach. Salvisberg was The architect Hans Hofmann (1897– situation. among the first to argue that young 1957) reached national fame through BIBLIOGRAPHY: architects needed to be prepared to his central role as chief architect of Hans Hofmann, “Die Abteilung für Architektur an der enter architectural practice and thus the Swiss National Exhibition in 1939. Eidgenössichen Technischen Hochschule in Zürich, Sechs- demanded the school to assure him tes und Siebtes Semester”, in: Das Werk, vol. 40, 1953, p. This proved a decisive moment in the 50–56. commissions, so theory and practice country’s architectural development IMAGE CREDIT: could further each other. His lectures negotiating between the radicalism of gta Archives / ETH Zürich were organized according to building the vanguard and a popular appeal to typologies, such as apartment buildings, tradition. When Salvisberg unexpectedly 1954 banks, hotels, cinemas, or larger passed away, the appointment of The Swiss art historian and architecture residential compounds. Even though Hofmann seemed like an obvious step, critic Sigfried Giedion (1888–1968) Salvisberg was critical about the most given that he had received an honorary was surprisingly never fully tenured recent achievements of Le Corbusier or doctorate from the University of Zurich, at ETH Zurich. After returning from Frank Lloyd Wright a sharp dialectic and that he was extremely recognized his successful stay in the United was not part of his approach to throughout Switzerland. Beginning States as Harvard’s Charles Eliot teaching. Rather than disseminating in 1941, Hofmann taught for sixteen Norton Professor in Poetry and the ideologies, demanding students to copy years within the architecture faculty, subsequent publication of Space, particular building styles, he practiced mainly advanced students and thesis Time and Architecture (1941), Giedion tolerance and believed in the didactic students. Together with William Dunkel blatantly suggested to the President of system of trial and error. The openness and Friedrich Hess, he formed the core the ETH to be hired as a professor at of Salvisberg’s approach was expressed of a rather conservative architecture the polytechnic’s architecture faculty through his presence in the design school, and eventually acted as its in 1946. While there was hardly doubt studio, where he engaged with the dean. The group around Hans Hofmann about his qualifications—even if he design problem of every single student was tied to the tradition of the master never obtained a venia legendi [right to during extended desk critiques. Next to class and focused on a studio-based teach], which was still a precondition his intense teaching activities, Salvisberg exchange between professors and in Europe at the time—both the became the corporate architect of the students. The architect hardly structured 66 Translations Reto Geiser architecture faculty and the department 1958 introduced at the time. Moser, a of humanities were unwilling to grant Before engaging with the education dedicated educator, had to realize that him a position. After long and grueling of architects, Werner M. Moser it increasingly became more difficult
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