In the Spring Semester 2023 the master students worked and reflected on «Baukultur» in the Basic Lectures. The course encouraged students to actively investigate the specificities of different cultures, positions and tools as necessary components for a conscious architectural attitude.

In January 2018 the European Ministers of Culture adopted the Davos Declaration calling for a high-quality Baukultur «to improve the wellbeing of all». In 2021 the Swiss Federal Office of Culture defined the Davos Baukultur Quality System, an instrument enabling the assessment of Baukultur qualities in places with the help of the eight criteria: Governance, Functionality, Environment, Economy, Diversity, Context, Sense of Place and Beauty. In January 2023 a new Conference in Davos addressed the role of the building and real estate industry considering Baukultur as a common good.

The module «Basic Lectures» provided a historical and theoretical overview and identified definitions of building cultures and their role. Building cultures are not only assessed according to their architectural output, but also analysed and understood within their social, economic and environmental context. What substantive consistency should characterize an architecture of an historical period and a physical and immaterial context? How is architecture produced? What are its roots? What should it do? Analogies and contradictions between theories, ideologies and knowledge, as well as points of contact and contrast with other disciplines were discussed and deepened in order to bring them simultaneously in conjunction with multiple levels of knowledge. Architecture languages were thus experienced as part of a general cultural discourse. Architectural results are alive and not concluded once and for all but available and renewable. Architecture is never finished by definition. The same happens for reasons, convinctions, and hopes beyond them.

Semester task

The students were asked to realize a poster with their group definition of Building Culture, select the two criteria they consider most relevant to express their understanding of Building Culture and choose one among the visited buildings in Zürich. Following the focus on their two selected criteria, they were asked to realize a 10’ Video and an illustrated booklet to present their interpretation and translation of the building, comparing and integrating it with their own experience and backgrounds.

MAAG Areal by Nathan Boder, Anders Gjesdal, Laura Rubio

«Discover the fascinating evolution of MAAG Areal in Zurich. From an industrial district to a luxurious residential area, immerse yourself in its unique atmosphere. As witnesses of Zurich’s industrial heritage, the structures of MAAG Areal blend with a pulsating cultural and economic development. Explore the post-industrial urbanization, public debates, and the importance of urban identity. It is a vibrant place, a harmonious mix of new and old buildings, where architecture reinvents itself as an iconographic device.»