Forschungsprojekt
Tendenzen 1975. Between Constructed Sites and Autonomous Theory

This research revisits the productive exchanges between the north and south of Switzerland that were set into motion by the 1975 exhibition Tendenzen: Neuere Architektur im Tessin, organised by ETH Zurich and curated by Martin Steinmann and Thomas Boga. As indicated in the title of Steinmann’s catalogue essay, “Reality as History: Notes for a Discussion of Realism in Architecture”, the theoretical debate thus generated quickly detached itself from the regional context of Ticinese buildings and acquired an international currency. Developed incrementally in the form of distinct essays, exhibitions and events, the research project maps out the various components and discursive developments of this autonomous discourse: its articulation in the format of the exhibition catalogue, its recasting through the prism of Kenneth Frampton’s critical regionalism, and its impact on the methodological framework of subsequent German-speaking Swiss architecture.